The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Tuesday News Conference

STILLWATER — The Cowboys on Tuesday put on pads for the first time this spring.

It was also the media’s second chance to catch up with Mike Gundy about Oklahoma State’s progress heading into the 2024 season. Here are the top five quotes from Gundy’s Tuesday news conference with video of his full session below.

1. Kendal Daniels, the Tweener

It sounds as if Kendal Daniels is going to spend some time closer to the line of scrimmage in 2024.

Daniels, a 6-foot-4, 230-pound safety, recorded 105 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and a pair of picks as a redshirt sophomore in 2023. That 6-4 frame already made him a jumbo safety, but with him continuing to fill it out, Daniels could move up and play some linebacker for the Cowboys in 2024.

“Kendal went from 204 to almost 240 now,” Gundy said. “That’s why we’re doing some things with him. We can bring him down and invert him now, play him in a standup position closer to the ball. He’s more valuable. But we can move him back and let him cover the middle of the field if we want to some. His long term will be closer to the ball, but I don’t know that anybody knew that he would get to almost 240 pounds. He projected more than what we thought.”

For reference, Daniels’ listed weight of 230 pounds would put him in a tie for fourth as the heaviest linebackers on the team with Justin Wright and Elijah Wright. If Daniels is closer to 240 like Gundy mentioned, he would be tied with Gabe Brown and Grant Mirabal as the heaviest among linebackers. For further reference, Collin Oliver is listed at 235 and Nickolas Martin weighs 210.

2. Isaia Glass Adds to Offensive Line’s Depth

The Cowboys returned six offensive line starters from last season’s team — then they went and added a starter from another program.

Jake Springfield — back. Joe Michalski — back. Cole Birmingham — back. Taylor Miterko — back. Dalton Cooper — back. Jason Brook Jr. — back. Preston Wilson — back. And on top of that, enter Isaia (pronounced ee-SIGH-uh) Glass.

Listed as a 6-foot-4, 305-pound redshirt junior, Glass joins the Cowboys from Arizona State, where he made 15 starts in the past two seasons. He provides the Cowboys with options and depth heading into 2024.

“He’s got a lot of starts,” Gundy said. “He’s got a lot of experience. He’s mature. He’s got good physical capability. He’s strong, and he moves well on his feet. We were able to watch him on video in his conference, which gives us an idea of what we think we’re gonna see. And we competed against him, so we have a pretty good feel for what he’ll bring to the table. …

“Hopefully we’ll have seven guys that could play in the first game that we wouldn’t blink at — maybe eight, not sure. We’ll see. Then as you know, those guys start falling like flies, and by the end of the year, we’re down to five. Hopefully it won’t be that way, but that’s been history.”

3. ‘Enough Carries to Go Around’ for AJ Green

AJ Green might’ve been OSU’s most impressive pull out of the portal this offseason.

For one, he’s a good player. But for two, OSU had to recruit him with Green knowing dang well the returning Doak Walker winner is on the roster.

“He came in understanding that we have Ollie, and what we need him to do is to bring a physical, mature presence that allows our younger backs to develop,” Gundy said. “I feel good with where we’re at depth-wise at that position, but as you know, you guys have seen it, those guys can go down fast. So we needed a mature guy, and he brings that to the table. So far he’s done really well up to this point.”

A 5-10, 210-pound senior, Green carried 201 times for 953 yards and six touchdowns the past three seasons at Arkansas. This is a homecoming of sorts for Green, as he played his high school ball at Tulsa-Union. There, he was a four-star prospect and initially chose Arkansas over offers from OSU, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, LSU, Texas A&M and others.

Gundy said ideally there are carries to be had for OSU this season, not wanting to run Ollie Gordon into the ground.

“We have a lot of carries for another back,” Gundy said. “The 30 carry a game for Ollie is somewhat concerning. Perfect world would be 20 to keep him healthy throughout for us and his career. He had to carry the load last year, moreso than what we’d like. There’s enough carries to go around.”

4. Obi Ezeigbo’s Addition to Defensive Line

The Cowboys will need some new faces to step up on the defensive line with Nathan Latu and Anthony Goodlow exhausting their eligibility last season.

That could come from a younger guy, but the Pokes also brought in transfer Obi Ezeigbo. By way of Gannon (the same program OSU got defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo from), Ezeigbo recorded 54 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks last season.

“Different than a high school player, we would hope that they would be physical enough to compete over the next three weeks — unlike a high school player that’s just trying to hold on,” Gundy said. “We replaced a mature player with a mature player in Obi. His numbers in the weight room were really good, so hopefully he’ll hold up here over the next three weeks.”

5. Gundy Talks Lutz

Gundy has a new coworker.

OSU hired basketball coach Steve Lutz, a move that was made official on Monday. Gundy said he hadn’t yet talked with Lutz but said he planned on calling him Tuesday night.

“I don’t know anything about him,” Gundy said. “It looks like to me Chad was very diligent in the way he handled it and got what he felt like he needed to be the best fit for us at Oklahoma State.

“This is a different place to coach, in my opinion, based on geographical location, the history of the school, the type of people that are in this environment and the ability to have long-term success.”