Coach Speak: Mike Gundy and Matt Rhule Talk Big 12 Parity, Preview Saturday’s Game

Following one head coach’s homecoming win and leading into what the other hopes will be his, Mike Gundy and Matt Rhule previewed this weekend’s matchup in Waco. The two head coaches had some interesting things to say, each during his own weekly press conference.

Before we get into all of that, I wanted to say that each time I listen to Rhule speak, I think I am even more endeared to him. He came to Baylor, took over a program in a bad spot and with a ton of baggage and has (from an outsider lookin’ in) handled the transition with class.

Rhule comes across as smart and confident, and he seems like a guy who knows football and knows people — two crucial ingredients to coaching.

Gundy seems to agree.

“He and I have always had a good relationship,” Gundy said of Rhule, although he admitted that their paths don’t cross much.

“I have a lot of respect for what he did when he was back northeast,” Gundy said. “They [Baylor] are a much better football team. They play hard and they have good concepts. Obviously, he is doing a good job.”

In each coach’s weekly presser, they touched on the Big 12 as a whole, the parity in the league and the challenges that that level of competition poses.

“I think if you look at what’s going on in our league, Oklahoma – to this point – has played much better than other teams just based on looking at scores,” said Mike Gundy. “And then West Virginia had an off day, but other than that they have played at a high level. You can take everybody else, in my opinion, and put them in the same category.”

Rhule has already gone through the “meat” of his schedule, and he talked about Baylor’s first-half slate that included road trips against current top 15 teams Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia — all losses.

“The thing that I’ve tried to get our guys to understand is, we’re sitting here at 4-4, — there’s a lot of teams in our league that are 4-4, 5-3 — we’ve played three at the time top-10 teams and we haven’t been able to get a win against them,” said Rhule.

“Hopefully we recognize that we’re battle-tested and we’ve played some good players. We’ve had some good moments and we’ve had some bad moments, so you build on the good moments and learn from the bad moments and recognize that we’re playing a team this week that just beat a top 10 team.”

Mike Gundy recalled his team’s last trip to Waco in which his star running back Justice Hill played in both his first conference and road game — and fumbled the ball twice.

“He was a freshman and he turned the ball over twice down there I think,” Gundy said of Hill. “We knew he was going to be a good player, but we just had discussions with him about the importance of protecting the ball. That could very well be the determining factor in most college games when talent is relatively the same. Since then he’s done a nice job taking care of the ball. He took it serious.”

Rhule wasn’t in Waco for Hill’s Big 12 debut, but he saw plenty of the all-conference back during that 117-yard, one-score performance in Stillwater last year. And he’s seen plenty since.

“He’s a big time, big time, big time back,” Rhule said of Hill. “He’s a pro-style running back. Oklahoma State is as close to an NFL, pro-style offense. They’re not spread. He is a complete back. He’s dynamic. He’s got great vision, he’s tough, he’s physical, but he also can take it the distance.

“Their offensive line does a great job at handling movement. They have a nice scheme, but he’s so versatile that they can do a couple different things with him.”

Rhule also took a minute to talk about Taylor Cornelius and the problems he presents to defenses , especially when the coaching staff utilizes his ability to run the football.

“He’s such a big, physical guy that sometimes you don’t recognize how good of a runner he is,” Rhule said. “He’s got a big-time arm. Anytime you have a quarterback that can run and is used in the run game, it eliminates one defender who now has to play the quarterback. It just adds a whole other level of preparation. He can definitely do it and he played really well on Saturday.”

Gundy has been watching the Bears, as well.

“Baylor is a much-improved team from a year ago,” Gundy said. “They play hard and it looks like they understand their concepts. They got caught in a firestorm and turning the football over I can’t remember how many times in Morgantown.

“Most everybody in the country – if you turn the ball over continuously like that, especially on the road – it can snowball on you, and that’s what happened to them, in my opinion as an outsider looking in. ”

“The other games they’ve played, they’ve been in most of the way up through the third quarter, with the exception of the Oklahoma game, who big-played them. Oklahoma hit them on – gosh, I quit counting after about six or seven big, big plays.”

Rhule’s recollection was much more intimate.

“The players addressed the game on Friday during a player only meeting where they watched the tape and tried to get some things corrected,” Rhule said about the loss in Morgantown.

“[We’ve got a] tremendous opportunity to play a 5-3 team and Coach Gundy had those guys ready to play on Saturday night. We are going to focus on us and make sure we come out and play our best game and put out players in a position to be successful.”