The Rundown: Mike Gundy Talks Depth Chart, Offensive Line and Unis ahead of OSU’s Game against Tulsa

At times it felt as if game week content would never come, but here it is.

Virtually, Mike Gundy held his game week media availability before Oklahoma State hosts Tulsa at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Here is everything OSU’s coach hit on in the 30-minute session.

On if he has watched any games thus far to give him a gauge on atmosphere

“I’ve watched a little bit here and there, not a lot. We practiced over the weekend, so I haven’t seen a lot, but the games look normal. Obviously there’s just not fans for the most part. I’m sure the sound is much different, best I can tell at this time.”

On Chuba Hubbard’s Workload in 2020

“He’s gonna get his carries. We’ll base it on how he feels throughout the game, but I would hope that he wouldn’t have to carry it 30 times a game, but if he does for us to be successful on offense, and he feels good, then we’ll continue to give it to him.”

On Braydon Johnson taking advantage of increased reps from late last season

“Braydon’s doing really well. He’s been back with us for 10 days or so. He missed a little with a little tweak of an injury, but he’s done well. I think the experience he gained in the latter part of the season last year has really helped him this August.”

On Dee Anderson and Tay Martin

“New guys that are learning our system and competing. As they get more comfortable with our offense, we give them more reps.”

On if he is getting good reports on how the players are handling themselves away from football pertaining to COVID-19

“The only reports that we can get is the testing. Last week we started the three time a week. We tested again yesterday. We test Wednesday and then Friday. Our results have been fantastic, and I think that’s really the only information that tells us if they’re doing a good job away from the complex.”

On plans in terms of masks for Saturday

“The players have those scarves around their neck that they use. We’re not using the shields. Then the coaches have a variety of face coverings that they feel comfortable with, some are masks, some are scarves, some are bandanna-looking things. We’ve used those over the last, really eight weeks. I think each person has a comfort level with a different type of material.

“[The players] have used a variety of face coverings to the best of my knowledge. Because there’s so many of them, I can’t keep up with what they’re all doing, but I know I’ve seen a number of things out there, and it seems like each one of them, as an individual, has settled into what they’re comfortable with. I had a question earlier about watching the games last Saturday, and I noticed that I don’t think the players are wearing any face coverings, not any that I noticed. So, I’m not sure what our players are gonna do based on protocol from the Big 12.”

On if he is concerned with depth at any position group

“We’re in good shape. I’m comfortable with our depth at all of our positions.”

On peace of mind with all the experience he has coming back

“We’re comfortable with a number of players being on the field on both sides of the ball, and including special teams. I know that none of us can forecast the future, but is there a comfort level for us, the staff, myself? Sure, based on the unpredictability of the virus and how it can affect a certain position. This is certainly a good year to have some depth with players. So, it does make us feel better in practice when we’re distributing the reps with the ones and twos, and we have included the threes in more reps this year than we have in the past.

“I think a natural progression would be more trust with maturity and experience in life, whether it’s young people in school or young people in athletics or whatever it may be. As they mature and get older, they seem to listen and make better decisions. I think this group is doing that. I would also add that this group of medical people, our medical staff, Doc [Val Gene] Iven and Scott Parker and John Stemm and their staff have clearly been the top. They’ve been the best in the country in handling this situation, and the plan that we’ve had by bringing them in really early and going through the format and learning as we go, I just can’t imagine that anybody in the country has been better than us, and that’s now starting to show. That gives me a lot of confidence based on where we’re at right now. They just had a fantastic plan, and it’s worked from Day 1.”

On what he has seen from Cole Birmingham and Hunter Anthony

“I see that they’re young, and they’re learning on the run. We have moved some guys around, so we might balance that out based on where we’re at as the game moves on. I mentioned this last week, I have a lot of confidence in Coach [Kasey] Dunn and Coach [Charlie] Dickey to find the formula that best fits our style of play and what we’re trying to get accomplished each week, based on the attack we need to have success on the offensive side of the ball.”

On how Hunter Anthony has improved

“He’s doing good. He had some experience, not a lot. His body’s in better shape now, the natural progression of maturity for him and seeing more defenses and spending another 12 months in the weight room with Coach [Rob] Glass has really helped him. He should improve each week. He’s a guy that you look at and you say, ‘OK, if you’re in the lineup for six or seven games, you should play considerably different in the first of November than you will be in September. That would be a normal progression for a young offensive lineman.”

On the benefits of starting the season with two home games before having to deal with COVID-19 travel protocol

“It’s interesting, the travel and format with personnel and players is a complicated system on a normal year. It will actually be easier this year because our travel experience will be the same at home based on limitations with players, coaches, personnel, different people on the field. I think it’ll be easier. I know at Oklahoma State, we’re only allowing people on the field that have to be down there at some sort of a working format. It simplifies the process moreso than what it would on a traditional year where your home format is much different based on recruiting prospects, a variety of different areas that can complicate a gameday at home with the virus and the format we’re using, based on Big 12 policy, it makes it much simpler.

“[Home and away protocol] will almost be just the same because the only coaches, personnel, administrators, players, coaches that we’ll be on the field at home and/or on the road will be in some sort of working fashion.”

On Brennan Presley

“From Day 1, he’s been as advertised: ultra-competitive, loves to play football. Fortunately, he’s stayed healthy, which is very important for a true freshman if you’re gonna get on the field. If you get dinged up a little bit and miss seven to 10 days, it’s extremely difficult to get ready to play. His competitive level, his skillset and his health has allowed him to put himself in position to play in the first game.

“[His size] hasn’t been an issue with us at all. Again, I go back to his competitive nature and his willingness to do whatever it takes to be successful, and he overcomes his size. For us, we haven’t seen it become a factor in our practices.”

