Late again getting to a Game Week thread...I was at a horse show in Fort Worth and got back yesterday evening.
Mike Gundy on Tulsa...
On Tulsa
āI mean Iām not in their building, I donāt pretend to say I know what theyāre going through, but when you have as many suspensions as they do, itās going to greatly affect your team. Youād have to ask Coach [Philip Montgomery], but Iām sure they donāt just feel like they can run two groups out on both sides of the ball and feel comfortable with their experience and ability to compete at a high level. I donāt have that luxury here. So, when you lose as many players they do, itās going to directly impact your team. As we just talked about the general fans and the population, and public, they donāt like that, but they donāt really know how much that affects your team, which Iām guessing is a bunch. Iām guessing these guys are back now. And they got out there and things just kind of didnāt go good. UC-Davis played pretty good. Their quarterbackās a good little operator, made good plays, they had a good plan and just kind of hung in there and ended up winning the game. Sometimes that can happen.ā
On how much OSU can take from Tulsaās 2021 film with all the absences
āItās one game, so you look at it. Thatās all you have to base it on this year. But theyāre going to be who they are. He believes in his style of offense and obviously they believe in their style of defense. Thatās what they do. They know what we do, and we know what they do. But youāre going to get personnel off that tape because thatās the only tape we have this year.ā
On Tulsa having a lot of super seniors
āI just think itās an advantage. I told you the other day, I gave you four guys that were thinking about returning to us, and if those guys would have returned to us, you certainly upgrade your talent level. So they got a number of them, and itās certainly an advantage when you have those guys, no question.ā
On if he knew how good Tulsa was after playing the Golden Hurricane last year
āMy honest opinion was, as I told the guys the next morning, I said āTulsa is good football team.ā I didnāt know that they were that good, based on they went on and had a good run. I mean they came back won a bunch of games. They had Cincinnati beat, the next week or two Cincinnati had Georgia beat, right? You can say what you want, but you got to be pretty decent to be in that position. That was on the road, in a rainstorm I think. And then played an SEC team in the bowl game, and could have won a bowl game. When we finished playing them, we made some mistakes, obviously we had some things happen injury-wise, whatever, it is what it is, but I told the staff, in my opinion, theyāre are good football team. Those guys are a good football team. Coach doesnāt get out of this box. He does a good job in the world he lives in. Thatās what they do, that in my opinion, theyāre good at it, and allows them to get better as the season goes on. They ended up being much more effective and better than what I thought. But I knew they were a good team. It would have been hard for me to say they were going to win ā after they played us, what did they win eight games? If you would have said, āOK, theyāre gonna win six of their next seven.ā I donāt know if I would have said I agree with that, but I would have said they were a good football team.ā
Mike Gundy on Tulsa...
On Tulsa
āI mean Iām not in their building, I donāt pretend to say I know what theyāre going through, but when you have as many suspensions as they do, itās going to greatly affect your team. Youād have to ask Coach [Philip Montgomery], but Iām sure they donāt just feel like they can run two groups out on both sides of the ball and feel comfortable with their experience and ability to compete at a high level. I donāt have that luxury here. So, when you lose as many players they do, itās going to directly impact your team. As we just talked about the general fans and the population, and public, they donāt like that, but they donāt really know how much that affects your team, which Iām guessing is a bunch. Iām guessing these guys are back now. And they got out there and things just kind of didnāt go good. UC-Davis played pretty good. Their quarterbackās a good little operator, made good plays, they had a good plan and just kind of hung in there and ended up winning the game. Sometimes that can happen.ā
On how much OSU can take from Tulsaās 2021 film with all the absences
āItās one game, so you look at it. Thatās all you have to base it on this year. But theyāre going to be who they are. He believes in his style of offense and obviously they believe in their style of defense. Thatās what they do. They know what we do, and we know what they do. But youāre going to get personnel off that tape because thatās the only tape we have this year.ā
On Tulsa having a lot of super seniors
āI just think itās an advantage. I told you the other day, I gave you four guys that were thinking about returning to us, and if those guys would have returned to us, you certainly upgrade your talent level. So they got a number of them, and itās certainly an advantage when you have those guys, no question.ā
On if he knew how good Tulsa was after playing the Golden Hurricane last year
āMy honest opinion was, as I told the guys the next morning, I said āTulsa is good football team.ā I didnāt know that they were that good, based on they went on and had a good run. I mean they came back won a bunch of games. They had Cincinnati beat, the next week or two Cincinnati had Georgia beat, right? You can say what you want, but you got to be pretty decent to be in that position. That was on the road, in a rainstorm I think. And then played an SEC team in the bowl game, and could have won a bowl game. When we finished playing them, we made some mistakes, obviously we had some things happen injury-wise, whatever, it is what it is, but I told the staff, in my opinion, theyāre are good football team. Those guys are a good football team. Coach doesnāt get out of this box. He does a good job in the world he lives in. Thatās what they do, that in my opinion, theyāre good at it, and allows them to get better as the season goes on. They ended up being much more effective and better than what I thought. But I knew they were a good team. It would have been hard for me to say they were going to win ā after they played us, what did they win eight games? If you would have said, āOK, theyāre gonna win six of their next seven.ā I donāt know if I would have said I agree with that, but I would have said they were a good football team.ā
