Mike Gundy Praises His Defense, Compares it to a Young Tyson: ‘They’re Hungry’

For the first time in a long time, Mike Gundy is most happy with his defense. His offense has looked unstoppable at times and still ranks among the top handful of teams in the nation in nearly every statistical category that matters.

But at other times, it’s looked quite stoppable. See: Texas, TCU, and times in several games where it has shot its own toes off.

Special teams has been a season-long fiasco with questions in place kicking, kickoffs, coverage and now even punting. Everyone is to blame.

But Gundy hasn’t seen much to complain about from his defense in a month.

“They’ve done a really good job” Gundy said of the defensive staff before he likened the Cowboy defense to a young Mike Tyson, “…when he fought earlier in career and he just had black trunks and black shoes, no socks.

“When they started the fight it was a street fight for him because he was hungry and it was survival for him. And once some of the glamour got there and the money and so on and so forth, in my opinion, from an outsider looking in — I don’t want Mike to come looking for me — the hunger wasn’t there.”

That’s an issue his defense has yet to face, the glitz, the glamour. Oklahoma State probably just put on its best defensive display in two years but if you didn’t watch it, the 50-39 final tally won’t scream defensive prowess to the talking heads. But the team tied for first place in the Big 12 which is mostly known for its offense comes in at 16th nationally in defensive efficiency, behind only Texas and TCU in the Big 12.

“With these guys, what I think has happened is they’ve been hungry, and they’ve worked hard,” said Gundy “And I mentioned to you guys ‘Hey, they’re practicing good, they’re engaged, they’re intense in individuals instead of going through the motions’.

“Chad Whitener and Tre Flowers and Brailford and Ramon and those guys have stepped up, and they’re instigating some fire. They’ve helped Bundage develop himself into a pretty good defensive player that he wasn’t six weeks ago. So that’s where they’ve improved in my opinion.”

Now that defense which has been slowly turning heads over the past three games is about to welcome its toughest task to date — slowing down the only offense ranked ahead of theirs in efficiency. It’s time to eat.