The Rundown: Gundy Says He Thinks There’s a ‘Good Chance’ Hubbard Stays

The Cowboys finished their 14th straight season with a bowl game, but this outing wasn’t in their favor.

After Oklahoma State’s 24-21 loss to Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl on Friday night, OSU coach Mike Gundy talked about the game, the future and his superstar running back.

• “We had a good game. Wish we’d have made a couple more plays in the fourth quarter. They started to wear us down a little bit on both sides of the ball in the latter part of the game, and we didn’t play very well on special teams. But I can’t say enough about our team, our senior leadership, guys like Dru (Brown), and I mentioned it to the team in the locker room. The middle part of the year, when we started struggling a little bit, we got unbelievable leadership from our seniors and Dru and the other guys on the team, rallied back, won some games, competed, played a good football team in the bowl, right?

“They’re a good team. I said this early, and I’ll say it again. They lost to No. 1, No. 1, No. 1, No. 4, and No. 12. So they’re definitely a top-20 team in my opinion.”

• “I am so excited about the future of Oklahoma State football. I can’t wait to get started. I told the team, I told the seniors, you’ve led these guys to where they are now. We’ll fly home tomorrow, and I’ll probably go to work the next day after tomorrow because I’m so excited about the players we have coming back and where we’re at, the improvements we’ve made in all areas.”

• “The first thing we wanted to do this year is be a more disciplined team, and we were by far a more disciplined team. We improved toughness, not as much as we needed to, but we were tougher. So we’ll make some adjustments in the offseason. I’m really excited about the future of Oklahoma State football, and I can’t thank the seniors, the fans.”

• On what allowed A&M to get back into the game after OSU’s hot start: “Well, they just forced us down a little bit up front on both sides of the ball. We didn’t protect Dru very well. Dru made a lot of great plays with limited protection. We had concerns coming into the game. They’re pretty physical up front on both sides of the ball, and they kind of wore us down a little bit.

“We had some good schemes, gave ourselves a chance, and we played good defense until we got beat up a little bit at the end of the game on the read zone option play. We made the adjustment. We didn’t take the quarterback when we were supposed to. We made a mistake, and that cost us a long run. With the exception of that, overall defense plays great with the exception of the one long run. And we got worn down a little bit up front on our offensive line.”

• On the decision to play Brown over Spencer Sanders: “Well, Dru’s been awesome all year and certainly since he’s taken over for Spencer when Spencer went down. Dru’s been prepared all year. Preparation, study, attitude, he’s been excellent, and he had great bowl practice. Spencer could have played. He could do some things, but he wasn’t the most prepared to play in this game. Dru was. Dru did all his homework, did all his work, got all his practices, and as I said, Dru played good.

“We didn’t do a good job of protecting him and we got worn down a little bit, but Dru played a good football game.”

• On Braydon Johnson: “Well, he’s a guy that we might not have known much about if (Tylan Wallace) doesn’t go down. He’s a reason I’m unbelievably excited about next year. He’s just starting to figure it out right now. He’s getting what we call confidence. With his act and speed and work ethic, if he continues to develop confidence, he’ll be a really good football player.”

• On Chuba Hubbard: “Chuba was awesome. … Chu got tired during the season a little bit and had some time to rest, got fresh. We’re unbelievably excited about him next year. I think there’s a really good chance he’s on our football team next year. I don’t think any of us could say 100 percent.

“We’ll be in a position to protect him a little bit next year. He won’t have to carry the ball 30 times a game, will be around 20 times a game if that all works out for us because we’ve got some maturity behind him.

“I think he’s already made a good name for himself. He’s got a marketing tool in that he’s from Canada, drawn a lot of attention there. He leads by example. He lets his play do his talking. He’s very quiet, doesn’t talk a lot. I think people are attracted to him for that reason, and he’s got a great future.”