The Rundown: Gundy Talks K-State Prep, Big 12 Teleconferences and Sanders

STILLWATER — After an already eventful run-in with the media this morning, Mike Gundy didn’t have to go off on anybody in person Monday.

Gundy had his weekly media luncheon as Oklahoma State prepares to face Kansas State this weekend. Here is what OSU’s football coach had to say.

• He starts by saying his post-game analysis in Austin was accurate. OSU kicked too many field goals.

• “Obviously we were trying to score touchdowns. We just didn’t get that accomplished.”

• Kansas State is a good football team. Gundy called K-State senior-dominated.

• Gundy said his teams are usually good in short-yardage scenarios. “Sometimes those guys are gonna win their one-on-one battles, sometimes we win them.”

• “You have to realize now, Texas is going to make some plays also. They’ve got good guys. They’re well-coached.”

• The OSU offensive line played good.

• Gundy said he wasn’t surprised by Texas’ defense. “I don’t want to hit the panic button and say we didn’t move the ball. We had two opportunities to score touchdowns, and we kicked field goals. That’s eight less points. Then we tried a fake field goal where we could’ve taken more. I think it was just moreso of us not executing in goal line.”

• He was surprised by how much Texas sold out to take Tylan Wallace out of the game.

• On how to alleviate some of Chuba Hubbard’s workload (he had 37 carries against Texas): “I don’t know. That’s five (carries) more than I thought was too many. Trust me, it’s been a conversation. We want to keep him healthy. We want him to be fresh, but he’s clearly the best runner. So, we do what we need to do to give us the best chance to score points.”

• Hubbard was taken off kick returns in part to try to keep him fresh.

• Jahmyl Jeter and Dezmon Jackson “haven’t been in a position to practice.” Gundy said they are back practicing now.

• Spencer Sanders is doing “really well.”

• Sanders didn’t get frustrated at all Saturday.

• “Vegas would’ve given you five-to-one odds that he was gonna get frustrated Saturday night, and we would’ve all lost our money because I would’ve bet that he would get frustrated. … I’m not gonna just dump the Kool-Aid on my head yet. He’s still young, so don’t put him out there yet. He’s a hard-worker. The game’s important to him. He loves to play football. He competes. But he’s still playing a game in an offense where quarterbacks handle a lot.”

• Gundy said he hopes the differences between him getting frustrated at Tulsa and not at Texas is that he matured through it.

• Consistency is key in college football win or lose. “It’s just like the old saying, ‘Hey, you got a big game this week.’ Well, the reason that game’s big is because we won the last one. We might’ve played someone that you don’t think is a good opponent, but if we don’t win that one, the next one’s not a big game.”

• That’s something he learned about five years in. “If I was the athletic director, I would’ve fired me within three or four years.”

• “I get home, and my 14-year-old scolds me, ‘Who’s the moron that called the fake field goal? Why won’t you run quarterback sneak? Nineteen other things. Most of what he says is correct, but I have to take all that into consideration based on what’s transpired and make the best decisions to move forward.”

• Gundy said he thought Sean Gleeson was good.

• “Sean gets excited and all that, but then he can go right back into the next area and focus. There are coaches that lose their marbles and can’t. It takes them 10 or 12 plays to refocus, but he’s pretty good at that.”

• “Dana (Holgorsen) didn’t care what I said. (Todd) Monken and I traveled to Vegas together 20 years in a row, so he didn’t care what I said. But because of Mike (Yurcich) and Sean’s level, I think there is a little more input. But it’s real clear, you can ask any of our offensive coaches, when I go in that meeting room, I tell them, ‘Look, I’m not the head coach, OK? I’m a position coach just like you. I’m giving you information. This is what I see. This is my opinion. You can use it if you want. If you don’t you can throw it in the trash can.”

• Gundy didn’t know Chris Klieman, but he thought K-State made a good hire based off his success at North Dakota State.

• He expects K-State Skylar Thompson will run more against Oklahoma State than he has to this point.

• Gundy said his team is more disciplined this year than it was last season.

• On Spencer Sanders saying to point fingers at himself for why OSU lost in Austin: “He’s being emotional afterwards. He needs to learn to point fingers at other people, spread the wealth. That’s what I do. He’s just young and emotional. He’s very competitive, and he gets really emotional when you talk about football. … That’s a good thing. The other that I joked about is not good. He’s saying, ‘I can be better.'”

• Gundy was asked if he was required to do the Big 12 teleconference: “Big 12 media? I don’t know. Can I get out of that? … I don’t know if I’m, by contract, obligated to that or not. I got a C in political science, so I ought to be able to read through that contract and figure it out.”

• On the question about Boone Pickens he got this morning: “(The reporter is) wasting y’all’s time. You have real journalists that are out there trying to do their job, and he’s eating up their phone call time. Look, everybody in this room’s busy. Y’all all have deadlines. I’m busy, believe it or not. I don’t have time for that. I would rather talk about football. And I thought it was disrespectful. The guy just passed away. Let’s just let it be what it is.”

• On how good OSU/K-State games have been over the years: “We have a lot of interesting games around here. There’s been a bunch of them against Kansas State, but we’ve had some against Iowa State in the last five years and TCU, Texas Tech. This is a pretty entertaining league. You don’t ever know what you’re going to get week-to-week in this league based on a lot of different things.”

• On the fake field goal: “I would rather not talk about fakes, especially ones that don’t work. There’s reasons for me to not talk about that.”

• Wednesday’s Celebration of Life for Boone Pickens will be a special day.

• They found out they would have Israel Antwine available for the Texas game in the middle of the week. Gundy said it was fun, but Antwine is “a little bit out of playing shape.”

• Gundy didn’t get much of an explanation as to why the spot wasn’t reversed when it looked as if Sanders ran for a first down against Texas but was marked short.

• Gundy said it isn’t the type of thing he can send to the league with questions about it. He said the last time he sent something in is when Calvin Bundage got ejected from a game against South Alabama.

• Gundy said he thinks Texas had legitimate injuries, but that players faking an injury to slow down his offense has happened before. Gundy said he proposed that if a player leaves with injury he shouldn’t be allowed back on the field until a change of possession.

• It’ll be weird for Gundy not seeing Bill Snyder across the field from him against Kansas State.

• Sanders was “really good” Sunday night in practice as far as bouncing back from his first loss.

• On a 7-3 decade against Texas: “For me to sit up here and say it’s not an accomplishment for us to have success against a team like Texas, everybody ought to get up and walk out of here and send the guy in here that called on the Big 12 call today and leave him in here.”

• Some guard on the corner of a wall fell off in the press box: “All that money’s going to the baseball stadium. Can’t even fix the damn wall over there.”

• Samuela Tuihalamaka is “coming along.” Gundy said he has some size and strength to him. Gundy said he wishes he could fast forward that young defensive line group a year.