Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy spoke at media day Saturday about QBs and more. He also had a plan to fix college football.
STILLWATER — With only a few practices behind him in the early days of preseason camp, Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy hasn’t gained a tremendous amount of additional insight into his team since he last spoke to reporters at Big 12 Media Days three weeks ago.
OSU’s venture into the unknown continued with its local media day Saturday at Gallagher-Iba Arena, and while Gundy remains excited about the talent level of his team, he still has a lot of questions to answer before the Aug. 28 opener against Tennessee-Martin.
The most notable of those questions is at quarterback, where redshirt freshmen Zane Flores and Hauss Hejny are dueling for the starting job.
Here’s a look at what Gundy had to say about his quarterbacks and other topics at OSU football media day:
How would Mike Gundy fix college football?
As he enters his 21st season as the OSU coach and his 40th overall in college football, Gundy joked that he never believed he’d still be coaching at this point.
He also suggested his post-coaching career — whenever that comes — will be in an analyst role on television.
But for now, Gundy has some ideas for the direction the game needs to go.
College football is passing through one of its most turbulent times with the recent NCAA House settlement allowing for players to be paid, the explosion of name, image and likeness deals and the transfer portal era.
“I don’t think anybody’ll listen, but I can fix it,” Gundy said.
“You need a commissioner. You gotta get one person in charge. And they gotta get the four power people (Power Four conference commissioners) in one room, and they all gotta start talking about equality and how can we revenue share across the country. We follow the NFL pattern. If you’re not gonna make (players) employees and collective bargaining, I get it, but how are we gonna fix it?
“I think eventually, if they don’t fix it, it’s gonna be difficult for people to actually really want to watch college football.”
Timeline for picking an Oklahoma State quarterback?
With less than four weeks until the opener and less than three until full-blown game preparations begin, Gundy knows the need for picking a starter looms large.
But he also knows he can’t rush the process.
“I can’t put a timeline on it until I know when it’ll happen,” Gundy said. “And I don’t know that. So we could very well end up playing two in the first game.”
Playing two quarterbacks could look like the three-QB rotation Gundy used early in 2023, or it could look more like the timeshare between Mason Rudolph and J.W. Walsh in 2015, when Walsh was inserted in specialty packages to take advantage of his running ability.
But it seems like the real answer would land somewhere in between the two.
While much is made of Hejny’s speed — and rightfully so, for a kid who was timed at 10.6 seconds in the 100-meter dash during high school — Flores’ athletic ability gets overshadowed. But Gundy says both offer a running threat.
So as he watches them perform, what is Gundy looking for to inform his decision?
“Well, production,” he said. “At some point, the team will start to migrate toward one guy. That doesn’t mean the other guy’s not a good player. It just means the team might start migrating toward a guy and they have to be productive.”
Mike Gundy addresses concerns over uncertainty
The Cowboys brought in 63 new players since last season, with 32 of them arriving in June.
When Gundy spoke at Big 12 media days, he explained how he knew less about his team at that point in the year than ever before, because of all the new faces.
He predicted that more than a dozen of the 32 summer arrivals will be in the playing rotation this fall.
And while there is so much unknown about his team, Gundy stressed that it isn’t a fear about whether they can play, but rather an uncertainty in the path to getting there.
“I’m not concerned,” he said. “There’s a bunch of guys out there that can run around and make plays. The talent level’s fine. The uncertainty is going into work in the morning and not knowing what’s gonna happen.
“The uncertainty with the coaches is not there. The uncertainty with the ability is not there. The players have been excellent. We’ve had to mold a few of ‘em over the summer. That’s been different. But they get in line, they fall in order and it’s been fine. We put them in positions and we just have to watch, and they’ll tell us who deserves to play in the games.”
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy would fix college football
Category: General Sports
