Gundy Confirms Cowboy Football Closer To Normal, Dunn Says It Feels Good

STILLWATER – As Pokes Report reported through the offseason and winter conditioning for Cowboy football, we explained that the workout were “old school” and that we were seeing a throwback to past years and the way head coach Mike Gundy conducted the program. Assistant athletic director for athletic performance Rob Glass hinted at the same thing expressing a desire for those old school values of discipline and toughness to be heavily included in what went on in the weight room, in the Sherman Smith Training Center, and on early Friday mornings when stadium steps returned to the conditioning repertoire.

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Offseason training was the start of the return of “old school,”

As spring football practice began for the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon inside the Sherman Smith Training Center that could not fend off all of the wind Mother Nature was tossing around Payne County, practice looked more like it did back in spring of 2019 and in past seasons under Gundy.

“Well, it is much different now in a lot of areas based on COVID. That was such a distraction in so many ways,” Gundy said of the difference in this spring and the start of spring football and last year when spring football and nearly everything else abruptly ended. “We have a very regimented schedule of what we do here, and we function on punctuality and we do things daily the same way. We couldn’t do that a year ago. That’s what’s different now.”

Gundy, who was criticized for some of his opinions last spring when he spoke of bringing the student-athletes back to campus and keeping them in groups to protect from the pandemic, ended up being right and his team at Oklahoma State never missed a game and had relatively few players miss games because of COVID restrictions. The Cowboys were disciplined in their protocols and Gundy credited his team for doing the right things throughout the season.

He mentioned that the team still tests once a week through the offseason and spring to fend off an outbreak. They have had few problems and he is encouraging his players to get the vaccine as it is being offered on the campus.

“People are back in the normal flow. Most of our team has been vaccinated, so they can migrate out of the testing procedures which was very annoying for the players. You had to do it, but it was still kind of a nuisance to them,” Gundy said. “I’m thinking in a month to six weeks thing will start moving to being real normal around here, but it’s a lot different than it was last year and that’s helped with everybody’s attitude.”

The practice went well, albeit it was in shorts and helmets, but the players seemed to enjoy themselves being back out there. The Cowboys fought through the pandemic and a lot of injuries, including multiple on the offensive line, to go 8-3 with a bowl win over Miami, (Fla.).

Gundy is happy to because there are 112-players out there for spring thanks to incoming freshmen reporting early, some transfers added, and the super seniors that returned because the NCAA froze the eligibility on players last season.

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Kasey Dunn was happy with practice.

“Life is good, and it has been a long time since we’ve had long practices like that around here,” offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn said with a big smile on his face. “(We) didn’t have practice in the spring last year and modified over the summer in 2020. Then even during the season the practices were modified day to day, battling through the COVID and the restrictions there. It was fun to get the guys back at it today, running around and having some fun.”

There are 14 more opportunities for fun. They should have even more when the pads go on. Shoulder pads will be added on Tuesday, March 23 for the next practice. The spring game will be Saturday, April 24 at noon.