'My commitment to Oklahoma State football is stronger every year': OSU Head Coach Mike Gundy meets with media

Oklahoma State football head coach Mike Gundy met with the media on Thursday afternoon. It was his first time talking to the media since the loss at Colorado.

Here are some of their comments:

Head Coach Mike Gundy

 Opening statement:

“We’ve been in a whirlwind for the last seven weeks. I’m sure you guys know. You’ve been following us with recruiting and new staff and getting everybody organized. It’s been about as busy a seven weeks as I’ve had probably in my life, much less my career in coaching. To a certain extent it’s been fun. It’s been interesting. We went through a period of, I think the number was 44 visits in 17 days, with players coming in and out. We were able to gather what are our 32 new players, I believe, that are on our roster now. When we get started in June that number could go to 45 real quick, so essentially a third of your roster as you guys know from following. Getting to know the staff and the staff getting to know the players. The players getting to know each other and the system and so on and so forth and getting adjusted to the culture. It’s been a learning process but it’s been good. We’re starting to get our bearings a little bit with coaches and them all getting moved into this part of the country. Players are getting adjusted a little bit. They’re in, I guess now, going into the third week of preparation and getting ready for spring ball. Now we’re back on the recruiting trail. Not that that’s ever changed, but back on what would be the typical recruiting trail for high school players. That’s started now as well as the portal that’s still going on, or what’s left of the portal. We’re working hard every day and moving forward it gets a little bit easier. Every day we get a chance to meet with the players and get to know each other. We’re excited about what would be spring ball which starts in about two months. We get a chance to get out there and kind of find out who we are and where we’re at, what hand we’ve been dealt. Then we’re going to have a spring finale on the 19th of April. Give us a chance to get out here in the stadium. It's the first chance we’ve had to get out in the stadium where we hadn’t had repairs going on. So we’ll get a chance to get out there on the 19th. It’s early in preparation, but we’re planning on having a 30-minute or so fan access before the practice and 30 minutes or so afterwards. Make it easier on the families if they get there early and want to get down and take some pictures with the players or sign some autographs, they can, and if they want to wait until afterwards. Moms that have little kids that are there before or after, or the kids don’t want to wait until afterwards, they can do it before. It’ll give the fans a chance to see some of the new players and give a chance to see some of the coaches on the field. We’ve got a lot of things scheduled. We are looking forward to it and, as I said, it’s an exciting time for everybody, particularly myself.”

On visiting with Dr. Kayse Shrum and Athletic Director Chad Weiberg:

“It gave me an opportunity to be a part of the future. You know times are changing. We all know that. So it really gave us a chance to visit and look to the future and what's best for our athletic department, and with me obviously, football. Once we accomplished that, and then went through the process of hiring coaches, new staff, trying to rebuild our roster … We had a very senior-dominated roster this year. We knew we were going to be in a rebuilding stage, numbers wise, based on the players we had this year. And so I think that the fans will be really excited about Oklahoma State football. My energy level, my commitment to Oklahoma State, to Oklahoma State football, is stronger every year. You know, I think at some point I always feel like I'll get tiresome and it kind of wears on me. I've said this a number of times, I still wake up in the middle of the night and football is on my mind. Unfortunately, at my age, when I have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, walking toward the bathroom and walking back from the bathroom, football is on my mind. I wish it wasn't, but it is. When I shower in the morning, football is on my mind. So my energy and passion for where we're at, and you guys have covered me specifically, you know, this press conference is not about me, this is about a team and our future here at Oklahoma State. But you guys know that the season that we had last year is not going to sit well with me. That’s just not going to be good, but I get it. We’re moving forward, sometimes that happens. You know, I've been fortunate enough to be the head coach here for a long time, and we had a season that we didn't like, but maybe sometimes that's going to happen. But my message to them, that was a long answer, is that there's a tremendous amount of commitment in our organization, and it starts at the very top. And the one thing that I tried to accomplish in putting a staff together was a group of guys that had energy, passion and could give us some diversity in dealing with players in the time of college football that we're dealing with now and move forward at a very fast pace. And I was very fortunate to come up with two big-time coordinators, in my opinion, and then let them do their jobs. Both of those guys had a big role in the staff that we hired on each side of the ball. They wanted to bring in coaches that were familiar with their terminology and their system and I agreed with that. So once I was able to accomplish those two hires, which the fans I’m sure would want to know, I allowed them to have a big input in ‘how do you want to fill out your staff on that side ball,’ because ultimately, these are the things that we and or I want to get accomplished on offense, we and or I want to get accomplished on defense, and then you take it and run with it, and I’ll follow your lead.” 

