Oklahoma State’s
Cowboys coach says new early period will create equality, parity
Mike Gundy, whose team will play Thursday in the Camping World Bowl, says the new early signing period is great for college football.
You can count Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy as a big fan of the new three-day early signing period.
“I think the early signing period is going to be one of the best things we’ve done for college football,” Gundy said Friday, moments before his team took the field at Camping World Stadium in preparation of Thursday’s Camping World Bowl.
“It’s going to create an equality and parity over the next three or four years that we’ve never seen. Is it stressful on the coaches? Yes. Is it stressful on the players? Yes. But I don’t see it changing. It’s going to clean up some things that would happen in January right before National Signing Day that make the game better.”
While other coaches were crisscrossing the country by car or by plane in order to get last-minute commitments from high school recruits, Gundy took a more nontraditional route.
He traveled by helicopter on Wednesday to visit many of the
program’s 22 commitments, arriving in a style only fitting of the 50-year-old football coach. His exploits were highlighted on his Twitter account.
“Eventually, what’s going to happen is you’ve really got to get out there and do your job. Get your guys on board and get them signed up in December,” he said. “As you look across the country, almost everybody signed almost 80 percent of their class and if you look at us, we signed 99 percent of our class.
“So, it gives you a chance to find out who you want and get them on board.”
As of Friday afternoon, the final day of the signing period, Oklahoma State had secured the No. 28 class in the nation, according to 247sports.com.
Potent offense
The challenge for Virginia Tech and defensive coordinator Bud Foster is how to slay the monster that is
Oklahoma State’s high-powered offense.
The Cowboys are the first team in Big 12 history to feature a 4,000-yard passer (Mason Rudolph), two 1,000-yard receivers (James Washington, Marcell Ateman) and a 1,000-yard rusher (Justice Hill).
“We’ve been very fortunate. We have really good players,” Gundy said in describing his team’s offensive performance this season. “Several guys will have a good chance to continue playing and making some money. We have a number of guys that understand our system. They buy in.
“On offense, you have one person with the ball and 10 unselfish players. They’ve all bought in. We’ve been very fortunate, we’ve had terrific quarterback play and obviously, we’ve got receivers, running backs and our offensive line understands.”
Washington delayed
Senior receiver James Washington’s trip to Orlando ran into a bit of a snag after the 2017 Biletnikoff Award winner was delayed on his return from at trip home to Texas. Washington wasn’t with the team on Friday, but he is expected to rejoin them today.
Christmas at Disney
Oklahoma State players and coaches will spend Christmas Day at Disney World rather than on the practice field.
“They’re excited about it, even the players, about being there on Christmas Day,” Gundy said. “We’ll give them that day off and we’ll let them have some fun.”
Gundy said while the bowl game is a reward for the players’ hard work this season, ultimately the goal is to get a win.
“We come down here to play the very best that we can and represent the Big 12 Conference and Oklahoma State,” he said.
“You’ve got a time to play and a time to focus and right now we’re about to get focused on practice,” Hill added.