Mike Gundy Meets With Media for First Time Since Spring Ahead of Fall Practices
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy met with the media on Monday for the first this fall. It comes at the conclusion of fall camp on Saturday and the start of normal fall practices after the first day of classes on Monday. In fact, this is the first time Gundy’s met with the media since the spring.
There’s been a lot that’s gone on since the last time we spoke with coach Gundy, mainly to do with the virus, but also a few off-the-field incidents as well. As many expected going into the Zoom call, this was a much more subdued Mike Gundy.
In year’s past, at the start and conclusion of fall camp, coach Gundy’s always been rather talkative and excited. This year’s a much different year. Half the country’s not playing football and there’s always the threat of the rest of the country getting the axe as well. As mentioned above, there was the off-the-field t-shirt incident back in June.
The first question asked was about the t-shirt incident and how coach Gundy has changed himself and the program since.
“Nothing more than just listening to the players and getting back into a routine.”
It was apparent right off the bat no one was going to get anywhere asking questions about any off-the-field issues.
Gundy did, however, mention the coaches haven’t had anyone come forward as of yet to opt out of the season over concerns of the virus.
“We haven’t had any one-on-one conversations; it’s been addressed as a team,” coach Gundy said of players possibly opting out of the season. “We’ve expressed to them if anybody’s uncomfortable and doesn’t feel like being on the team is something they want to do at this particular time, if they opted out, the University would take care of them.”
Since the team started arriving back on campus since June, the program’s taken a lot of steps and measures to ensure the player’s safety moving forward. With classes starting today, it’s even more important to keep the players safe, especially if the season is to continue moving forward. Whether that be the players taking a majority of online courses to ensuring the first and second-string players of the same position aren’t rooming together.
“All the different areas to protect each other from the virus with masks, different meeting rooms, living arrangements, the way we eat,” coach Gundy said of measures helping keep the players safe. “It’s been very unusual, but I’ll go back again to what I said, our medical team with our doctors, trainers and staff have been fantastic and have put us in a position that’s somewhat unbelievable with where we’re at right now.
“I’m gonna say that 75% of our guys will be nine of 12 hours or 12 of 15 [hours] online just from the number of classes that will be offered on campus because of the situation we’re in. We will have guys on campus, but it won’t be near the number of guys that would be on campus in other years.”
It was nearly one week ago that the Big Ten and Pac 12 decided to cancel the fall football season with hopes of possibly playing the season in the spring of 2021. That left many people believing the Big 12 was the ‘swing vote’ to whether there would be football this fall. If they voted yes, they’d be joining the ACC and SEC in playing. If they voted no, many people believed the ACC and SEC would follow suit.
Since March, everything’s been upside down and we’re just now starting to get back to some sense of normalcy. With the Big 12 moving forward with football this fall, there has been some adjustments made by the program, as well as programs across the leagues that are playing to ensure the season continues to move forward.
“Once the Big 12 gave us direction, we settled in on a plan all the way up to the first game,” said coach Gundy. “Prior to that, we all tried to do the best we could. There wasn’t a lot of focus because of lack of direction, but since that point, we’ve got a plan and a practice schedule in place and just instilling all the importance to the players of protecting themselves against the virus and then trying to get ready to play in a football game and start school. Today’s the first day of classes and we need to do everything we can to get players in the frame of mind they’re back in school, get into what would be a normal routine for the veteran guys, get the young guys adjusted and get them ready for classes and get ready to play a game against Tulsa.”
The Zoom call last roughly 30 minutes, so we’re going to do some quick hits on a few of the remaining topics Mike Gundy was asked about.
Coach Gundy on the late addition to the 2020 recruiting class, Dominic Richardson, running back out of Bishop McGuiness.
“We’re really excited about what [Dominic Richardson] brings, he’s been awesome,” said coach Gundy. “He’s come in, great addition for us. Just worked hard, getting a lot of reps in practice and excited to have him in our program.”
Coach Gundy on the health of the team at this point in the preseason.
“We’re doing really good,” coach Gundy said on the health of the team. “We’ve got everybody out there practicing, so I’m excited about where we’re at as a team from a health standpoint. Our practices have been very enthusiastic and we’re starting to get back into some sort of a normal fashion during this time of year.”
Coach Gundy on new quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay and Spencer Sanders’ progression.
“It’s still really early, but I like Tim Rattay,” coach Gundy said of his new quarterback coach. “I like his approach, I like his style, he’s very low key, he’s a good teacher. He’s had tremendous success playing, coaching. Very mature; I think he’s a quarterback guy from the standpoint of he relates to the players. We’ll see as the season moves on.”
“He’s doing good,” coach Gundy said of Spencer Sanders. “He’s a year older and a little stronger and making some plays and making the adjustments based on coach [Kasey] Dunn and what we’re doing on offense. He should continue to improve each day.”
