Notes on Mike Gundy’s Pre-West Virginia Press Conference

Mike Gundy addressed the media on Monday following the Texas game to review what happened in Austin and give a preview for what Oklahoma State should expect against West Virginia. I took some notes. Here they are.

• Opened by saying his postgame was pretty ackrut to what happened in the game. Defense terrific, offense beat up. Said OSU didn’t rush the ball well on first down. Texas had “a nice scheme, got good players.” Defense found a way to win the game and is proud of his team.

• WVU is capable of beating anybody in the league at any time.

• Called Will Grier “probably the best passing QB” OSU has faced to this point in the Big 12.

• OSU didn’t block on its running plays. Ended up in 2nd and 9 or 8. “You’re swimming uphill right from the start.” Texas was more physical up front. OSU didn’t create running lanes.

• Johnny Wilson was fantastic for the second or third game of his career, but “it wasn’t an easy day for him.” Said he learned a lot from competing against “a good football player” (Poona Ford). Happens when you go man on man against a good player. Said it will be interesting to see where Wilson is at this time next year.

•  Felt guilty continuing to ask his defense for stops. I know we fumbled, I know we missed a FG, I know we let them return the ball to the 45 … but we need a stop. “They just kept going.”

• Texas’ physicality always worries him. Said defense never said “why is this happening?” Attributed that to the culture OSU has created. Bad news is WVU “could give a flip about that.”

• “If they’re eating the rat poison, they’re going to get sick later in the week.”

•  Said everybody had a lot of ideas to help solve what was wrong with the offense. Said main issue was not being able to run the ball on first down and then you’re facing a team that’s selling out to stop the pass. Not good. “When they’re just lining up and saying, ‘Good luck to you’ and you’re not having success, it makes for a long day.”

• Said robber in the middle of the field was playing the run instead of the pass, and OSU couldn’t take advantage of it. Tom Herman said basically the same thing in the postgame.

• Joked that Joe Wickline is spying on WVU and reporting back to him.

• Both the catch McCleskey caught and the one he dropped were against a pass defense. “They just set up and played what they were playing.”

• Explained to A.J. Green that when you play good teams you can’t just go up and push guys out of bounds and think they’re going to go out of bounds. Said he was shocked they didn’t review the long Texas TD. “I know he had white shoes on and I know it was a white sideline, but in my opinion it’s worth at least taking a look.”

• Thought he would be burning a timeout if he reviewed it. Cited 3 percent success rate on calling timeouts and getting a call overturned. (cites random percentage)

• “We review everything else, why not review that?”

• The whistle that was blown on one of the Texas punts late in the game was “a ready for play whistle” — said that’s what he was told. Said 21 players stopped — everyone except returner. “I would say there was an issue.” Called the entire thing “unusual.”

• Thought about calling Mike Leach before his presser “because he’s really good at giving feedback on officials.” Wasn’t sure he was out of bed yet.

• Power of social media, buddies texting you and everybody telling you how great you are is big. Has tried to stress to players that WVU “doesn’t give a flip, they don’t care.”

• Called his friends his “cronies.” Referenced them texting him about games after 16 Old Milwaukee Lights.

• “Defensively Tony (Gibson) has had a ton of success.” Said WVU is three down on defense and will play 2 Robber just like Texas did.

• Thought Stoner did a great job on returning punts because of how high Texas’ punter kicked the ball. Said third deck “got to read the serial number on the ball.” Referenced height, sun, heat, wind and knuckling of the ball as reasons why he thought Stoner did great.

• Invited media members to come catch balls shot out of jugs machines to see how difficult it is. Said Holder let him borrow money to get it. “It’s awesome, works good.”

• Punt returner = “tough job.”

• “You guys all have these high-dollar computers.”

• Said one of his preseason concerns was depth on offensive line. Difficult to maintain continuity with new guys because of communication issues.

• “We didn’t play good offensively because we got out-coached. We didn’t make good adjustments. And we didn’t run the ball effectively on first down.”

• There’s a lot that goes on with the offensive linemen, and he wants to “get some continuity built back in there.”

• Said he wants to get 73 (Teven Jenkins) and 75 (Marcus Keyes) back out there by the middle of the week to create a little bit of continuity. If not, they’ll mix and match and do the best they can.