The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Pre-Texas Tech News Conference

STILLWATER — The Cowboys are coming off a much-needed open week with two games remaining in the 2024 season.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy met with reporters Monday to preview the Pokes’ upcoming game against Texas Tech, which kicks at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. Here are five things Gundy said. You can watch his full news conference below.

1. The Importance of Getting a Conference Win

You’d have to go all the way back to 1994 for the last time the Cowboys failed to win a conference game in a season.

OSU finished 0-6-1 in Big Eight play that year with the tie coming against Iowa State on homecoming. The last time OSU lost every league game it played in came the year before in 1993 — a 3-8 season with an 0-7 record in the Big Eight.

The Cowboys are staring down the barrel of that happening this season with two games to play against a pair of squads the Pokes will be underdogs against. Here is what Gundy said Monday on the importance of finding a way to win again before the season ends.

“When the clock runs out, I want to be ahead so they can celebrate and they can enjoy the work and the effort,” Gundy said. “I see what they do each week. I see them working hard. I’m proud of them for it, and I try to teach them and instill in them, the values they’re learning by continuing to do this. But it would be nice if we found a way to win the game, to where they could kind of enjoy it and say, ‘Hey, I learned to toughen up, and push through it, and be tough, and here’s the reward.’ So from that standpoint, it would be nice for them to be able to win the game and them see that all that’s paid off.”

2. ‘We Won’t Just Put a Young Guy in Just for Experience’

Gundy was again asked about the potential of seeing more young players this weekend.

There’s a line of thinking that would say, with the Cowboys no longer having bowl eligibility as a possibility, that now would be a good time to get younger players some reps. That’s been happening a little more over recent weeks with guys like David Kabango and Landyn Cleveland getting more run on the back end of the defense. It’s also happened to a lesser extent with quarterback Maealiuaki Smith, who has played the Cowboys’ final drive in their past two games. But it doesn’t sound as if the Pokes will play a cavalcade of freshmen and sophomores for the sake of it.

“Only if they can help us win the game,” Gundy said. “The plans that we have together, the practices that we have this week will be to do whatever we think it takes to win this game. And if there’s young guys that can help us, then we’ll put them in position to help us. If not, we won’t just put a young guy in just for experience.”

3. On Maealiuaki Smith

Speaking of Smith, he’s the freshman with the most eyeballs on him from the fanbase — the blessing and curse of playing quarterback.

In 18 snaps this season, Smith has completed seven of 10 pass attempts for 103 yards and an interception. He led the Cowboys on a late scoring drive against Arizona State before leading OSU 63 yards down field and throwing an interception against TCU. Gundy said he’s seen most of Smith’s growth come in practice lately after starting the year with the scout team.

“He’s grown from just practicing with us for a month,” Gundy said. “Prior to four weeks ago, he was not even practicing with us, and then we moved him up and he made a little bit of progress each week. And then, obviously, playing in a game helps him a little bit. He has stayed competitive, but he’s improved more from being in practice with us than he has just the minimal number of game reps that he’s gotten to this point.”

4. On How the Coaching Staff Is Handling the Rough Season

Gundy was asked somewhat vaguely about his staff on a few occasions Monday but didn’t go too far into the potential of any moves being made — that’s not to say moves won’t be made, just that it wasn’t something Gundy latched onto when questions involving staff changes were asked.

The first question that dealt with the staff came when discussing a busy start to December. The early signing period opens Dec. 4. The transfer portal opens Dec. 9. Gundy was asked if he were to make changes to his staff, if any of that timeline would be determined by the busy start to December. He said he “hadn’t thought about that kind of stuff.”

Toward the end of the news conference, Gundy was asked how the coaching staff has dealt with this season not going according to plan.

“They’ve been fine,” Gundy said. “They work. Coaches are consumed with 14-, 16-hour days and preparation. They’re creatures of habits, like robots during the week. We’re all the same. We hide in our work. We go to work in dark, and we come home in the dark. That allows us to continue with our lifestyle and our livelihood and our jobs, moreso than all the other stuff going on. So it’s much easier for coaches than it is for players, would be my guess. …

“I haven’t seen anything where it’s eating on them. I’m sure that there have been games they wish they would have done a better job. But they’re in a more professional part and place in their life than the young players are –t he young men. So they should be able to handle it. And I’ve seen them handle it much differently. And they’ve been fine. They’re working. And again, which I remind them, my job is to make sure that they’re energetic and enthusiastic every single day. So I push that hard. And the players in most cases are going to respond to what they’re seeing the coaches do.

On the Senior Class

Gundy said 26 players are expected to walk as part of Senior Day on Saturday.

That group includes 18 “super seniors,” which OSU highlighted on its game notes:

Cole Birmingham, OL
Korie Black, CB
Alan Bowman, QB
Collin Clay, NT
Dalton Cooper, OL
Obi Ezeigbo, DE
Tyler Foster, TE
Kobe Hylton, S
Joe Michalski, OL
Taylor Miterko, OL
Brennan Presley, WR
Xavier Ross, DE
Trey Rucker, S
Jake Schultz, FB
Jake Springfield, OL
Kody Walterscheid, DE
Preston Wilson, OL
Justin Wright, LB

Many from that group have been in Stillwater for some time. Cole Birmingham, Preston Wilson, Xavier Ross, Taylor Miterko, Joe Michalski and Kody Walterscheid all signed with the program as part of OSU’s 2019 recruiting class. Brennan Presley and Korie Black came a year later as part of the 2020 class.

“Those guys have, a lot of them have been here for six years and each year when they depart I can’t decide whether I think they just got here or if they’ve been here forever with all the classes that are meshing nowadays,” Gundy said. “These guys have won a lot of games. They’ve been very committed to the organization. I noticed the other day when I was looking — we’ll have 26 seniors walking, or whatever they do pregame, and these guys have gotten really good degrees. Like, minors and some of them are double majors and postgrad. Their commitment to the organization has been very special, like all of them. It takes a lot, and those guys have been very successful.”