The Rundown: Mike Gundy Talks Cheez-It Bowl, Tylan Wallace

The Cowboys are going to a bowl game for the 15th straight season.

Oklahoma State accepted a bid to play in the Cheez-It Bowl on Dec. 29. Mike Gundy met with reporters via Zoom to accept his team’s bid. Here is everything he said.

Opening Statement

“Well, we’re very excited about playing in the Cheez-It Bowl. Orlando is a great location, and we’re excited about getting together as a group and having another week or so of practice and being able to spend some time over Christmas with the families and then head out and play in a great bowl game against an awesome opponent.”

On being on the OSU coaching staff that played against Miami in 1991

“Well, I can’t hardly remember last week, much less what happened in ’91.

On Miami coach Manny Diaz

“”He was in our league for awhile, and I know that he spent some time down south at other places. He was in the SEC awhile, and then jumped on down at Miami. I know they were excited with him being from down in that area. I don’t follow the rankings, but I think Miami’s been pretty much a top-10, or top-15 team all year. We’ve had a great season. We’ve played in conference play, which obviously is difficult, and then Tulsa being our first nonconference, who’s had a great year. Then Miami being our last nonconference game in the bowl who is having an awesome year. We’ve been able to play some really, really good football teams, and I’m excited about competing against Miami.”

On the differences of bowl games in a pandemic

“We have the guys together for about three days of practice. We do our testing, and then we’re letting our team go home for three days for Christmas. We’ll get back together for a day, and then we’ll take off and we’ll play at the bowl. This will be more like a traditional week for us, which is about three practices, because we made the decision to let our players go home and spend time with their families over Christmas. We thought that was more important than the extra practice days during this time of year with all the players have dealt with because of the virus.”

On getting a full season in during this wacky 2020 season

“I’m a little bit shocked with all that was taking place in the latter part of July. I felt good about the season in April, May and June, started to get concerned with everything that was going on across the country in July. Once we got to the middle of the season and so many teams started having issues with the virus, I started to have some more concerns, but for us to be able to finish the season and now be able to play in a bowl game, I know it’s only a one-day trip, but it still gives our players a chance to compete against a very, very good football team again. It gives our young players a chance to practice another week so there’s a lot of benefits. We’ve certainly come along way since July. There’s no question about that.”

On if he has kept up with Jimmy Johnson

“Well obviously, I’ve kept up with him, but he’s way ahead of my time, I haven’t really had conversations with Coach Johnson. I’ve told you guys before, I don’t have a lot of conversations with anybody, but I have not really had a relationship with Coach Johnson, never been in the same environment that he was in.”

On if Tylan Wallace will be able to play

“I hope so. I haven’t had that discussion at this point. Our players are coming back [Sunday evening]. We’re going to practice a couple days then give them three or four days off for Christmas. I’m hoping that we’ll know something by tomorrow on what his situation [is]. I feel like that he’s relatively healthy, in my opinion. We’ll know a lot more about that tomorrow. And then it’s just a matter of whether he decides to play in the game. These decisions are obviously all based on the individual thought process, but he’s competed for us throughout the year. He’s been fantastic.”

On what the conversations are like with guys deciding whether to stay or opt out

“I’m not involved in those discussions. They all have discussions with their representatives and their families, and they let us know what they’re doing. Those aren’t discussions that, as a coach, we’re involved in.”

On what national fans can expect from Oklahoma State’s defense

“We have a very mature defense with a lot of experience. We feel like we run really well. That’s why this game will be interesting. I have seen Miami play some, not a lot, maybe a game and a half, I can’t remember. I know they have tremendous speed, and we run around pretty good on defense. I would say the majority of that would be because of the speed that we have on the defensive side of the ball.”

On if OSU’s players want to play in the bowl game

“Our team made the decision to move forward and play. We were excited about that. I’m a strong believer in we finish what we started. So, I was happy that the team wanted to stay together and get three or four more practices and have an opportunity to play in the bowl game. We’ll start back [Monday] with the veteran guys as I said we’ll be able to get three or four practices in before we head out to the bowl game. I can’t imagine they won’t be excited about getting some quality practice in, especially when they know we’re playing a team that’s as good as Miami.”

On OSU’s trip to the Camping World Bowl after the 2017 season

“We had a great week down there. Fabulous living conditions, practice facilities and just everything in the Orlando area was first class. People took great care of us. Our players had a week of a lifetime, and that’s what a lot of fans across the country sometimes don’t realize, for us to be able to take our entire travel party, all the family, all the players, most of their families and be in a bowl location and the activities and things that we get to do during the week, those are the memories that these players will have for the rest of their life.

“Unfortunately because of the virus this year that’s changed, but we’re very excited about being in the Cheez-It Bowl game, very excited about who we’re playing. Last time we were there we had a great game against Virginia Tech. These are memories of a lifetime, and we’re going to try to do everything we can for these players to be able to spend time with their family but also get ready to play against a very, very good football team and enjoy the bowl game.”

On how he makes the bowl trip special for the players despite COVID restrictions

“We’re going to practice a couple three days here, and then we’re going to let the players go home and spend Christmas with their families. They’ll be home for three nights. We’re going to bring them back and have a practice and then have a light practice and then travel down and play the game. We made a decision as a staff a couple weeks ago that when we got to this point we were going to sacrifice the three or four extra practices to allow our players to be able to be with their families during this time of year. We felt like that would benefit our organization more than the practices based on what we’re all been through with the virus this time of year.

“We’ll be able to practice here and just spend time with players around the facility, but there’s not much else we can do. Obviously, we can’t group a lot of people up. They do get all the bowl gifts and the gear and things like that, which is awesome. We just don’t get to spend as much time together in such a great location.”

On relying on the players to make good decisions when they’re with their families

“That’s part of it. They’ve been fabulous all year. They’ve been very mature. I’ve already discussed and given you guys my opinion on how fantastic our medical staff was and our players were to be able to play through the season without having any issues with the virus. We’ve asked them to be very careful when they go home, try to stay away from people as much as possible. As much as you want to hug and kiss on everybody, you gotta refrain from it right now, just like we all do at the house.

“It’s just something we have to deal with right now. It’s a decision we made, but our players are very mature, and hopefully they’ll be able to handle that when we get back. We’ll get them tested up, and we’ll be able to head down and play in the bowl game.”

Closing statement

“The favorite snack at the Gundy house is Cheez-Its just so everybody knows. Big snack late at night at the Gundy house. We’re looking forward to a great game.”