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OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 31, 2015

Mike Gundy

Lubbock, Texas

Oklahoma State - 70 Texas Tech - 53

COACH GUNDY: Pretty exciting game for us. Just really proud of our players. They did a great job at halftime. Coaches did a really good job of staying calm, making adjustments. They took the majority of the allotted time at half to stay in the shower, not actually showering, but stay in there and make the adjustments.

We had a chance to get it to the team for about two and a half minutes before we came out in the second half. They did a great job of listening and staying calm. They cleared their mind, and they were able to absorb the information and then come out and play well in the second half. Defensively, Tech made a bunch of plays today. No. 11 is a special player. Their quarterback made a lot of plays today. They're tough to defend, much less being in this environment. It's difficult to defend.

We did not tackle well in the first half. Obviously, on the kick return, and then several plays when 11 had the ball on offense. And I'm not being disrespectful. I don't know any names, Grant, right? Because I certainly know who he is. He's a special player.

But long story short, offensively we were able to overcome and stay with the game plan. I thought that Mike and the staff did a great job of staying with our game plan and not extending ourselves when we were in an all-pass situation. We're not good enough to throw the ball every down or obviously run the ball every down. So we have to stay balanced. But we have to slowly but surely work ourselves back into the game.

Nice adjustments by Robbie Discher on our kick coverage in the second half. Then also it was a good call by him on the block punt at that time. In fact, it was almost so good we almost ran by him. So I thought we did a really good job in those areas.

Mason, I know Mason had one poor throw, and he didn't see the defender and he threw it to him. Other than that, he's 21 of 35 for 285, couple touches. Thought he moved around well, he was mobile. Then J.W., you know, obviously hit the big plays 4 or 5 for 167 and had the long run. So we've got good quarterback play.

We dropped too many balls at the wide receiver position today. I think we dropped three, maybe four. Couple of them were key drops. Sometimes that happens. We'll continue to work. I don't have an answer why that happened. But we have a good group of receivers and they'll make plays.

Thought Raymond Taylor ran the ball really hard, and then we didn't get as many carries with Rennie, and I thought a few times that Chris had the ball that he ran well. So we have a long ways to go. We've got to keep working to improve in the running game. We've got to clean up some things that happened to us on defense. There will be times throughout a season that one side of the ball won't play as well as they have throughout the season. It's just the way it is.

So I was proud of our team. Proud of them for rallying in the second half. Not an easy place to play, and to come from behind for however many we were, 17, I think, so just proud of our team and looking forward to the next go round.

Q. Those two-and-a-half minutes that you talked to the team and asked them, what did you guys say to the players?
COACH GUNDY: Our defensive coaches made three or four adjustments, and they had two-and-a-half minutes to get that to them before we had to go out. They stayed together as a group longer. I saw it happening, so I didn't know whether to break it up and tell them to get to the players.

From my perspective, you don't want to leave them too long if you didn't play well in the first half, because then they're kind of isolated. But I let it roll. And they came and got the information. Glen did a great job, and then obviously Duffy and Hammer, and Joe Bob were able to get the information to them on the changes and adjustments we needed to make in the second half. But then more importantly, they have to be able to be able to put it to good use, and that's what they did.

Q. What were the defensive adjustments?
COACH GUNDY: I know it had to do with a lot of the weak side coverage. You need to ask Glenn. You're getting a little bit out of my game. When it comes to what the adjustments are, because I'm over there listening to the offense more. But Glen will tell you what adjustments we made, and he'll give you a much better picture than I could.

Q. Was that just a matter of the guys wrapping up a little bit better? Were they just concentrating on it more?
COACH GUNDY: I just thought we were flat on defense to start the game. I don't know why. I just thought we were flat. We haven't been flat on defense all year. But the kick return, we have a lot of defensive players out there, and there were three missed tackles, maybe four. Then the one on about the 4-yard line where he caught the ball and went all the way down the field, I think there were five missed tackles. I wish I had an answer to that. But they did come under control and wrap and get them down better in the second half.

Q. You've come back from 17 down before, but I don't think you've come back from 17 down three times like you did today. You kept answering, and kept it at 17, everything -- did you ever think it might not be your day or was there just so much time left that you didn't let yourself think that?
COACH GUNDY: They stop the clock a lot. They had 94 plays, and that's not counting penalties. So they probably were close to a hundred plays. When you play them, it's going to be a long game. You're going to have a lot of plays. He does a great job with them on offense. He's very intelligent in how he spreads people out and gets the ball in space.

