The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Post-South Alabama News Conference

STILLWATER — For the first time since 2016, a Mike Gundy-coached team has lost a regular season nonconference game.

Oklahoma State fell to South Alabama 33-7 on Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. Here are the top five quotes from Gundy’s postgame news conference with a link to the full video below.

1. ‘We Got Outcoached and Outexecuted’

After Oklahoma State’s close shave against Central Arkansas in Week 1, Gundy said he was “not so sure” the Bears’ staff didn’t coach better than OSU’s.

Well after a 26-point loss to a team from the Sun Belt, Gundy was stronger in his convictions Saturday.

“We got outcoached and outexecuted,” Gundy said. “I told the team that we’ll come in tomorrow, we’ll grade it and look at it. We’ll be critical on ourselves. We’ll be critical on the players. Everybody has to own it. We’ve got to get through it. It’s extremely difficult when you don’t play well. We get to Monday, and we’ve got to get ready to play the next game, can’t do anything about the last game except learn from it and move forward.”

2. On the Offensive Line

Cowboy quarterbacks were sacked four times Saturday and hurried another five times. Meanwhile, OSU rushed for just 3.2 yards per carry against the Jaguars.

Needless to say, the Cowboys’ offensive line play was lackluster. Injuries were excuses of yesteryear. The Pokes had all their key contributors available Saturday, but the issues didn’t get much better.

The Cowboys shuffled a bit on the offensive line in the second half of Saturday’s game, taking out Cole Birmingham and putting Dalton Cooper at left tackle and Jake Springfield at right tackle.

Here is what Gundy said as to what OSU can do at this point in the season to get better offensive line play.

“There’s some different things we can do protection-wise,” Gundy said. “First, we have to identify how it happened, the integral part of the different protections. Find what’s causing it and try to stay away from that. Then, function and run concepts that we think we’re good at based on who we are. I know that’s not a good answer, but it’s hard to answer that other than until I look at it and see what happened, it’s hard for me to really say. But there’s answers. We just gotta get to them.”

3. On Ollie Gordon Having Three Carries

The Cowboys’ run game has obviously struggled three games into the season, but entering Saturday, Ollie Gordon was the Pokes’ leading rusher, running for 97 yards on 6.1 yards a carry.

He had only three carries Saturday, rushing for 12 yards. Elijah Collins had nine carries, and Jaden Nixon had five. The trio combined to rush for 66 rushing yards on 17 carries. Gundy was asked postgame whether he regretted Gordon getting only three carries.

“Yeah, we got behind,” Gundy said. “That’s what got us, right? I’m not making excuses for anything, but that is because we were behind by basically three scores and you just can’t keep running the ball. At that point you do it just enough to try keep them off balance, but if you’re not throwing the ball, you don’t have a chance.”

4. This Came after a Good Week of Practice

Gundy on Monday said he thought South Alabama would be the most physical team the Cowboys have played to this point. The results on the field Saturday certainly backed that up.

But the Cowboys apparently prepared well for the Jaguars’ physicality. It just didn’t show up on gameday.

“You guys are gonna think this is funny, but we practiced better this week than we did last week,” Gundy said. “We practiced good on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. That part was a little confusing to me. Our Tuesday practice a week ago before Arizona State was average — at best. We practiced really good this Tuesday and Wednesday.”

5. Bowman’s Boo Birds

Alan Bowman got his second straight start at quarterback, but after a few unsuccessful drives, the Boone Pickens Stadium crowd grew restless.

The boo birds started pouring down as Bowman trotted out for another series. It’s a side effect to this three-way quarterback battle where if one guy doesn’t succeed, the crowd is going to want another to play.

“I don’t really notice a lot of that,” Gundy said. “I have one [headphone] off, but people say those things to me after the game — I don’t really notice a lot of that.

“Everybody has an opinion. The good thing about our fans is that they want to win and they’re used to winning, so sometimes they get frustrated. Like, if I was a fan and was watching the game there, I’d be frustrated, too. We would always want them to support our players, but sometimes they get frustrated and I understand that because they’re used to winning and having a lot of success. That’s a good thing.”