Cowboy Football Notebook: Kansas State

Mike Gundy's weekly press conference was full of interesting tidbits on the loss to Texas and the look ahead to Kansas State

STILLWATER -- An article that we're going to run each Monday is a football notebook following Mike Gundy's weekly Monday press conferences. They'll be filled with interesting notes and tidbits from the previous game and a quick look ahead at the upcoming game.

This week's press conference covered everything from the player's progression following the loss to Texas, to haircuts to Kansas State.

I mention haircuts because Gundy was asked this morning on the Big 12 Teleconference if the rumor about Boone Pickens leaving him a gift card to cut his hair was true, and Mike wasn't having it at all.

WOW! MUST listen to @CoachGundy destroy @MarkRosner3 on today's #Big12 Teleconference. Holy crap. Dead. 😂🤣 ☠️ pic.twitter.com/rzNZn9OwN9

— Heartland College Sports (@Heartland_CS) September 23, 2019

Coach Gundy hit on the topic during his media luncheon this morning in the press box of Boone Pickens Stadium saying not only was it disrespectful to Boone Pickens, but it wasted everyone's time on the call.

Opening statement

Coach Gundy's opening statement was about a half and half statement: half a lookback on Texas and half a look ahead to Kansas State. Oklahoma State lost their first game in Austin since the 2008 season and Gundy hits on what made the difference.

"The difference between the last few years and this year [against Texas] was that we kicked field goals instead of scoring touchdowns. I've discussed that with our guys. Obviously, we were trying to score touchdowns but we didn't get that accomplished. It would've been a much different game for us if we score touchdowns instead of field goals, but we live and learn and we move on. We are playing a good football team this week. A very senior-dominated offense with an experienced quarterback. They know exactly what they are trying to accomplish and they are very good at it. Their defense is very good. We will have out word cut out for us but it's always a fun part."

Running quarterback

Kansas State has a history of quarterback that can run and run well, and junior Skylar Thompson is no exception. However, through the first three games of the season, he's only rushed the ball 10 times for 64 yards and two touchdowns. Non-conference probably had a lot to do with that.

"[There's] a lot of similarities in everything they're doing," coach Gundy said of Kansas State's offensive schemes. "Concepts, 21 personnel, 22 personnel, a lot of pull plays, they're gonna run pull plays. Special teams is essentially the same. They had two blowout wins, I'm guessing that played a role [ in not running the quarterback]. I would say that he will rush the ball more than three times against us, because that's been his average and in blowout wins, you just don't see it as much.

Short yard blues

There were multiple situations this past weekend against Texas that Oklahoma State had short yardage situations with the chance to either get into the end zone or continue the drive with a first down. Well, Texas got the best of the Pokes as they forced multiple turnover on downs.

"We've always been good at it," said Gundy. "We had success in short yardage situations last year, we had success this year. Sometimes the opponent will win those one-on-one battles, sometimes we will. It's not necessary that we need to do something different, it just happened in that game that we were in a position to score a couple time where traditionally, we would score touchdowns. That's the glaring side of what happened in that game. Defense gave up a big play where we gout out of coverage near the sideline, other than that, we played pretty good against a pretty good team. Offensively, if we score those touchdowns and don't kick field goals, it'd be a different game.

A breather for Hubbard

After 32 carries against Tulsa, Mike Gundy said that they needed to try and limit Chuba Hubbard a little bit. Well, fast forward a week and he carried the ball 37 times, five times more than the 'too many number' that Gundy threw out last week.

"That's five more than I thought was too many. It has been a conversation and we want to keep him healthy. We want him to be fresh but he is clearly the best runner. We do what we think we need to do it score us the most points."

Dealing with the first loss

Not only was the loss against Texas the first loss for OSU in Austin since 2008, but it was OSU OC Sean Gleeson's first loss since taking over for Mike Yurcich. There's something about how a coach handles a loss that can tell you all you need to know about how he'll handle moving forward. I don't think we have to worry about Gleeson.

"I thought he was good," said Gundy. "There's a difference between being emotional and being erratically emotional and out of control. He gets emotion during football games. It's like parenting. When you're raising your first kid, you get emotional when they do things wrong and you overeact. Then you come back later and you're like, 'That wasn't worth all that.' You're better off just chilling and then teaching them after a while. Coaching is the same thing. Sean gets excited but then he can get right back into it and focus; some coaches go and lose their marbles, but he doesn't."