On whether he is seeing things to lead him to believe this team can live up to its expectations

“I think we have a really good skillset. We have depth. We have maturity. We have players that have competed in big-time conference games at home, on the road, bowl games. In my opinion, that’s an important ingredient in having a really good season. This year’s a little different. Our preparation, like most other teams in the country has been altered at times, based on the virus. The health of your football team, and now that you throw in the effects or anything that could happen with the virus during this season, could play a little bit more of a roll. But as we sit now, we’re in good shape. My answer to that question would be as of now, I like where we’re at with our team, but the health and maturity that we have has to stay priority for us to be able to continue and have a good season.”

On if he has had any opt-outs

“We had a couple players that, at that point which was a couple weeks ago or three weeks ago, that had some concerns and decided to sit this season. But it’s been very minimal with our team. We’re still sitting at 130 on our roster, so that number has been very minimal.

“They won’t let me bring [who they were] up. I don’t really mind if anybody finds out, but it’s kind of a personal issue. So if those players wanted people to know that they were opting out, I’m sure that they would’ve done like what most young people do and put it on social media so everybody could know.”

On Gundy’s history with centers

“Brad Lundblade was a non-recruited walk-on who was a four-year starter for us. We’ve been very fortunate here for 10, 12 years. Once we established ourself in about 2008 as a really quality football team. Then we pushed hard for walk-ons. Then we continued to cater to them, take care of them, treat them just like we would anybody else. We’ve had a number of young men that have come into our program and been extremely successful and earn scholarships, and [Ry] Schneider kinda falls into the same boat.

“I’m not sure if it’s luck or if we’re just doing a good job of evaluating potential walk-on prospects, but we’ve had an unusual run there at that position. Johnny Wilson was a scholarship player, but he was very moderately recruited, at best, coming out of west Texas. We’ve been very fortunate with guys that, in some peoples’ opinion, might have not been good enough to play at this level for us to get them in there and get them prepared to play and be successful on game day.”

On if Schneider is elite like some of the guys before him

“As far as you evaluate them for potential play beyond this level, probably not, but playing center is a little unique, somewhat like a quarterback. They have to direct traffic and their savviness and their skillset and knowledge of the game is extremely important. In most cases, they set protections, they set schemes, they make calls. We alter that some in our system to somewhat encrypt the defense’s ability to know exactly what our calls are, but the majority of them, 60 to 70 percent, are gonna come from the center position. Sometimes you can allow a player to get in there that can fulfill those responsibilities and get a chance to be on the field based on his intellectual skillset toward playing the game.”

On if there’s any other true freshmen who could play Saturday and beyond

“They’ll be a number of guys play. I would hate to say who or when based on just how the game plays out, but there could be five to six guys that get in and play at some point in the first half. We’ll just have to see how the game plays out.”

“Our guys get a lot of reps in practice. We’ve had a number of young players get an extended amount of reps and time on the field compared to what they might get at other schools. Our young players that come in, I think, are always shocked that they’re out there with the twos and sometimes even with the ones because of the way our practices are set up. We just have to wait and see where we’re at, depending on how the game goes and depending on how the coaches feel based on the teams we’re playing throughout the early part of the season whether they are comfortable putting a young player into the game.”

On the importance of Josh Sills and how well he has blended in with the team

“Josh has been a really nice addition for us. He fits into our culture. He enjoys living in Stillwater. He likes to hunt and do outdoor activities. His attitude, his willingness to be a part of the team, compete. He’s not scared to work. We’re thrilled to have him. We’re excited about the maturity he brings to our team. He’s fun to be around. He fits into our Cowboy culture. Our coaches, our strength coaches, we all enjoy him being here. He feels comfortable here, and he’s doing really well. He’s been a good addition to our football team.”

On whether his team will still stay in a hotel at home

“The routine we had, we’ll keep it as consistent as possible. I think the more operation on Friday and Saturday that is normal to what it has been in the past is an advantage for us. There are some small changes based on the way they prepare and serve food to our team, whether we’ll have access to a movie theater based on restrictions in Payne County has still not been resolved. We have our players scattered throughout the hotel. We should be a positive player with a negative player, and not two negatives in one room, those are all things that have been accounted for since July. I would anticipate that’s continued on throughout the next three months of the season.”

On impact of mixing and matching uniforms

“The uniform is still important to them. It always has been. Justin Williams has done a great job working with Nike. It is an extremely difficult job to try to lay these uniforms out, mix and match, keep the fans happy, keep administration happy, keep the players happy. It all has to be done, at least one year and in some instances two years in advance.

“It is important to the players like always. They like the gray, they like the gun metal, they like the black, those are the colors they like. It’s interesting, the fans love the orange. So we try to mix and match. I stay out of it. I have no idea what we’ll wear on Saturday, don’t have any idea on helmets, decals, colors any of that. But they enjoy the mix and match uniforms. We still get comments in recruiting about the variety and different things and colors that we have. It is, in my opinion, as big a deal today as it was 10 years ago.

“There’s a group of [players] that go in in the summer and have that discussion [of what to wear]. But again, the majority of that is done a year in advance and sometimes 18 months in advance with the exception of just, ‘OK this is what we might wear in a certain game this year.’ That also depends on temperature and conditions. For example, if we were gonna play this weekend and the temperatures were supposed to be close to 100 and the field turf was 150, we probably wouldn’t wear black or gray. We would try to wear something that would be more suited keeping them cool and so on and so forth. But they do have some input during the year through Justin. I stay out of all that. That’s one area that I don’t have to get involved in and allows me to do something else during the day.”