CHEEZ-IT BOWL: OKLAHOMA STATE VS MIAMI

December 29, 2020

Mike Gundy

Camping World Stadium

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Oklahoma State Cowboys 37, Miami Hurricanes 34

Q. Curious, what were the discussions like with Tylan for the game plan leading up to this. I understand it was pre-organized he was going to play just a half.

MIKE GUNDY: Well, I don't know if it was any particular time. We had just talked with him about at some point we wanted to get some of the other players in the game that were going to be there next year. And we want to protect him. You know, there's always things in the back of your mind that happens. I'm not so sure that what took place with Miami's quarterback didn't have a little bit of effect on us.

I'm not saying that we had a plan for exact playing in a game, but our goal is to bring young men in and train and get them a three and a half or four years, teach them about life and do anything we can to make their life better. Obviously he has a future very, very few people have an opportunity for.

And so myself and Coach Dunn were very protective of him. We made a choice at that time to let some of the other players get in and compete so we just didn't have to hold our breath in that situation.

What Tylan has done for us is he's been unique compared to other players; I should say the majority of some of the other players that are as highly regarded as him from the standpoint he wanted to compete throughout the season and stay with it. That means a lot to us and I think that's going to greatly benefit him when it comes to draft day later on this spring.

Q. What did you see from Brennen Presley tonight?

MIKE GUNDY: Well, the same thing that I've seen from him the last three years of high school. What he has going for him is -- well, Malcolm Rodriguez is sitting here next to me but they have the same characteristic. They love to play football. They are unselfish. They are tough. They are athletic and they are not scared and that's what he is. He's just going to get better and better with experience.

He actually had a pretty significant injury in the Baylor game; one that in the past has kept players on the sidelines for as few as three weeks and up to four weeks. We actually encouraged him to maybe not play in this game based on his injury. And a week later, he just basically said, I want to play in this game. He started practicing and played. That's what you get when you have a young man that loves to play the game. He's not scared to compete.

Q. When you look at Spencer being a starter the last two years. Today he did basically everything you want him to do. How does a game like this be a steppingstone into next year when he's going to be a veteran and just riding that wave of today's game?

MIKE GUNDY: He continues to improve and get better each game. Coach Rattay has done a really good job with him. Coach Dunn puts him in a good position offensively to have success.

The one area that he gained big strides in this year was his composure. His composure on the field, off the field, on the sideline; if something didn't go well, his composure was really, really good. That allows a quarterback to get better in my experience of doing this for 31 years. Quarterbacks have to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations and if they lose their composure, they are not comfortable. That's where he's made his biggest stride.

So if he'll continue to stay humble and work hard and train the way that he has in the off-season, then he'll continue to have success at this level.

Q. The three-point conversion, you mentioned trying to get young players to step up. What can you say about Presley's performance after having only one 20-20 catch on the season?

MIKE GUNDY: Brennen loves to play football. He's unselfish. He likes to compete, and he's not scared. We've seen that from him for three or four years in high school football and so far, it's coming true at this level for us.

Q. What was the Cheez-It Bath like? And everything that went on, the ups and downs and downs and dealing with COVID, what was the season like and what's it like now that it's over?

MIKE GUNDY: The Cheez-It Bath is much better than the ice cold Gatorade at my age; I can promise you that.

I was really happy for our players. This win might be as satisfying and gratifying win for me personally, selfishly, as any that I've had in my career. Just seeing the exhilaration and enjoyment on the players's faces after the game. This was a really, really good college football game and we beat a good football team. Miami is very talented and very athletic. I don't know if anybody has done their research, but the last four years, they have had 26 players that are in a draftable position for the NFL that. Will give you some kind of idea of what kind of talent and players that they have.

So with everything that's gone on, when you look at what we've accomplished, you can call it like you want, but if we played a non-conference, we're sitting here -- pretty good chance we're sitting here with another ten-win season with some pretty dramatic and considerable number of injuries early in the season that our players have rallied back from.

The game tonight was a really good illustration of how our team has been. Early in the game offensively we couldn't do anything wrong. In the second half, the defense went out and got two big stops right there in the end. The guys made plays and just found a way to win.

Selfishly, for me, it's as good a win as I've had in my career.

Q. With Spencer in general, how do you feel he played? Your game plan early was fascinating. Your first 15 plays were pass plays. Was that by design? That's not generally what you do or what anybody expected. What was going on and why did it work so well and not keep working?

MIKE GUNDY: Well, our game plan going in was to try to off-set some of the speed and strength that they had up front in their front six. They are really fast. Their backers run and get over the top of blocking schemes. We knew that we were going to have a few match-up problems trying to rush the football.

So our goal was to try to throw the ball 25 times in the first half. Spencer did execute and play very well. The schemes that we came up with in the first half were very well designed in my opinion.

And then when we got ahead by three touchdowns, they got in a little bit of a desperation mode where they started pressuring pretty much every play, and that wasn't a really good match up for us.

Once they started to smell blood, they just kept going and then we had to adjust halfway through the third period and how we want to attack them running the ball, and then some things we wanted to do throwing the ball based on them -- them at some point got into a desperation, were going to blitz every snap and it worked out well for them. Obviously they were smart and they stayed with it.

Thanks to everybody at the Cheez-It Bowl. Had a short experience but a great one.