On recovering from the season:

“Yeah I’m going to be honest with you, Bill. I didn’t have to recover emotionally or psychologically. I’ve said this to you guys many times before. I get it. I’m here every day. I know what's going on so when we we’re going through a difficult stretch in that process, I guess maybe what you're referring to is going on with me every day. And so I don't get to a point where I feel like I really need to recover because I can dive deep into work and what I think is best, and I have a tremendous amount of confidence in our, and of my, ability to take care of business and so it doesn't really affect me in that way.”

On if he likes how new staff positions have helped build the program:

“In my opinion, and this is the learning process, and I think it is for everybody in the country, I would challenge and be willing to listen to anybody that thinks they have this figured out at this point and what's best. But we have a number of people that have worked at this every day, and you know you had mentioned Kenyatta. Kenyatta’ job is 100 times more difficult than we thought it was six months ago based on the way this is panning out, and Todd Bradford in the scouting department, and what he's doing in his office is 100 times more than what we thought it would be six months ago, just in the way that this process has developed over the last few months. All of us knew this about college football, and we can talk about NIL. We can talk about the portal all we want. There's not really any given direction or parameters at this time. So we're learning on the run, and we have a business department that we’ve talked about that we brought Kenyatta in, and he works with the directors that we have upstairs. He works with Todd, he works with Rod, he works with Danielle, he works with Rob Glass and that's really the board and the decisions that we have to make moving forward. So the one answer that I think is fair to give is that side of what we do now is magnified way more than we ever thought it would be, and that's based on the young men that we're dealing with now all have their own agents. So there's not much communication with recruit or portal recruit with coach. It's communication with agents very similar to what coaches across the country in sports have representatives to speak with presidents and athletic directors. They don't speak directly. Well, that has now taken place in our game.”

On program stability:

“The time I'm talking about waking up and thinking about things, that's one thing, because, in my opinion, over 19-20 years here we’ve developed into a big time college football organization based on continuity and development and Rob Glass and his plan, and bringing young men in and expecting them to play in year three, four and five. And to a certain extent, we could still have some of that, but it's not going to be as much. We're not so naive to think that that's going to be that way moving forward. So we have to deal with the hand that we're all being dealt in college football, and that essentially, free agency can happen at any time now. It used to be a portal window, now I guess there’s not a portal window. Our coaching staff, what I've asked those guys to do is to put their heads together in both rooms, and I’m excluding Sean (Snyder) and Joe (Foteh) and special teams. It’s not as big of an impact there as it is on offense and defense and the fact that they almost have to think a little bit like the NFL in a standpoint that if you were to pick a player up off waivers or off somebody's practice squad, and you have a game in eight days, you got to get him ready to play, or why would we pick him up? It’s a little bit like that now, in our opinion, not as much, because we still have more time, but as I said, we have 32 new players that are here currently, and we need to get them prepared that when we start spring football, they can go out and play and they can practice and give us an idea of what we have on both sides of the ball. Compared to in the past, that might be an 18-month process. Now it’s going to happen much quicker.” 

On hiring coordinators:

“People were knocking the door down to come here. The most difficult thing for me was to weed through it. A lot of them are my friends in the past and a lot of them are my friends who have friends of theirs that wanted these jobs. I haven't had to do much of that over my career. I've been very fortunate. … We had NFL guys, very recognizable college guys that wanted these jobs. So it was really easy for me to try to narrow it down to a certain number of guys and then make a decision. Then, from that point, as I said earlier, I allowed the coordinators to have a really big role in who they wanted on their staff.”