But when you do that, the clock stops a lot. So that's why my only message to the offensive staff was you're going to have to stay within your game plan. It can't be something that we're not good at, which is becoming an all-pass team.

Q. What went into going heavy with J.W. in the second half?
COACH GUNDY: Just a change of pace. We think that it's almost like preparing for two different offenses. We have plans for him. I had mentioned this to you guys, that we weren't using him enough, and it wasn't anybody's fault. Mason was doing just fine. But we have a segment of practice that we use where J.W. has a plan. For us to not use it wouldn't be smart because we have allotted that much practice time for that.

So we have to use it when we go into the games. He helps us run the football because he's the extra guy. You have to defend him. We need some help as we move along to try to get better in running and rushing the football.

Q. Talk about the pass, I think everybody in the stadium was going nuts. They think he's going to run it, and he throws deep to Washington.
COACH GUNDY: He can run our offense. You guys remember years ago when he was there before he got hurt he threw the ball a lot. So he can run our offense. He practices and the play pass and different things. We're comfortable with him throwing the ball.

Q. That play call though, 2nd and 8, you're up 3. Who throws the deep ball there? That was really a gutsy call.
COACH GUNDY: When we took the field what I mentioned to them was they have to play. They can't use the clock, which you noticed. We're not trying to run the clock down. Tech has the ability in their style of offense to cover ground really fast. So it was untraditional for me, for us, as you know, to not use the clock and run the ball.

Mike and them felt like the safety was getting down into the formation, and so they called for James on the post, and it worked out well for our team.

Q. Is this the best performance you've had from a fourth string walk-on running back?
COACH GUNDY: Yeah, we need to use him more. He's earned his stripes for lack of a better term. We need to work him in. When he's carrying the ball, he's been effective. He's shown toughness, durability, and he's a guy we need to work into our offense more. He's a success story for us. I mean, he works hard and never says a word.

Q. That little out of the shotgun touch pass that looks like a jet sweep. They had defended that really well. But you ran two reverses off of it. One for 23 yards and one for the long touchdown. Is that part of the design of that play is to get them to go, go, go, and then bring back that one?
COACH GUNDY: Like when you watch Tech's offense when they throw the ball on the flat all the time and make your line run all the way across the field, when we were in that system, that was part of our plan. For us, that's not who we are right now. So the plays we can run sideways and reverses. I'm going to guess we've run more reverses than we've run two years put together in the entire season. That gives us a chance to have a little more flexibility in our running game to make up for some deficiencies we have in those areas.

Q. You caught them off guard with the second motion, the reverse motion?
COACH GUNDY: And the good news is you can flip it to the fast guy, you have a chance, and that's what we were trying to do. Get him out in space and see if he could turn the corner.

Q. You also had a couple of double passes. One throw back, and the creativeness in the game plan, what do you think about that going into this week? It almost, the word desperation came up, but it was more creative, I think.
COACH GUNDY: Not quite desperation, but just in my history in being in this league a long time and watching people come out here and play and the success that they've had here, statistically at home on offense, we felt like we were going to have to score at least 40 points. Our defense is pretty good. I don't know how good they are or whatever. We're going to play some really good -- the team we play next has a phenomenal offense.

But when you play out here in this environment and they're rolling and the quarterback's playing good, and 11's playing good, we felt like we were going to have to score 40 points to win. So we needed some things to give ourselves a chance. Mike and them did a good job. Glenn and those guys did a great job in the second half.

Q. Remember in the first half you went to formation when you put three wideouts to the short side, and then rode one of them back in the back field and ran the ball to the wide side. Was that something Tech wasn't ready for, hadn't seen it in the first half either?
COACH GUNDY: We just saw Oklahoma do it last week, basically. It's no secret. Different formation, but same philosophy. I told Kliff before the game, I've been watching your games all year, stealing your plays and putting some of your stuff in. But we just don't run them as good as you do.

Q. (No microphone) and one you might forget a little bit, the way McCleskey attacked (No microphone) and took off. It seemed like for a second that it was going to roll?
COACH GUNDY: It would have rolled 20 more yards because it was a high roller and the ball was rolling over.

Q. That's kind of what you've been waiting for weeks from him, to catch it and go?
COACH GUNDY: That, and you're talking about the one that he didn't return?

Q. I'm talking about the one he scored on.
COACH GUNDY: Yes, we've seen signs of explosiveness with 44 and 20. And we just, they just haven't touched the ball enough. They're just kind of young. But we like their future and what they can bring to the table.

Q. You said you had Washington hit some back-breaker plays for you, and on that last burst, it was like he was running track or something?
COACH GUNDY: Like he was what?

