Punt Block Got Under Gundy's Skin, Fix It, Move on to Bedlam with a Jab at Finebaum
STILLWATER – You want to know what gets Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy sideways, it’s really obvious after the pre-Bedlam news conference and it was even obvious during the postgame conference on Saturday after the Iowa State win. Gundy was late to his Monday session with the media and the blame went among other things on that blocked punt that led to Iowa State’s first touchdown in the second quarter on Saturday.
“I’m getting overloaded. Honestly, a blocked punt eats up my time,” Gundy said with almost a distaste in his mouth. “Poor coaching, awful coaching. That backs me up.”
As you would expect Gundy was asked about Oklahoma and he was honest.
“You know, I just watched the first half of one game,” he said having been watching Oklahoma vs. TCU before coming up to the press box to meet the media. “I’ve been doing other stuff. Normally I’ve watched several games by now, and I have not watched. I’m through one half of the first game. I haven’t got there. I apologize. I just had other stuff going on.
Before the armchair head coaches start weighing in and the criticism avalanche dumps on Gundy and the West End Zone, the analysts like former Oklahoma head coach Gary Gibbs, longtime college assistant and defensive coordinator Chris Thurman, longtime assistant coach and former OSU defensive coordinator Bill Clay, offensive analyst Timothy Sanders, and defensive analyst Bradly Thomas have watched the Sooners for a week and have briefed the coaching staff and the preparation for the Oklahoma game plan is in high gear. Gundy will catch up Monday afternoon and be ready for staff meetings to go over the plans. He also noted he watched some of the Kansas State at OU game during the open week.
He will also make sure there won’t be a blocked punt in Norman, at least it won’t be because of scheme or coaching plan. That one last Saturday stuck in his craw good.
“The plan we had for that particular side and part of the game was not good. And I’m involved in it. So, I’m putting it as bad football on my fault. The punt block was on me, bad football. We’ve had a little bit of musical chairs up front from where we started the first four games of the year based on that, but that’s not an excuse for what happened. That’s just bad football on my part. That’s bad coaching. And those things keep me up at night. Y’all know me, you can kick my butt, you beat me, I’m okay. I’ll fight you again tomorrow. But when we coach bad, I don’t like that. So, the punt block was poor coaching on my part, and the guys that helped me in that unit, there’s three or four coaches that helped me, they should have told me that’s poor coaching. We should have fixed it. But the players didn’t fail on the punt block, the scheme failed.”
Gundy was asked later in the news conference about Spencer Sanders’ comment to the media on Saturday night after the game.
“I’m playing next week. That ain’t no question,” Sanders told the media. “You can count me in.”
Sanders made it clear who will start at quarterback in Bedlam and Gundy wasn’t about to doubt his star quarterback. It sounded like the head coach was all in on the decision and giving Sanders credit for it. Saturday he almost allowed for Sanders calling his own plays, he knows the offense that well. Monday, he was saying Sanders has the call on whether he plays or not and he was glad to hear he’s playing.
"Well, I didn't know he said that, but that's awesome that he feels better. I hope that that's his decision and that's the way he feels. We're going to have to treat him the same way we've been treating him over the last five weeks. That's good news though if he feels like that so we can get him in there and let him play. But yes, I mean, he’s the one making the decisions on whether he’s playing or not.”
Late in the news conference I asked Gundy if he was surprised that his 7-3 team tied for third in the Big 12 playing a 5-5/2-5 Oklahoma team would get national television primetime on ABC. Gundy said he wasn’t and then took a dig at the mouthpiece of the SEC.
“I think they’re all trying to make [Paul] Finebaum look stupid when he said nobody cares about Bedlam, when he didn’t do his homework that (Bedlam) had way more viewers last year than any of those games over there,” Gundy said of Bedlam last season. “I’m good with it. We’re gonna work our schedule based on what it is. It means we got to find something to do during the day for four hours at the hotel. Get to watch a little bit of football.”
Then be one of the most watched games of the day that night.