On finding Todd Grantham:

“I don't know how many people bring into this, but I also don't want to tell you something that's not true. I visited with some pretty prominent coaches and these guys have extensive backgrounds on the defensive side of the ball and so I asked them in particular, ‘who would you hire if you were looking to hire a defensive coordinator?’ I trust these guys, and particularly one that said, ‘if I was coaching, I would hire this guy to be my coordinator.’ That’s how it happened. I didn’t know Todd. I didn’t even know where he was. Then I started the process and got involved in communications and had a very extensive interview with him and so on and so forth, but that’s how it happened.”

 On what helped him make the decision to hire Todd Grantham:

“He came very highly recommended from people that I trust and understand defense. When I spent time with him he was very well organized, walked in. I mean, we had a four- or five-hour interview, I don’t know what it was. (He) laid everything out in front of me, had a plan for this. ‘This is what I want to do, this how I’m going to do it. These are guys I would like to hire, not saying it’s perfect, but this is what we want to do. This is how I want to do it.’ Just laid everything out. Essentially, when I walked away from the interview, he convinced me that what I needed was a head coach on defense and I was very upfront in communicating that to these guys and then Todd convinced me that he can be the head coach on defense and I can let him do his job, which is what I want to do.”

On having almost a whole new coaching staff:

"So the coordinators wanted to hire people that understood their system and that were comfortable with their language. So, I understand the question you're asking, it was more of that than it was me saying, ‘I don't want these guys.’ That's fairly common now, and so I felt the best move for us was to allow these guys to do their job, and they felt more comfortable in that area. So we have new systems on both sides of the ball and they speak that language, they understand the terminology, and it should reduce the amount of time that it takes for the staff to get on the same page, because I think the quicker they get on the same page, they'll be able to get the information to the players."

On if it’s concerning to not have continuity:

"No, not really … I didn't get into this part of it. This was the most difficult December in my career, because I don't like letting people go. I don't like affecting people's families, kids, lifestyle. I just don't like that, but in my situation, tough decisions have to be made. So, the continuity of college football players being in location for the duration is a factor. Then I think that allowing them to bring coaches in that understood their system will help with that continuity. So, what I'm saying is, so if we hire a coordinator, and then we go out and start trying to find five other guys to come in with him, then we automatically don't have any continuity. So, Coach Grantham had a number of guys that he wanted to bring with him, and so that continuity that you guys are referring to kind of already was ready defensively. Now Meach had guys that he wanted to bring, and it wasn't 100% a clean sweep, like it was defensively, but the majority of his staff are guys that he wanted in that room."

On his relationship with OSU’s President and Athletic Director:

“Dr Shrum, Chad and I had really positive conversations on revenue sharing, NIL, that it's a challenge for everybody in college football, in my opinion. And so the large majority of those conversations were, ‘what do we need to do moving forward?’ and I think it'd be fair in saying this. I think they understand. I mean football has to be successful for the athletic department to function, and so it's a very important discussion that took place and it also gave me a chance to give back to NIL. Because I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know how important in NIL is right now. Whether we like it or not, we need NIL funds, you know. We need fans. We need to sell tickets. We need the stadium to be full. All those things are very important."

On Doug Meacham:

"So with offense, it was different than defense, because defense is not my world. Offensively, I have a feel for what I think that we should be moving forward, but that's going to be dictated based on who your players are. What's the strength? Who can score points? How do you get them the ball? Doug is versed in a lot of things. He understands 10 personnel. He understands 11 personnel. He understands 12 personnel. He can fling it. He can spread it out. He could run it. He played offensive line … He's been around a lot of football. He understands a lot of different things. That's why I was really high on what he could bring to the table. He loves Oklahoma State. I trust him. I know his family, and he has a great relationship with high school coaches in the state of Texas. He is very outgoing, has magnetic personality that people like, and that is also important for us in our ability to recruit, because we're only as good as the players that are in our room. Coaches are coaches, but good players are going to help us become more successful coaches."