Q. Like he was running track.
COACH GUNDY: He runs like that. He can really run when he gets going. He looks pretty when he's doing it. He glides, almost like he doesn't touch the ground.

Q. Is J.W. as good at being deceptive in that play action zone read? It seems that's really opened up your run game.
COACH GUNDY: He's getting better. J.W. is like the energizer bunny. You have to tell him slow down a little bit. He's so excited. He wants to do it, and he wants to run through the wall. So we have talked to him about the Kansas State theory over the last few years of how their quarterback slides and slides and slides, and lets the play develop. He's getting better. If you go back and look weeks ago, he's too fast. He's running through there before the play could develop.

We use them as an example of what they've done over the last few years at that quarterback, and he's getting better at the way he handles those plays.

Q. Texas Tech did a lot to honor the crash victims.
COACH GUNDY: When we got here last night for walk through, they had the orange -- I think she had the little logo there. Yeah, they had orange on their Jumbotron, and it was really nice. I think the thing to remember in the Big 12, unlike some leagues in the country, we all have respect for each other. We understand, and I think that we would do the same for them.

And we've had several schools in this league that have done very nice things for our community. I have a very close friend of mine that was involved in the crash, and she's got a long recovery. She's going to make it, but she's got a long recovery. I know when I talked to her family this week that they appreciated what everybody's done. As I mentioned Tech's got it on the Jumbotron. It means a lot to the people that were directly involved in the accident.

Q. Did you watch TCU on Thursday night?
COACH GUNDY: I saw the last three or four minutes of the third quarter and some of the fourth. Then my two middle kids, my middle son started fighting and I had to break it up and I never got back to it. I was at the game and they started going at it, so I got distracted for them.

Q. Seems set up for a pretty good game on Saturday.
COACH GUNDY: Sure, they're obviously a top 5 team. If there's a more dynamic player in the country than their quarterback, I don't see the running back from LSU very much but I'm guessing he's really good also. I would like to know who is out there. Just from the plays I saw with him, he's pretty special.

But our guys will prepare, and we'll have them ready to go, and play hard, and looking forwarded to a great game.

Q. J.W.'s throw to Chris on the goal line, was that kind of a new play, swung out of the back field?
COACH GUNDY: 44 was wide open down the middle. He should have thrown to 44.

Q. Carson was well covered?
COACH GUNDY: Kind of, and he threw to 32. 32 made a nice play. I think, and I could be wrong, because I don't have the clicker in my hand, I think he could have punted it to 44. But either way it worked out well for us.

Q. But what is the thinking there to institute that play for this game?
COACH GUNDY: I would like to say I know where that came from. I didn't get in on it firsthand. I saw it working in practice this week and I liked the play, but I don't know who came up with that scheme. Somebody in that room, obviously.

Q. When the playoff first came out this upcoming week, were you interested at all to see what the perception is, your team relative to the top 10, or is it something you just kind of brush off?
COACH GUNDY: I think if I was to say I don't have any interest that that would be unfair. I think we all want to know what people think. But you guys that have been around me long enough to know, we have a pretty good barometer of our team, and we're a good football team. We can't let a day go by in preparation, and I know that's coaches talk.

But the year we had Weeden and Blackmon, and Joe Randle and all those guys, we could make up for things on Saturday because we were so talented. We're not in that situation at this time. So I think it's interesting to look. People will want to know. They're going to tell you anyway. My kids whether I come home, they're going to tell me, and people in the community tell you, so it's worth looking at.

But we've got to get ready. We're going to play a top 5 team next week, and we'll have our hands full in preparation for TCU.

Q. You all were scratching for touchdowns and you were trailing. Another guy who kind of gets over (No microphone) throws one and catches one?
COACH GUNDY: Sure, made a nice play. Not only did he throw one, he scooped it off the ground like a shortstop.

Q. Oh, yeah, on the second throw.
COACH GUNDY: I don't know if that didn't help us, but I have to watch the tape. The safety was coming over. The guy that we were trying to trick, I think, he slowed down when we saw him hit the ground.

Remember, Nebraska used to do that in the '80s -- maybe the '70s or early '80s. It would bounce past it. I should have said we did it on purpose. But they used to bounce pass it up there on that play on the hard carpet, and then they'd throw it again. That's what happened to us today. That was not the plan though.

Q. That's a natural reaction to three distinct plays?
COACH GUNDY: Actually on the headphones two or three people started yelling it was a bad pass. They forgot you could throw it also. They were all hey, that's good. That's awesome.

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