The Rundown: What Mike Gundy Said After OSU’s 28-23 Win Over TU

Mike Gundy had a lot to say Saturday afternoon after his team won another nail-biter, 28-23, this time over Tulsa.

Here is a rundown of his postgame thoughts.

• “We were really good on third downs [defensively] again. Very important. The defense continues to play well as we try to grow up a little bit on offense and get some young players developed and work through a few things. We need to come together as coaches and try to make a decision on who we are offensively right now with our personnel and what direction to go. We rushed for about 3 yards per carry, we need to be at about 4.5. We need to run the football better.”
• “Special teams was huge for us with our return yards. I thought we were really good on special teams and obviously made the difference in the game. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but proud of the guys for finding a way to be successful.”
• “[The LD Brown return TD] was right in front of me. I had a good view. Kanion Williams was blocking his guy for about 50 yards. We talk about with special teams when you never know it might change a game, well that changed the game. Gave us a little bit of juice. Offensively, we’re very average right now, special teams gave us a big lift.”
• “I thought our pass protection was average. We could’ve protected for [Spencer Sanders] a little better. I thought he played good, but I’ll have to wait and see with some of his reads on where he’s at. I know he threw one to the other team and they ran it back for a touchdown, I wasn’t too fired up about that and neither was he. But overall I think he played good.”
• “We’ve been very fortunate around here where we’ve had great skill players. We’re going to have to get better at design plays, period. We’re going to have to come together and decide how to rush the football and we have to rush for 4.5 yards per carry because we’re very young on the perimeter right now. As we develop those guys on the perimeter we have to get better at rushing the football.”
• “We flipped guys [on the offensive line] to maybe try and give us some better matchups. The run game is not clean. We need to execute better. We need to get sound scheme-wise and we’ll get better technique-wise.”
• “[Tay Martin] shouldn’t have been out there today. He was just insistent on going out there. We wasted 65 cents on a tape job. He should’ve just watched, because he wasn’t ready to play. I think he’ll be back middle of the week, but he needed two or three or four more days in my opinion.”
• “I mentioned to you guys back in August that we have some experience at wide-out and then behind them I said we could be like we were years ago with that group that played in the NFL with Ateman, Washington, Lacy .. those [young receivers] could be like that they’re just not ready now. So when LA went out and Braydon Johnson went out and Tay Martin went out, the freshmen came in … so you have to be patient with them.”
• “The defense was on the field a lot. I thought they reacted well.”
• “[Dominic Richardson] came in and pounded away, ran hard. We’re fortunate we’ve got all these backs.”
• “I don’t have any update on [Dez Jackson]. I don’t think it’s serious.”
• “We had 150 return yards today to 27. We got a whole football field out of special teams. That was the difference in this game.”