Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s OSU Media Day News Conference

STILLWATER — Mike Gundy on Saturday met with the reporters for the second time in a handful of days.

Oklahoma State held its media day Saturday, where Gundy spoke for about 30 minutes. Perhaps the most headline-grabbing stuff Gundy talked about was quarterbacks (which you can read here), but here are his top five quotes outside of those, with a video of his whole news conference posted below.

1. Accepting His Astrology Flowers

Mike Gundy likened himself to 16th century French astrologer Nostradamus on Wednesday. When he was asked who would join the league after Colorado, he said he should write it down, stick it on the wall and that “when the next group comes, you guys will be excited.”

Well, to my knowledge, it wasn’t written down and put on a wall in the Sherman E. Smith Training Center, but Gundy’s foreshadowing proved fruitful when Arizona, Arizona State and Utah officially joined the Big 12 on Friday night.

“I was trying to get a Nostradamus hat, but I couldn’t get it in,” Gundy said. “I was within a week. I was close, wasn’t I? … When it came across, the first thing that hit your mind was, ‘He was right, it was almost exactly one week.'”

What does Gundy think about the newcomers?

“I think it’s all good,” Gundy said. “There’s security in numbers. I’m sure that Chad (Weiberg), he knows a lot more about it than I do — other than when it was gonna happen. The numbers is strength. How they’re gonna break it up, who’s gonna play who, I think that’s the challenge, but that’s a good challenge to have when you look back at where we were a year and a half ago.

“I mean, all of this is somewhat unsettling, right? There’s a lot of history and a lot of tradition that’s being crumbled, but it is what it is. So now you just move forward and try to make the best out of it.”

2. Nostradamus’ Next Reading

Alright, so what will his next prediction be?

Well, Gundy got into some interesting waters when he was discussing the future of scheduling. With the Power Five likely turning into a Power Four, Gundy said the power conferences playing the same amount of conference games could go a long way in helping pick playoff teams. But, it sounds a little tricky to get all of that on the same page.

“If you could get a bipartisan agreement amongst the conferences, which now would be — no disrespect — the Big 12, the Big Ten, ACC and the SEC, right?” Gundy said. “If they could get a bipartisan agreement that we’re gonna play 10 conference games, we all are, it would benefit everybody. Because then you wouldn’t have some teams playing eight, some playing nine.

“… So that’s something we should do, and here’s why I think that should happen: one, because it’s gonna make more money because people are gonna want to come to the games. They’re gonna wanna show up to watch those games. Two, TV wants that. They want to show games people want to turn the TV on to get their viewership ratings up. Then we would have parity amongst the conferences when we decide who makes the playoffs.”

But he also went further into uncharted waters. What if college football turns more into an NFL system with regional divisions feeding a larger playoff? Gundy said he would guess that would include more than 35 teams, but that would be something TV would have to figure out. He gave an over-under on 3.5 years that happens.

“This conference realignment is going to settle for a while, but it could move again,” Gundy said. “And it could move to an NFL system real fast because we can run into some complications with travel — financial and student-athletes maybe not wanting to do so much traveling. So, we could get into more of an NFL concept with local divisions, somehow. Could happen real fast.”

3. An Example of Bowman’s Maturity

Entering his sixth year in college football on his third different team, Alan Bowman has been around the block once or twice.

The favorite to start Oklahoma State’s season at quarterback, Bowman is old for a college football player. Here is a funny story from Gundy describing that.

“I was in the weight room a few mornings ago, and he comes in and he’s got his hair all, I don’t know, he combs his hair, it’s kinda wet, back, it’s all fixed good, and he had a backpack,” Gundy said. “He kind of looked like Opie on his way to school, like real mature. He’s smiling and high-fiving people like he does.

“Some of the other guys that are in their first or second year, they’re showing up and their hair is all messed up. They just rolled out of bed. Breath stinks. They’re just trying to make it. He’s been up. I don’t know if he drinks coffee, but he might have already drank coffee. He’s got a little different approach being older.”

4. Are the Cowboys Close to Being a Blueblood?

Whenever Gundy’s time as OSU’s coach is all said and done, his “We’ve got a logo, too” speech after beating Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl will be one of his all-time moments.

The speech empowered a program that has worked hard to climb up the rungs of the college football ladder. It starts with winning. Despite a down 2022, the Cowboys have averaged 9.2 wins a season since 2010. That has led to the fanbase for the program growing, selling out suites. Gundy said they are also close to selling out season tickets.

“I think what’s interesting with that is once all the realignment started, we were always in demand,” Gundy said. “So whether that makes us a blueblood or not, I don’t know.

“… There’s a business side to being a blueblood also. I’m not gonna name any names, but we could come up with four or five teams across the country over the last six or eight years that didn’t play up to what they’re supposed to based on who they are, but they still generated a ton of money. So, they’re still in that category. I think we’re slowly but surely working our way up here with the direction we’re going.”

5. Team Leaders

If you haven’t consumed a lick of Oklahoma State football content since last season, you might not know that Oklahoma State’s roster is quite different than it was in 2022.

That turnover leads in leadership voids needing to be filled. Here are some of the guys Gundy said have stood out there thus far.

“I think Nick Martin is trying to play that role,” Gundy said. “(Xavier) Benson is trying to play that role. We were kinda familiar with Preston (Wilson). (Jaden) Bray is trying to play that role, watching him practice. [Jaden Nixon] doesn’t say as much. (Kody) Walterscheid is trying to play that role. So we’ve got some guys that are trying step up and keep things together. We’ll know a lot more in two weeks when they’ve been out there for 15 practices and they’re tired and all that. That will be the real telltale sign.”