Mike Gundy on the Role Twinkies Played in Building His 2015 Defense

I’m excited about a number of different things about the 2015 season. One of those is the development of JUCO transfer Jordan Burton who will likely start at the STAR linebacker position.

Mike Gundy is excited as well. He was asked recently by the Tulsa World how he feels about Burton and gave a hilarious answer (i.e. the type of answer Mike Gundy typically gives).

“I like him. I like his demeanor and toughness,” said Gundy. “He practices hard all the time. He’s been battling for his life at the junior-college level, eating Twinkies and honey buns — whatever those guys could get at a convenience store. (At OSU), he thinks he hit the big time.”

It’s actually Gundy who has hit the big time. On a more serious note, the head man went on to talk on Saturday about what it means to him to have world-class facilities.

“When you look at what our players have here, and in recruiting you guys follow it and see it, most schools that we play against are building new facilities,” said Gundy. “Things are new now. Everybody is upgrading. Cost of living is involved. For us, we have everything in place and we have a setting where there is coaching and teaching going on and we understand that we want the players to enjoy their four years or five years here.”

Or in Burton’s case, two.

“We want them to have fun, and we’re trying to do everything we can to benefit them when they leave here and not feel like they were miserable for those four years and they’re glad they’re gone. It’s not different than when we were growing up in elementary, junior high and high school playing sports and going to class. We have kids that have teachers that are excited about going in and learning and some teachers that they don’t want to be around because they give them the impression that it’s not fun.

“We’ve tried to create that environment here where our players enjoy and have that great everyday college lifestyle. Our administration here, you know one thing with Coach Holder is that we don’t cut any corners when it comes to taking care of our athletes. ”

And that means no Twinkies. Or maybe it means OSU should consider bringing them to the training table as they make a comeback into the mainstream.