Mike Gundy Jokes He Should Hire Connor Stallions Following NCAA Technology Changes
The Oklahoma State Cowboys took care of business on Saturday, taking down the South Dakota State Jackrabbits 44-20. The Week 1 victory was a strong start to the Cowboys' 2024 campaign, which is quite the opposite of the team's 2023 season.
There are other technological changes across the sport, though. Teams are allowed to use iPads and helmet communication for coaches to talk to players on the field. For Gundy and Oklahoma State, they have a great opportunity to get reps with the changes before conference play.
“They have them upstairs and down,” Gundy said about the iPads after the game. “That will be a discussion in the morning, what we got out of it, what changes we need to make. This is all so new. The earpiece."
As is everything in college athletics nowadays, the use of technology will continue to change and teams will continue to adapt, with Oklahoma State being no different.
“It will be interesting when we review it in the morning, you try to learn and make it better," Gundy continued. "…The technology is so different this year. I didn’t use it, I don’t have time to look at that and then also know what’s going on on the field. I need to know what’s going on in the game to make decisions. If I was looking at a tablet, it would be hard for me to do that as a play caller.”
Now, one tidbit about the coach-to-player, headset-to-helmet communication is that Gundy isn't involved and can't hear what's going on between offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn and quarterback Alan Bowman, as he alluded to as a follow-up question.
Gundy then joked that he might need to make a hire for help with the technology, using a Shaggy reference to joke about hiring Connor Stallions.
“If anybody is a good IT guy,” Gundy said. “We can get the guy from Michigan [Stallions] here and let him hook me up. Even though he didn’t do it.”
Stallions resigned from Michigan on Nov. 3 with ongoing allegations regarding the sign-stealing from the team supposedly did to get an upper hand with their competition. Stallions has entered the spotlight plenty following the situation, and even more after Michigan won the National Championship in January.
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Kade has been covering a wide variety of teams ranging from the NFL to the NBA and college athletics since joining Sports Illustrated's On SI in 2022