The worst season of the Mike Gundy era of Cowboy football has ended, and it wasn’t a pretty ending.
Oklahoma State lost to Colorado 52-0 on Friday in Boulder. Here are five things Gundy said following the season-ending defeat. PFB wasn’t in Boulder, and thus, we have no video of the postgame news conference.
1. Assessing Dunn and Nardo
The Oklahoman‘s Scott Wright asked early on in Friday’s news conference how Gundy would assess the jobs that offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn and defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo did this season.
With OSU’s 3-9 record, it’s obvious it wasn’t the best year for either guy. Dunn is in his fifth year as OC after making the leap from a decorated career as the Cowboys’ receiver coach. Nardo is in Year 2 with the program after Gundy hired him from Division-II Gannon to bring the 3-3-5 to Stillwater.
“Well, I’ve got to go back and look at everything,” Gundy said. “I mean, it’s just not fair to be able to say it. There was times that I thought we had good game plans, and then there’s times that I’ve mentioned to you guys, I didn’t think our game plans were very good. I didn’t think our offensive game plan today was very good. I thought the defensive game plan was good. They just spent the entire day on the field, and eventually, if you’re out there the entire game, then you have to minimize the total number of snaps that they’re going to get when you keep putting them out there. I don’t know how many snaps they had (CU had 71 plays). … A lot, yeah, so they were 7-0 when they had more than 63 snaps in a game. And unfortunately, we gave them too many snaps today, and then you put them out there that much, it makes it difficult.”
2. On What Needs to Change
247Sports’ McClain Baxley asked postgame what changes Gundy needed to see for OSU’s program between now and when the Cowboys start practices up again in the spring, whether those changes be on the staff, personnel or otherwise.
Gundy didn’t mention any staff changes, but he did get into needing to find out who his team is earlier than they have been. Thinking back to the 2023 season, OSU opened the year with a three-quarterback system and wasn’t using Ollie Gordon as its featured back until the fourth game of the season. It sounds like he wants to avoid that get-to-know-you period creeping into August and September.
“Well, there will be about 30ish go out and about 30ish come in, you know we talked about that, by the time the portal takes place,” Gundy said. “Then there will be a transition of whoever goes out and whoever replaces them, we have to get back to work not only developing our bodies in strength and speed, but we have to get back to work in teaching concepts and football again. To put us in a position to have a really good spring and then find out who we are in the spring because we are probably going to have 30 new players.
“And then try to get to who we are quicker in August than what we have the last couple years. Now this year was different. We had so many returning guys on offense, but in my opinion, the new age of college football the challenge is once you get your new guys, determining who you are by the end of spring ball because that gives us the best chance to move forward in August to get prepared for the first game in next September. And that is one area we will need to make an adjustment because we haven’t had to do that in the past. We knew who our guys were coming back. And then a couple years ago, we went through spring, went through half August just trying to find out who we were going to put on the field. I think we are going to try and avoid that now.”
3. ‘I Need to Evaluate What I’ve Done and What I Could’ve Done Better’
Gundy was asked how long he lets this season have until he moves onto next year, and he said in his news conference that he already has, that one part of his brain was talking to reporters while the other has started working on next season.
The follow up to that from the Tulsa World‘s Tyler Waldrep was what was the first thing that needs to get done.
“I just wish I knew who was gonna be on my team after the portal because that would help me a little bit,” Gundy said. “But I’m not gonna know that until, what, Dec. 11th or 12th-ish. It opens the ninth I think. So by the 15th, in most cases, you’re probably gonna know who’s going out, then what you’ve got coming in. Then you can really work. I’ll be real honest with you — I’ve been real honest with you this year. You should be very appreciative of that. Most coaches that’ve had a year like this wouldn’t be honest with you.
“But I need to evaluate what I’ve done and what I could’ve done better. And what role I played with this season, to see where it starts with me. And then it obviously trickles down and goes to coaches and players and administrative guys and so on and so forth, so that’s what I’ll do. That’ll be where I can start.”
4. On Why the Offense Didn’t Perform to Expectations
OSU essentially brought back an entire offense that went 10-4 in 2023 to win only three games in 2024.
It’s honestly sort of inexplicable what happened. Here is what Gundy said about why the offense just couldn’t figure things out in 2024.
“We got sporadic quarterback play,” Gundy said. “I’m not just blaming (Alan) Bowman, but you guys watch all of our games, right? There were two or three games where he was fantastic. There were two or three games that were very average at best. In my opinion, high school, college, NFL, maybe even lower than high school, if you get sporadic quarterback play, it makes for a very average season. If you get really good quarterback play, you have a good season. If you get great quarterback play, you usually have a great season. Unfortunately that just comes with the job.
“Then, we didn’t tie everything else into it. There were times we couldn’t put it all together. You hear coaches talk about, ‘We need to play a game where offense, defense and special teams put it all together.’ We were up and down in all three phases all year long. We could never pull that slot machine and have them hit at the same time. We did it a couple times, maybe Tulsa. But either way, I’m just telling you the truth. We couldn’t connect very often. Offensively we played pretty good last week, but defensively we couldn’t slow them down.”
5. ’20 Years’
This is the first time since Gundy’s first year OSU has lost more games than it has won — which is pretty remarkable.
Gundy was asked after the game if the process changes going into an offseason after a losing season as opposed to a winning season.
“It’s a different challenge, but we won’t change … that’s a great question,” Gundy said. “Two things that are different is, one, you’ll have a lot in and a lot out with the portal and all the stuff going on. So that’s a little different. It’s been two years now that we’re kind of going through that. But as far as what we’ll do in the offseason to build for spring ball and then build for the summer and then for next September will be very similar.”
The Stillwater News Press‘ Marcus Trevino asked a follow up to that, asking what gives Gundy the confidence that will still work.
“Twenty years,” Gundy responded.
Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.
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