The Top Five Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Post-West Virginia News Conference

Mike Gundy’s 400th game as a Cowboy resulted in a resounding road win.

Oklahoma State beat West Virginia 48-34 on Saturday in Morgantown. Here are five of Gundy’s best quotes from his postgame news conference.

What He Tells Ollie

Ollie Gordon is in the midst of one of the greatest stretches for an OSU running back in program history — a history that includes a lot of good running backs.

Gordon ran for 282 yards and four touchdowns in the Cowboys’ win. What does Gundy tell his sophomore superstar who has ran for 707 yards in Big 12 play? Stay hungry, stay humble.

“I haven’t talked to him yet, but my message now would be stay humble,” Gundy said. “He’s been hungry for a month and a half, and he’s playing good. I was concerned about it last week, I said, ‘Ollie, you need to stay humble. You’re only as good as tomorrow. You’re only as good as your next practice. You’re only as good as your next game. Cincinnati could care less what you did.’ And last week I said the same thing, I think: ‘West Virginia could care less what you did.’

“He needs to stay humble. Stay hungry. If he does that, he’ll be fine. As soon as he starts thinking that he’s arrived, it’s just kinda karma, man. It just doesn’t work out well — that’s just my opinion. So that would be the message is to stay humble and stay hungry.”

Cowboys Leaned on Ollie in Fourth Quarter

Ollie Gordon took over the entire game, but he particularly took over the fourth quarter.

He ran for 149 yards and three touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone. Seeing what his star running back was doing, Gundy’s message over the headset seemed fairly simple.

“When that started happening, end of the third quarter, fourth quarter — I’m not the smartest coach in the world, but I said, ‘Guys, we gotta lean on Ollie,'” Gundy said. “‘We gotta make them stop Ollie. We gotta pound him.'”

Nardo Made A Good Call on Fourth Down

Down a touchdown, West Virginia had a 4th-and-2 on the 50-yard line with less than five minutes to play.

West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene ran to his left on the play, but Kendal Daniels was there to corral him for a 4-yard loss. Greene showed his speed throughout the day, finishing as WVU’s leading rusher with 117 yards, but on that fourth-down play, the Cowboys had their best safety track him down.

Teams are now 3-for-14 on fourth down against OSU this season.

“Bryan and them made a good call,” Gundy said. “They had a defense called where they could penetrate inside and force the quarterback to keep the ball and then put Kendal on the quarterback. And obviously he ran and made a really good play.

“They were 0-for-2 [on fourth down] — the midfield then the end of the game. So knock on wood, we’ve been very good on fourth downs this year. But we put Kendal on the quarterback.”

WVU Muff Gave OSU Life

This game featured dueling muffed punts, but the Mountaineers’ muff proved more costly.

With OSU down 24-20, a Mountaineer would-be blocker put the hit stick on the would-be return man, and the Cowboys got the ball back and scored and took the lead a few plays later.

OSU scored 28 points after that play.

“It really gave us life on the road,” Gundy said. “They had stopped us. Momentum, crowd was on their side. We were skateboarding up hill a little bit. Then when they dropped it, it gave us life.”

Young Defensive Backs Will ‘Learn on the Run’

It was another game where OSU’s defense had good and bad moments.

The Cowboys came up big with fourth-down stops, but the Mountaineers were 8-for-15 on third down. The Cowboys also gave up some more big touchdowns — a 45-yarder and a 32-yarder.

But the Cowboys knuckled down late. Gundy said it’s a matter of his young secondary learning on the run.

“Defense played good on first down, just gotta get off the field on third down,” Gundy said. “The one they threw on Cam Epps, over his head, that was in Cover 2 — he’s a Cover 2 safety. He could’ve been all the way in North Carolina, for all I care. He should’ve never got run by. Nardo had a great call, we just didn’t play it right.

“And again, they’re freshmen, when you’re playing with freshmen, they’re gonna make some mistakes. Unfortunately, [Cam Smith], [D.J. McKinney], [Epps] and [Dylan Smith] are gonna learn on the run.”