Mike Gundy Addresses Tennessee Reports, Says 2017 Season Not a Disappointment

Mike Gundy addressed the media on a conference call on Sunday afternoon to discuss the Camping World Bowl and Oklahoma State’s matchup with Virginia Tech.

I took notes.

• Very excited to participate in Camping World against a “great opponent” like Virginia Tech. Players are really excited. Some friendly faces over there. OC worked with Gundy, O-Line coach played with Gundy at OSU and VT’s head coach Justin Fuente is from Oklahoma.

• Representative of Camping World Bowl said OSU is “legendary” in terms of its fan support.

• “(VT O-Line coach) Vance Vice and I were pretty big buddies in college. We’ve been friends for a long time.” Said he was a “tough guy” back in the day. Played tight end.

• Offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen worked with Gundy under Les Miles. He was a young coach “trying to make it” and he’s done very well for himself.

• On Bud Foster’s defense: “We’ve always followed him. One of the most well-thought of guys in the country. Got a ton of respect for him. We’ll have our hands full on offense.” VT gives up 13 points a game. Mentioned total defense, pass defense, third down defense. All the defense.

• On Fuente: “His career has kind of taken off here of late.” Been on the other side of the country. Gundy recruited him coming out of high school. “We’re pretty familiar with him.”

• Fuente went to another school, Gundy noted. Said he was a big-time thrower. “We really wanted him, but it didn’t work out well for us.” Fuente went to OU.

• He was asked about Tennessee. Said, “I would rather just talk about the bowl game. I don’t have any interest in talking about any other jobs or any other schools. This is a time to celebrate the bowl game.”

• “Hopefully we can win and say that we’ve accomplished a 10-win season again.”

• On what a 10-win season would mean for stability and continuity of the program. “We’re pretty squared away. We’ve established that we’re very stable.” Noted that high-level bowl games are important.

• Use a lot of bowl prep to improve younger players to get ready for the next season.

• Said Vance Vice has had the same haircut for 30 years. “I’m not sure that he would start to model it after mine.” You can see a little flow peeking out of the bottom.

• Berry Tramel asked about the Ole Miss situation and noted that Gundy called it when he said they were on uneven playing fields. “You wrote an article saying I was wrong for saying that,” said Gundy who went on to add that that proves that he likes to read the articles.

“Now I wish I wouldn’t have brought it up (because they came down so hard on Ole Miss). I do feel for Coach Freeze and the players that got caught up in it.” Said he does not have respect for coaches that cheat in recruiting. Mentioned that some schools don’t perform very well because they don’t cheat anymore. Everyone should be doing it the right way.

• The bowl games are fun because you get to play new teams, you get to do new scheming here and there. Fun to play some teams that are different because you get used to the same old stuff with TCU, OU, Texas, WVU etc.

• Pretty good distance down there, “but I think the people will travel.” Said they always have. Mentioned the date was a good one because you can spend Christmas at home.

• On OSU’s season: “I don’t see our season as a disappointment. I know we all want to make the final four. Winning nine games is difficult. I think the people will be excited about being there. I think they’ll be excited about a location where there’s a lot to do. I would be surprised if we didn’t have as much of a fan following as we did a few years ago in Phoenix.”