The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Post-Spring Game News Conference

STILLWATER — The 2025 Cowboys had their first public showcase Saturday with the spring game.

The orange team got the better of the white team 14-10 thanks to an 80-yard Sam Jackson V punt return and a 74-yard run from Rodney Fields Jr.

Here are five quotes Mike Gundy gave after the festivities that stood out. You can watch his full post-scrimmage news conference below.

1. On Quarterbacks

It’s tough to say that any one of the four quarterbacks stood out too far from the others Saturday.

As a quartet, they combined the throw for 195 yards, completing 24-of-36 pass attempts. Zane Flores finished with the most yards (60), but he accounted for 15 of those 36 attempts. The orange team duo of Garret Rangel and Hauss Hejny combined to go 10-for-11 with 81 yards. Maealiuaki Smith led two scoring drives for the white team, which is extra notable considering the other two scores came on the punt return and the long run.

“The same thing you guys saw, what I’ve been telling you has been gone on for 3 weeks, is they’re all out there playing pretty good,” Gundy said. “So it gave you guys a chance to see what I’ve been seeing and you’ve been asking me about. I think that’s what we saw today.”

2. Starters Still Unclear

With more than 30 newcomers (a number that might be north 40 by the fall) and returners who don’t have a ton of experience, Gundy said he is not yet ready to name starters.

“We’re not in a position to do that,” Gundy said. “I would think that going into August, you certainly have a two-deep. Then you’re gonna have to work through the first eight or 10 practices to figure out who your guys are.

“It’s interesting when people talk about returning starters, and starters, and they have this many guys returning — if you have a bunch of guys returning and you weren’t very good last year, that’s not always the best news. They say, ‘Well, you got returning starters.’ Well, they weren’t very good last year. I’m not saying that was us, but what I’m trying to say is that we have a greater number of guys making plays out there running around than we had here in a while. And part of it is based on the portal and the ability to bring in a large number of players that aren’t 17 and 18 years old. They’re 19, 20, 21, 22 years old — big difference. That’s what we saw today.”

3. On Sam Jackson’s Standout Day

Sam Jackson V was one of the stars of the spring game, as he opened the scoring with an 80-yard punt return.

An Auburn transfer, Jackson had also spent time as a quarterback at TCU and Cal. Coming into his first season as a Cowboy, Jackson has 696 career passing yards, 138 rushing yards and 63 receiving yards.

“Very unusual athlete,” Gundy said. “Not a lot of guys have played and started at receiver, then started at quarterback at different schools at this level of football. I’m going to go back to what I said earlier. Sam loves football and likes to play. He’s very athletic. He can catch. He can throw it. He can run it. He can make people miss. He’s a guy that’s going to get a chance to play a lot of inside receiver. We’ve got 2 or 3 guys that can compete there, in my opinion, and can help us. We’ve got big shoes to fill. But he’s certainly a guy that gives us a chance to have a little success there.”

4. On the Defense

With the rainy elements and officials blowing whistles early to optimize health, there wasn’t a ton of favors done for the offense on Saturday, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that defensively, the Cowboys looked pretty good.

Here is what Gundy said on his defense under first-year coordinator Todd Grantham.

“I’m pleased with what I saw on defense,” Gundy said. “… They’re playing good, sound defense. They’re in the right gaps. They got out of the gap on Rodney’s long run, then the safety missed a tackle. They gave up the big play. Other than that, they have done a good job this spring of not giving up big plays. And I feel like we’re a better tackling team. We’ll see. But I feel like at this time, we’re a better tackling team.”

5. New Staff Is ‘Drop-Dead Aggressive’ on the Recruiting Trail

If you’ve followed OSU football recruiting over the past decade or so, you’d know that things are happening a little differently now than they have in the past.

Some of that has to do with the fact that this is the first time the Cowboys have really had to dive into the transfer portal, but some of the credit to the Cowboys’ recent success in recruiting has to do with the new staff Gundy has assembled.

“These guys are drop-dead aggressive, relentless, go at it,” Gundy said. “They go. They’ve been fantastic. They just tell me what to do and who’s coming in, and I meet with them and do whatever that I need to do. But, these guys are going after it. They’re not scared of anybody. They’re ruthless. They’re aggressive.”