 On if he wants to get back to winning with dominant offensive lines:

"We would love to do that. OK, so when we were doing that, we had the ability to do that. The game was different then. We were set up in that way with the concept we were using. We had those type of linemen. We had those backs. Keith Toston and guys like that, that were built for that – Dez. It varies year to year, and the interesting thing moving forward, I think, for all of us in college football, is we could look drastically different year one versus year three from now, moving forward based on what's available and the number of players that we're able to keep in our system … The challenge now as a staff is, what can we do to make sure that we still have punctuality, attention to detail, discipline, accountability and structure in our system, but we also have a system in place that players want to stay here? Because I still believe that that will help create continuity and make you a better football team, even with the free agency that's involved today. That's a real challenge."

 On turning players away to meet the 105-player roster limit:

“As I said, it was the most difficult December for me ever for that reason. We had 142 players on the roster last year, and we can all do the math. At some point, which we don't even know now when, we have to be the 105. We don't know if it's June. We don't know if it's July. We're hearing that it doesn't have to be until the first game. So, we haven't really been told when that has to happen. Eventually it's going to, but we don't know when that's going to be. So we have tried to be as fair and as upfront as possible with all the young men in our organization, because they're important to us. Selfishly, the young men, some of them that we had to make cuts for lack of a better term, were important to me because they love Oklahoma State. They love Oklahoma State football and they just want to be a part of the team, and that side of it is eliminated. So we can discuss it and complain all we want, but I think that standard has been set, so all we can do now is move forward. Right now, we're at about 121 players that are going through offseason workouts, and at some point – June, July, or September – we will have to be at 105, and the final 15 decisions will be made sometime between now and when that happens, based on how competitive can we make our locker room. Because whether we like it or not, that's what's happened in college football. I can only speak for Oklahoma State, but if you look across the country, you guys follow this much closer than I do, it looks like everybody's trying to get their arms around as many people as they can to make their locker room more competitive, to find a way to win games this September. That's what's going on right now, and it's a very unusual situation, but we don't make the rules. We're only following what we've been told to."

On if he wants to settle position battles in the spring:

“I don't know that I've had enough time to even think about that. I don't even remember saying that at that time, but I've had good discussions with Meach and Todd both, and they're just trying to figure out what's going on. You know, I thought you guys might want to talk to talk to them today, so they're going to be in here in a little bit, but I don't want to speak for them, but they're probably going to tell you they don't know. They haven't seen these guys now. They've watched the video, but they haven't seen the practice. They don't know much about them. They just started working out a week ago, so there won't be a lot come out about that. That would be the plan, and then hopefully we can maintain the large majority of our roster through April to get to June workouts."

On quarterback transfer Hauss Hejny:

“Well, he falls in the same category. I mean, we're gathering players to try to make our locker rooms competitive as possible, and there wasn't a lot of video on him. Other than one advantage we had is, is Coach Meacham had a better view of him than any of us did, and so we hung our hat on that."

 On if he knows what kind of team he will have:

“I'm excited to get into spring and find out what we have. I'm hoping that at this time next year it won't be so dramatic. We had a large number of fifth- and sixth- and seventh-year seniors. So, if we would have a typical Oklahoma State season for me being here, we win eight or nine games, 10 games, we still would have had a big portal year, because we had so many players moving out. And we all know this, we can't rely on gathering high school players expecting to come in and play at a competitive level in the Big 12 next fall. So, I don't think anybody knows. I can only speak for us. I don't know that we know what we're dealing with yet, until we at least get out of spring ball. And I would think that a lot of head coaches will tell you that, when you have this many new players, who we are until we get spring ball to find out where we're at. We've watched players, we've evaluated them, we've seen them, but we're just learning who they are at this point."

On Brandon Rawls:

“So, we've got him at 6'2, 240. He's very physical. I watched him in the weight room yesterday and he looks what you're supposed to look like. And the one thing I would say that encourages me about him that I've noticed, because we don't know anything else, is he seems to have really good leadership ability and is willing to step out there and pull others along with him, but he does it in the right way. And the fact that he does it himself first, before he’s trying to pull others along with him. It’s funny you mentioned him because I've noticed that about him over the last week."