Gundy Confident In Defense, Sanders’ Competitiveness Heading Into Top 25 Matchup

The Cowboys welcome Baylor to Stillwater for a top 25 matchup Saturday night, both teams unbeaten.

For OSU, there’s momentum in a lot of areas.

Defense has led the way for OSU. Linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez is the Big 12 defensive player of the week for a second time this season, after seven tackles and a fumble recovery for a touchdown in the win over Kansas State.

"My buddies text me after the game and one of them is, ‘I've not seen a defense like this one in Stillwater since I've been coming to games,’” head coach Mike Gundy said. “I mean, I don't think back that far, I don't know. I just know that, to a certain extent, the game is kind of revolving back to where it used to be - you have to be able to rush the ball and play defense."

While quarterbacks take more than their share of the blame when things go poorly and probably get too much credit when things go well, Gundy has been very happy this season with Spencer Sanders.

"I've never heard him say a bad word about anybody on our team. I never heard him complain about not having healthy linemen last year, I didn't hear him complain this year about not having healthy receivers,” Gundy said. “He plays competitively, he plays full speed. you have to be willing to accept certain things in a game with him because you're going to get the other."