STILLWATER – Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy met with the media ahead of practice Saturday morning.
You can watch his full media availability in the video player above at the top of the article.
We’re just a little more than two weeks away from the start of the season, so the intensity and preparation for the season is certainly starting to pick up.
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"Yeah, once they get into practice three, four, five, they train all summer, but the heat wears on them. Now they're carrying pads, the physical contact, getting up at 6 in the morning, staying here until 7:30 at night, just the long wear and tear. We do as much as we can to prepare them for that, but it's not the same. They're just going through a normal protocol for lack of a better term for what it would be for preparation for this season."
With that intensity starting to ramp up, especially now that they’re in full pads, the threat of injury is always looming.
“I've done this a long time now, so that's one thing that I've got a pretty good feel for,” Gundy said. “I watch most practices from up top. I look for different things that give me an indication for where we're at physically from a fatigue standpoint, if they need time off, if we need to push them harder. That's something you just learn over a period of time – for me; I can only speak for myself. I can watch the group and I get a pretty good feel for where we're at. But as I've said before, that's the most challenging part of coaching, in my opinion, is to put them in a position where they can play fast and they're in good condition and be physical but not do so much that it sets them back. So, hopefully between myself and coach [Rob] Glass and the science with all the technology we have in their shoulder pads and such where we can track their bodies, hopefully it's working for our team now."
