STILLWATER – The first 10 minutes or so it seemed in the head coach’s weekly news conference was all about how Mike Gundy dealt with the 48-0 loss to Kansas State on Saturday. Then after Gundy and how his players and coaches dealt with the absolutely surprising, stunning loss. I came in with about the fourth or fifth of the questions. I was looking for how his players looked emotionally on Sunday when they reviewed the game on video and then went out to practice and deal with corrections from Saturday, a normally fun process after a win but rough after that debacle in Manhattan.
Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports
Saturday was a tough day at the office.
“You know, all these questions are good and they’re fair, but guys, I’ve been doing these 18 years,” Gundy started in after my question. “We’ve won as many games as anybody in college football over the last 10 or 12 years at a very, very high level. We didn’t play good. We didn’t coach good. And they played really well for what they were trying to accomplish. Chris (Klieman) is a good guy, the coach. And like he said after the game to me, he said, ‘I don’t know if we could have played a more perfect game against you all.’ And I said, ‘Well, you picked a shi##y day to do it.’”
Gundy then admitted that he didn’t answer my question. He came back around on it.
“I’m pretty honest with you guys about everything,” he said addressing the entire room in the press box. “They physically whipped us, and they outcoached us, and they had better plans than we did. And I didn’t do a good job of preparing us. Now, that doesn’t answer your question. What your question is ... They’re fine. They’re kids,” Gundy said turning it to my query. “They’re fine. Are they as excited as they were after we played Texas? No. But that’s life. That’s what we do, right?”
He admitted the coaches are sometimes a bigger issue than the players.
“The coaches are a bigger problem than the players because there’s more of an emotional strain on them,” Gundy said. “It’s their life, it’s there every day, it’s their kids, more so than the players. They kind of get through stuff quicker based on the way the world is.”
Okay, nothing went well. Offense, defense, and special teams. There is plenty to discuss and get better than. However, one major obstacle for this team, an area that has been a major plus for most Oklahoma State teams dating back to Bob Fenimore and going right through Walt Garrison, Terry Miller, Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders, Kendall Hunter, and Jaylen Warren has been running the football. This team has struggled with running the ball. The Cowboys are averaging just 3.7-yards per rush this season. It has been consistently inconsistent.
Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports
Running was tough to do on Saturday at K-State.
What do you do? You have to get better at running the football. How do you do it?
“We can’t change what we do,” Gundy answered. “We’re gonna run the plays we run. In midstream, you don’t change who you are and what you do. One of the issues, I was just talking about, was when you fall behind by multiple scores like that, you almost become one-dimensional, so it’s even more difficult. Sometimes people would say, ‘Well, it’s easier to run the ball if you’re that far behind because they think you’re gonna throw it.’ Not always because you’re getting a lot of different junk up front. And that’s stuff that you don’t practice a lot.”
He’s right. K-State never swayed on Saturday from stopping the run even with the rush three and drop eight philosophy they employ. The Cowboys were without Dominic Richardson because of injury. Ollie Gordon to be truthful was also struggling with an injury. Jaden Nixon started but he was banged up. We finally saw some significant snaps from Texas A&M transfer Deondre Jackson.
“He ran the ball well … played hard, (he) competed,” Gundy said being enthusiastic
I injected that Jackson struggled some (or it seemed) with pass protection.
“It was OK,” Gundy said. “It was certainly something that we can work with, but he’s a guy that we were excited about what he brought to the table in that game.”
Pat Kinnison - Chief Photographer
Dominic Richardson was out with injury but could be back this week vs. Kansas.
He rushed for 20-yards on six carries and his longest was five. He caught a screen pass and took that 10-yards. This week maybe Richardson gets back. Hopefully, Nixon and Gordon are full speed and maybe Jackson comes on some more and helps. You need something to happen because the Cowboys need to run the ball better to fix what is ailing this offense some.
No new plays. No new players. Doing what you do, with who you do it, and doing it better.
