Notes on Mike Gundy’s Post-Iowa State Press Conference

Oklahoma State lost at home to Iowa State on Saturday, 48-42, and Mike Gundy discussed what went down afterwards in his press conference. Let’s jump right in.

• “It was a bit of an unusual game for us.” Was it?

• Said they knew they would be able to get some big plays on offense even though ISU would get big plays on defense. Just had too many big negative plays going the wrong way.

• “We dropped a pass here and there we would like to have back.”

• Giving up too many big plays on defense.

• “We’ve got to regroup a little bit and try to make the best decisions with the personnel we have and what direction we’re going to try to minimize the big plays.”

• More QB run than what OSU anticipated. “Ultimately it came down to big plays.” Both teams had 14 chunk plays, for what it’s worth.

• Said Zach Sinor is a vet, not sure what happened with his drop.

• Told the players to come back tomorrow with an open mind. Gave ISU credit. Said they’re well coached. “They’ve become a good team in this conference. They do a great job.”

• “We have to get back in the morning and go back to work.”

• ISU didn’t do anything OSU didn’t practice. Just didn’t protect. Humorously did better in the 4th quarter in all-pass situations than the first three quarters.

• Said Purdy’s performance was “more about us defensively.” Gave him credit and said he was savvy. “You meet halfway — he did a really nice job, but we have to be better than that.”

• Corndog was “running for his life.” Not easy to play QB and throw the ball when you’re running for your life. “He probably didn’t have the best opportunity.”

• Thought Iowa State had a good play, QB run caught OSU off guard.

• Have to say: “Where are the problems? Are we overestimating what our abilities are in certain areas? We need to figure that out really quick and implement that plan starting on Tuesday.”

• Not necessarily soul searching but have to say, “Who are we?” Said defensive players are getting their eyes “violated” in reads. Made me laugh.

• “Maybe we need to look and say, ‘What can we actually have success at?’ As coaches, we need to put the players in a position to have the most success.” Might not come across here, but this felt like a subtweet to Jim Knowles.

• When you come up short you start looking at things way more in detail than when you win. There’s been times when we’ve won games here and made mistakes. There’s not any overreaction here. But like any company you have to look, see what the issues are. How much can we change. How much can we help.

• Talked about a kid’s sleepover in regards to discipline with his team. You want your friends to want your kid to come back over for a sleepover because they were well-mannered. That’s how it is for him with team discipline, he said. “Those are the things that keep me up at night.” Glad to hear him address this because it’s definitely on him.

• Sometimes the players drop the ball, sometimes the coaches do and sometimes we both do. “We have to identify what the issues are and be honest with ourself.” Maybe its the players’ fault, but maybe we’re overloading them.

• Said Green and Rodarius have “played about the same” this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqtq_9qKsKk