Team Now Has to Move Forward, It Starts Sunday
STILLWATER – As I write this the Oklahoma State football team is trudging into the West End Zone at Boone Pickens Stadium. Unlike a lot of college teams, the Cowboys come together and practice on Sunday. Head coach Mike Gundy, the coaching staff, the training staff and head trainer Scott Parker, and the strength and conditioning staff headed by Rob Glass want to see the players in person on Sunday. This is more of an NFL-type work schedule. NFL teams report for meetings, video review, conditioning, medical check-in, and a light practice on the day after a game. The next day is the day off. In the NFL most teams are off on Tuesdays after a Sunday game. Oklahoma State has Mondays as their off day.
This is the first Sunday where the Cowboys have reported after a loss. The 24-21 verdict in favor of Iowa State is still very fresh for you, me, and believe me for all of those players. However, in his final comments to the media that were echoed on the postgame radio interview, head coach Mike Gundy said he was not worried about this loss leading to another. In fact, he saw all the signs he wanted to in the moments after that hard fought loss that the Cowboys would come back with resolve starting this week with the homecoming game against Kansas.
"I’m not concerned about them. We also have a number of guys that have been in this situation before,” Gundy said. “The locker room is exactly the way it should be. I had to get them going a little bit, get them up and around, because they were sitting there, and they hurt. That’s the feeling you get in college football. You put a lot into it and when you come up a little short you should feel that way. If you don’t, then we have other issues. I’ve told them the same thing I tell them every Saturday, whether it’s a celebration or it’s a tough loss like this, we have to come to work tomorrow and we have to start preparing for the next game. I would fully expect the staff and the team to come back to work tomorrow.”
That is ready to watch the video, see and then work on the corrections, and then begin preparing for Kansas.
"I told them the coaches have to be very critical of themselves and look at where we made errors, scheme-wise, and play call-wise,” continued Gundy. “Players have to do the same thing where they made mistakes. Then we have to correct those mistakes and move forward. Otherwise, we’re not very smart coaches and we’re not very smart players, and that makes us not a smart team. The principle and the culture and the discipline we live by, and the focus, is to see what you did wrong, all of us, including me, correct it, and how can we make it better and go back to work tomorrow night.”
The coordinators also spoke to the media after the game and their comments were along the same lines. It’s hard to complain much about the defensive effort as the Cowboys stoppers only allowed 24 points. They were especially stingy the first half allowing just seven points and 112-yards.
"Hard fought game, proud of the guys, I thought we did a great job with the running game,” defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “(The) quarterback got loose a little bit and he's a playmaker when he gets loose. We lost some one-on-one matchups, which hadn't really happened this year. We fought hard, it was a tough battle, and they made one more (play). Hats off to them, they made one more play than we did, but I'm proud of the guys. We'll be back."
Knowles lamented that the second half the defense was not able to pressure Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy as much. Purdy got into a better rhythm and had more success. Running back Breece Hall broke off one big run early in the third quarter, but that was not where the damage was done. It was done with Purdy and his receivers, mainly Xavier Hutchinson.
"Well, he's just great, great at the RPO game,” Knowles stated of Purdy. (He’ll) draw you into the run, throw it over your head. He's great at improvising, and we didn't get him into third-and-long enough. When he's got free range, run-pass options, he's tough."
Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn talked about the sick feeling in his gut that he had not experienced in a very long time. He said that was actually a good thing, that it had been a long time. He complimented Brennan Presly and said they need to get the slot receiver the ball more. He was complimentary of quarterback Spencer Sanders, but said he needed to look at video.
He explained why they went with the quick pass on that fourth and short on the final drive with the football as they tried to go down and either tie or win the game.
"They did a good job of swarming to the ball, that's what they do,” Dunn said. “It goes back again to where we were on third down and some of those short-yardage situations, we didn't hit it. On fourth-and-2, I don't necessarily know if any of us wanted to tee it up and go toe-to-toe and run the football right there. None of us really did, so we thought that Brennan (Presley) had had a good day. One thing for sure, Spencer (Sanders) was going to get that rock out of his hand fast, and like I said, we were just short. I thought we could get three yards on the play, and we were inches short."
It was that kind of day, inches short. One tremendous game, but for the team inches short it is one frustrating and emotional loss. Sunday is for corrections and time to move past the hurt and frustration and on toward Homecoming.