What Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said about Utah

There’s usually an interesting moment when Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy gets behind a microphone.
Of course, there was the famous “I’m a man, I’m 40″ rant back in 2007, when the new-at-the-time Cowboys coach disagreed with a newspaper column about quarterback Bobby Reid and passionately defended his player.
A couple weeks ago, Oklahoma State senior linebacker Obi Ezeigbo, from Division II Gannon University, stepped in for injured Cowboys starting linebacker Collin Oliver and had nine tackles, and 3.5 tackles for loss (including two sacks) in OSU’s win over Arkansas.
Naturally, Gundy was asked about how the Cowboys picked up Ezeigbo in the transfer portal before the season, and the Oklahoma State coach in turn asked a question to the reporter.
“Do you want me to go back into coach-talk or do you want me to tell you the truth?”
“He was very inexpensive. The number of players that we go after that are ready to play at this level, we can’t afford. So, he was a good buy and a really quality young man that had had success and has physical characteristics we can work with and develop.
“So that’s why he ended up here, in my opinion. We saw some things we felt like we could develop into a good player at this level, and it wasn’t going to cost us the money we didn’t have.”
And on Monday, while in the middle of talking about Utah’s quarterback situation, Gundy delivered another classic moment.
A soda refrigerator was making a loud noise throughout the first few minutes of Gundy’s weekly press conference — he hypothesized that there was a problem with the compressor, by the sound of it — and he took matters into his own hands. With a little bit of help, he tilted the refrigerator so it could be unplugged, then went right back to his remarks.
Gundy’s penchant for truth-telling and entertaining press conference moments, eschewing the normal, mundane coach-speak that’s designed to reveal as little as possible about a program, is fairly unique in the college football world.
When Gundy talks, people listen, and this week he spoke about Kyle Whittingham and Utah as No. 14 Oklahoma State prepares to play the No. 12 Utes in Stillwater.
There have been plenty of comparisons between the two coaches — both took head coaching jobs just weeks apart in 2005, have had consistent winning success without some of the elite talent teams like Ohio State have, and have remained at their respective programs for their entire careers.
“He’s done a terrific job and that’s ultimately the bottom line. If you’re not successful, you’re not going to be in a job for very long,” Whittingham said of Gundy. “And so he’s done a good job of winning and being consistent and seems to be every year. I mean, every year you know what you’re going to get from them. And their guys play hard and they’re well coached and their personnel is good.”
The two coaches hadn’t had a real conversation until this year, but prior to that, Gundy had taken note of Utah and watched them because Whittingham did more with less throughout his tenure.
“In most cases there will be five, six, seven teams that I watch across the country, because in my opinion, I think that they’re highly successful with what would be middle-of-the-road players, meaning they’re not coaching teams that have five, six, seven eight guys drafted in the NFL,” Gundy said.
“So I’ve always watched him from a distance and noticed that during his career there’s times that they won games that people didn’t think they could win, which in my opinion, reflects that the guy is probably a good football coach. It’s extremely difficult to coach at this level as a head coach for 20 years, much less with the same location.”
After respecting each other from a distance, the two coaches will meet on the gridiron for the first time ever as conferencemates after the realignment carousel spun once more last summer and the Utes bolted from the crumbling Pac-12 to the Big 12.
“Tough place to play from what I hear … there’s a lot of similarities between the two programs,” Whittingham said. “Coach Gundy’s done a great job there for a lot of years and they’re undefeated, 3-0, highly ranked, as are we, so should make for a good matchup. It’ll be an intriguing start for us as the first conference game, official conference game, in the Big 12.”
Fans have had this game circled since the schedule was released, and after both teams started 3-0, it’ll be a top-15 affair at sold-out Boone Pickens Stadium this Saturday.
“I think that this game is one of the reasons that we sold out (season tickets) so quick, in my opinion,” Gundy said.
“Utah brings in a long history of success, the coach has been there forever as we talked about, and they’ve played much better than what they should have or what people thought they could have against teams that may have been, on paper, more talented,” he continued. “That’s kind of what the history has been with him as a head coach there. I think that it generates a lot of interest from fans, and I think people are excited about it.”
As he’s reviewed Utah’s tape in preparation for the Saturday showdown, what has stood out to Gundy? For one, Oklahoma State is watching film of both Ute quarterbacks, Cam Rising and Isaac Wilson.
“I think we have to prepare for the guy that’s played,” Gundy said, speaking of Wilson, “but (Rising) could obviously play.”
After Utah’s 38-21 win over Utah State, Whittingham said the Utes are “hoping” to get Rising back this week, and “that’s the plan.”
On Monday night, Rising was made available to media, usually a good sign for availability as injured players are typically not available to the press. When asked about Rising, wide receiver Dorian Singer said, “He’s going to be ready to go this week.”
No matter who’s under center, Gundy said, he doesn’t think Utah’s offensive game plan changes much.
“They do a good job playing with two tight ends. They like to play-action out of it, they like to run misdirection, get the quarterback on the perimeter,” Gundy said. “They’re good at rushing the ball, they block well. They’ve been good at what they’ve done for a number of years, so they don’t get out of their box much, they stay the course, pretty much, with what they’ve done for quite a while.”
Defensively, Utah’s goal will be to slow down Doak Walker Award winner Ollie Gordon II, who’s gotten off to a slow start this season. Through three games, Gordon has rushed for 216 yards and four touchdowns on 62 carries (3.5 yards per rush), partly as a result of Oklahoma State’s opponents stacking the box and making quarterback Alan Bowman beat them.
Last week, Tulsa held Gordon to just 41 yards on 17 carries, but Bowman had a career game, throwing for 396 yards and five touchdowns with one interception.
Utah could employ a similar strategy as many of Oklahoma State’s opponents to combat Gordon, who Whittingham said has “all of our respect and all our attention.”
“They stop the run, that’s what they do. Very, very high percentage, 90% plus, they’re having an extra guy in the box all the time,” Gundy said of Utah’s defense. “They play with a high free safety, plays about 16 yards back, he defends the length of the field longwise and they put an extra guy in the box to stop the run.”
Depending on how the rest of the season shakes out — and to be clear, there’s a long way to go — Saturday’s Stillwater showdown could give the victor a leg up on the Big 12 championship race.
“We’re playing a very good football team, very sound football team that plays physical, tough football. It’ll be a real challenge for us this week, but obviously looking forward to playing the game,” Gundy said.