The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Post Baylor News Conference

WACO, Texas — Mike Gundy’s Cowboys are staring down the barrel of missing a bowl game for the first time since 2005.

Oklahoma State fell to Baylor 38-28 on Saturday in McLane Stadium. Here are five quotes from Mike Gundy after the game. Video of his full news conference is below.

1. Lack of Discipline

Gundy is usually fairly even-keeled after games — win or lose. But it wasn’t hard to tell that he was unhappy with his team’s performance Saturday. That likely spawned from the Pokes’ lack of discipline.

The Cowboys were flagged for 12 penalties against Baylor, the most penalties they’ve had called against them in a game since 2018. But it wasn’t just the penalties that Gundy counted toward his team’s discipline. It was also missed tackles, of which there were myriad late in Saturday’s game.

“We’ve been good (at playing disciplined) forever, right?” Gundy said. “We’ve been good forever. I’m just going to have to look at them. I don’t know. I’ll be honest with you. You guys watch replays and stuff. I don’t. They called the offensive pass interference on us for 15 yards. It looked like to me, they ran into each other. I didn’t think we were guilty of that. Maybe we were. And then we had another call that I wasn’t real sure about. But either way, there was just a lot of lack of discipline in this game, in my opinion. …

“I don’t think it’s frustration. I think the last two drives is frustration, which is not good. I mean, they had them wrapped up, OK? I mean, (Kendal Daniels) had him, a chance to get him on that last one. (Kody Walterscheid) had him, and (Dylan Smith) just kind of bounced around. So those are things that they have to take care of. And so there was some frustration there, but there wasn’t all week. And we were in a good situation, right? It was 20-24 and we kicked off, and they had it on the 25 or something like that. We’re in great shape, and then we just, wheels kind of came off. Maybe a little bit of fatigue. But I’m not going for that. They got to fight through that.”

2. Soul Searching Cowboys

In order to get back on the right side of discipline, Gundy said his guys needed to do some soul searching.

Again, he is usually fairly level with this sort of stuff, but that means when Gundy says stuff like this, he means it.

“I shared with them that they need to do some soul searching,” Gundy said. “They need to watch the video and look and give themselves an honest opinion of how they played and so we challenged them. I challenged them in doing that, and I told them that I don’t know what time I’ll get back tonight. I might go to work tonight. I don’t know. If not, I’ll be there in the morning. And if they want to come by and talk about it and if there’s anything they want to say about it, about themselves or the team that I’m there, and that’s how I feel about that.”

3. Bowman Played ‘Pretty Good’

A little more than a week ago, Alan Bowman had lost his job as OSU’s starting quarterback, but a quick injury to Garret Rangel, Bowman’s replacement, and the seventh-year passer was back out there.

Bowman went 28-for-42 against Baylor for 359 yards, a touchdown and a late interception. Here’s what Gundy said of his performance:

“I thought overall, he played pretty good,” Gundy said. “The last drive we were in desperation. I thought he competed. Thought he sat in the pocket better, made some throws and handled the offense. I wish he would have been better on the delay of game. Twenty-eight of 42, 359 (yards) and a touchdown. I thought he played pretty good.”

4. OSU’s Rushing Woes ‘a Numbers Game’

Although Bowman played “pretty good,” the Cowboys run game was again absent.

The Cowboys had their best rushing game of the season in Provo last week — a performance that benefitted greatly from Rangel’s ability to run, which took eyes away from Ollie Gordon. Bowman isn’t as mobile as Rangel, and the result was the Bears’ defense not respecting Bowman’s running ability. OSU finished with 34 carries for 74 rushing yards. That’s 2.2 yards a carry.

Gundy has sung this tune all season: it comes down to the opponent bringing more guys in run support than the Cowboys can block.

“The ends come crashing down,” Gundy said. “It’s real simple. We talked about it some. It’s a numbers game. Doesn’t change. We have six blocking, they have the seventh guy that fits in and either has to stay back and protect or he doesn’t.”

5. ‘I Felt Different in This One’

Last week the Cowboys played the role of the plucky underdog going into a rowdy environment, and the Pokes almost pulled off the upset.

This matchup was a bout of two teams that were 3-4, and though the Cowboys were on the road, McLane Stadium wasn’t exactly rocking on Saturday.

The general sentiment across the fanbase last week was the that Cowboys played well but came up short. This game was ugly.

“We have a game next week, and unlike last week after the game, I felt different in this one,” Gundy said. “I felt like we missed opportunities. We had opportunities we didn’t take advantage of. Now, obviously, I haven’t watched the tape. That’s just the naked eye. I’m usually pretty good at it, though. So we had missed opportunities in this game, in my opinion.

“I also shared with them this, we don’t get very many games in college football, which I tell you guys all the time. Baseball gets to play 40 games. Basketball plays 35 games. We don’t get that many games. And so as a player, you have to cherish and take advantage of every opportunity and every game you get. And I don’t think we did that in this game today, in my opinion.”