For those interested, here's some of what Oklahoma State Mike Gundy said this week at his press conference:
- Coach Gundy told the media he can see this game being a 100-snap game for both teams with how fast they both play. However, he's okay with it because of their depth especially upfront on the defensive line. He said they don't have anyone really surpassing 42-43 snaps a game in the trenches on defense, "which is really good." He said it'll be a different challenge and different look for his defense. They'll focus on defending the pass game and covering the flats.
- Gundy doesn't know much about Joey McGuire other than when he would recruit Cedar Hill guys back in the day. He hasn't interacted with him much at all since. He said they base their game plan on film and studying the opponent. It's no different in approach with a first-year coach at any program including McGuire. He mentioned Joey liking to go for it on fourth down but doesn't know or have a feel for much.
- Gundy said there's advantages to having a guy like Joey with a ton of high school coaching experience. He mentioned the ability to recruit and communicate with other high school coaches. He said managing a larger-scale program and the other side of recruiting is different but at the end of the day football is football.
- Interesting comment from Gundy. He was talking about learning from his former coaches and coordinators and taking away things to build his own legacy. He mentioned one disadvantage to his career so far is staying at one place for so long. He said he sometimes wishes he could've had that experience seeing another spot but "you can't have both."
- QB Spencer Sanders was well protected a week ago. Gundy said his o-line was better last week than the Big 12 championship game a year ago. They didn't want that to repeat. Gundy said he used to live in the world of heavy packages. One or two yards were nothing for Gundy. Now, they live in shotgun. They're working on getting to those roots of getting under center for short-yardage situations but that just takes practice and experience.
- Gundy said they tried using analytics one year. They bought the book, materials, etc. He said 75% or more of the time though his brain didn't agree with the book. He said for some reason, matchups, flow of the game, etc., made him go with his brain/gut decision. They haven't used analytics since when determining outcomes.
- Gundy said he doesn't know if he was ready to see Texas Tech's defensive pressure on film. He was asked specifically about Tyree Wilson on the edge. Tech got pressure on K-State and Texas. He said Tech will be aggressive and do a lot of different things to bring pressure. Last week, they didn't see a lot of blitzing at all. This week will be different.
- Gundy called Tim DeRuyter a smart football coach that does a lot of things. DeRuyter will throw a variety at them in term of blitzing. His philosophy will be the opposite of what they saw against coach Aranda and Baylor.
You can watch the rest of the 41-minute long interview below:
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