Mike Gundy Wants Mason Rudolph to Rest More but ‘He Does What He Wants’

While previewing the Texas game during his weekly press conference, Mike Gundy made a comment about Mason Rudolph sometimes working too much on his throws. The 13th-year head coach was asked if he had instructed Rudolph in such manners and he answered frankly.

“He won’t listen anyway, does what he wants to do.” Unless of course, you’re trying to pressure him into baring his upper body to the student body.

“The only thing that I was able to do was in our open week I told him I didn’t want him to throw a ball Sunday through Sunday, and he didn’t,” Gundy said.

Gundy’s been at the forefront of a lot of innovative thinking. Whether it’s keeping track of the distance a player runs during the week using GPS coordination or monitoring their sleep habits, Gundy is the unsung pioneer of college football forward thinking.

And he brought up some more player-health science during this followup about Rudolph.

“You know there’s some science now that shows that football players are having the same issue as baseball players — from their arms, from wear and tear and all the 7-on-7s these kids do in the summers now.

“He [Rudolph] came from a system where they did all those 7-on-7s all summer long — 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade and then threw it all the time and then came here. In comparison to high school kids years ago that didn’t do that. It’s a total number of throws on your arm.

“So, we’ve tried to reduce it but he’s a workaholic. He just does it all the time. Can’t really stop him, but he should cut back on his number of throws, yes.”

Rudolph conceded, and heeded his coach’s advice on his week off following the shootout in Lubbock.

“I wanted to get in and get some action a little bit,” admitted Rudolph “but they did a good job of keeping me at bay and understanding it’s a good time to take rest because it’s the last break we get the rest of the way.”

The week off apparently didn’t hamper Rudolph who looked anything but rusty against Baylor, throwing for 459 yards and three touchdowns. Hopefully, that limited time off will pay dividends down the upcoming season stretch.