What Mike Gundy Said Monday at His Week 7 Radio Show

Mike Gundy held his weekly radio show on Monday with the great Dave Hunziker from Rib Crib as they looked ahead to OSU’s Week 7 matchup vs. Texas in Austin on Saturday and assessed where the Cowboys are coming off the bye week. Here is what Gundy had to say.

• “We had a good week as a group, and it was good for the coaches and myself. The guys were focused and practiced well. We gave them a chance to go home Thursday, Friday, Saturday, come back Sunday, got a lift in and we practiced about an hour. … They were excited to be back, and I feel like they had a good break. The staff seems to be in good spirits … then [Monday] we were able to finalize the gameplan after watching the OU-Texas game on tape and compare notes to what we thought we saw a week ago.”

• “We went through a few weeks where we were in dire straits at the wide receiver position.”

• “Confidence is very powerful in everything we do in life. Confidence is valuable. My job is to continue to make our players feel and think they are better than they are, somehow. Doesn’t make a difference how you do it. Most young people will play better than they’re supposed to because someone’s convinced them they’re better than they really are because they feel good about themselves.”

•  “If all the games were determined by who Vegas thinks is the best team then it wouldn’t be any fun.”

• “There’s so much talk about [playoff expansion]. We have to be careful about it, what’s driving it is money because TV money they can make off the extra games. But we don’t want to harm the system that’s been overwhelmingly popular in this country: college football and bowls and a four-team playoff. That’s what I’m a little leery of. College football is not broke — so you gotta be careful about trying to fix it. In most cases there’s an argument for a fifth team, very seldom there’s an argument for a sixth team, so they are pretty close with four. If you look at what’s going on right now, you couldn’t really say who those four are and lock it down.”

• After Hunziker mentions the potential concern of west coast football, Gundy says: “That’s going to be your conference realignment again in 2024. That’s what is going to happen again in my opinion. They’re going to realign again. They’ve got to get some central time zone teams [in the Pac-12] in my opinion in order to keep the level of a power-something conference to continue to put forth TV money. The central time zone teams that were discussed the last couple months, this whole thing could realign in three, four years, don’t kid yourself. I think we could see someone in this time zone trying to go back and forth to put it all together. I’m just telling ya at some point they’ll have to see it that way.”

•  On Jayden Jernigan: “It’s really awesome. We went into camp and he was doing OK, then he got hurt. I started to worry about him. … Since then he’s been rolling. He’s lost some weight. He’s learned to play to his skill level. He’s not going to bull rush you, so he’s using his lateral movement to get around guys, learning to take advantage of his skill set.”

• “They’re going after Jarrick Bernard-Converse. I’m a little surprised.”

• “By moving the numbers over to defense and giving us an extra secondary player and giving us three more big guys, it has helped our football team. They’re all fresh. Knock on wood. I think [Tyren] Irby is getting healthy. Brock is trying to play. We made the right move by moving the scholarships over to defense. We have depth.”

• “Texas is very athletic like always. They’re big up front, can move. Running back is a really good player. Have speed at the receiver spot. I’m really happy for Casey Thompson, their quarterback. Gone down there and been in a role that he hasn’t been able to get on the field. And got his chance and played really well. Happy for him and his family. Athletic, throwing it well.”

• “Texas is a talented team. I like our plans in all three phases, like our maturity, chemistry. I know we’ll be excited to play. We need a really good week of practice. Got to keep them focused and be disciplined.”