First Gundy Show Reveals Some More of the Head Coach's Thoughts
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy had his first coach’s show of the season on Monday night. The voice of the Cowboys, Dave Hunziker and Gundy had a packed live audience at the new location for the Mike Gundy Show as The Legacy Village Senior Living complex. That will be the home for the show all season and Gundy really seemed to like the surroundings and the live audience. Like his football team, he was dealing with mature Cowboy football fans.
Hunziker and Gundy zeroed in early in the show on fall camp. We’ve reported several times that it was intense. It reminded me of fall camps early in Gundy’s tenure. Most recently,which really isn’t recent at all, it remended me of 2011 when Gundy had a veteran team and an older quarterback. It also reminded me of 2013 and 2014 when his team opened in Houston with Mississippi State (21-3 win) and then in Arlington with defending national champion Florida State and Heisman winner and Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston (31-37 loss)
“I told them early that I was going to try to break them. I was going to see how much they could take,” Gundy said on the Cowboy Network of the fall camp that he put his team through. “We pushed them really hard and they responded in the right way the way they’ve practiced for a month.”
Gundy explained that he knew the schedule was going to be difficult. There are two bye weekends in this season, but Oklahoma State doesn’t get one until Oct. 12 after they play South Dakota State, Arkansas, at Tulsa, Utah, at Kansas State, and West Virginia. The first three games kick off at 1 p.m., 11 a.m, and 11 a.m.
“Your body can withstand an enormous amount of pain but you can lose it mentally and then you can’t push through it,” Gundy explained to Hunziker and the audience. “We pushed them really hard mentally and got them to the point they thought they were tired. I would run them some and prove to them it was going to be okay. It will be that way this season. It is a very competitive schedule. Our non conference is very, very competitve, so we’re going to be in games where later in the game the mental toughness will determine who wins the game. I think we’re in good shape, but we’ll know more Saturday afternoon. I feel good at this point.”
While camp was hard the work was in some ways remedial. There were plays and schemes, but the focus and the bulk of the physical work was to get better at blocking and tackling.
“There’s been so many changes with the technical side of football,” Gundy started. Coaches have been coaching too many things. They haven’t pushed blocking and tackling as much. I feel like we’re pretty good in those two areas. We’ve talked about it, coached it, and made it a priority. That is the way it is with everything in life, including football. I feel like we are better in those two areas.”
Another thing Gundy enphasized that I don’t fans and recruits and their families can hear too many times. Gundy calls his program a “life factory” and not a “football factory”. He believes that is better for the players, but also better for the program itself. It is part of the culture Gundy wants the program to maintain.