Eric Bailey
Tulsa World OSU Sports Reporter
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STILLWATER — Oklahoma State had good workouts after last week’s Oregon game.
Mike Gundy said his roster was excited to get back to the practice field and the players were crisp, emotional and enthusiastic.
Would the 69-3 loss provide motivation or does the team just wash it from their memories?
“We graded the game, corrected it and then moved on. We don’t really go back to it, much less with it being over a week,” Gundy said during Monday’s news conference.
Things are being simplified by the coaching staff. The bye week was treated normally. It didn’t matter if the past was a win or a loss.
What we really worked on is getting better on who we are, our schemes on offense, defense, special teams, developing some of the younger players and the newer players more so than worrying about the next game.”
OSU will host Tulsa at 6:30 p.m. Friday in its final nonconference contest before opening Big 12 action.
The Cowboys won the season opener against FCS opponent UT Martin 27-7 before the Oregon contest.
When you play two programs of vast difference, is it difficult to evaluate the roster? What do the coaches search for on film?
“We look at missed assignments, fundamentals, techniques. We look at coaching. Different things. We can get a pretty good feel from it. Those are the things that we have to improve on, which we worked on last week,” Gundy said.
Has Gundy learned anything about his new coaching staff? How will they rebound?
“Well they don’t have a choice. They have to come back. Coaches, it’s a job so we understand the daily operation,” Gundy said. “It’s a little bit different with young people, even though they’re grown men, they’re still young people. They’ve been good. They have to lead. It’s their responsibility.”
Friday night lights
OSU will play on a Friday for the third time in its past nine contests.
The Cowboys had an October game at BYU (38-35 loss) and a November game at Colorado (52-0 loss) on Friday last season.
Gundy expects the non-traditional game days will be more normal in the future.
“I know that the commissioner wants us to be accessible to whatever the media wants and obviously they’re in charge. So I think there’ll be more of them,” Gundy said.
This is just the third Friday home game for OSU since 1940. They played against Kansas in 1956 and hosted Kansas State in 2023.
“I just think it’s the new wave. There will always be people concerned. It interferes with high school football,” Gundy said. “It’s difficult for fans to get to the games with little kids and things like that, but the people that pay the bills want Friday night games, and so that’s going to be the direction moving forward.”
Gundy doesn’t know if playing non-Saturday nonconference games will help his program avoid conference contests on Thursdays or Fridays.
“I don’t have an answer for that. Again, the only thing I would say is that whenever they’ve asked me to do it, I’ve said I’m fine because I’m stressing the importance of our television partners,” Gundy said.
“I’m not necessarily asked to trade off or work a deal, because I know that. I’m going to guess the commissioner obviously could answer that, but I’m going to guess that most coaches would like to stay in a routine, but we all can’t. Somebody’s got to do it, so we’ve always been willing to work with them.”
Growing on the line
Bob Schick is Oklahoma State’s only offensive lineman to start at the same spot – left guard – in both games this season.
Markell Samuel and Nuku Mafi have drawn starts at left tackle, Kasen Carpenter and Austin Kawecki have gotten nods at center, Kawecki and Noah McKinney have earned starts at right guard and Mafi and Grant Seagren were starters at right tackle.
Was there anything that’s really surprised Schick on the line so far this season?
“It’s been really good to just see the young guys kind of come in, step up and fill the roles that need to be filled,” Schick said. “We were talking about Nuku moving from the right side to the left side, just seeing him coming and stepping up like that. As well as Grant coming on the right side (at right tackle).”
Schick is in his sixth season of college football. He was asked how long it takes an offensive line to truly begin to jell.
“I think maybe the third week is pretty good,” he said. “The first week or two, you know, we’ve had some injuries and stuff, and so now we kind of solidified a group that’s able to go out there and hopefully prove something.”
OSU-Baylor time set
The Big 12 announced that the Sept. 27 game between visiting Baylor and OSU will start at 2:30 p.m.
It’s the conference opener for both schools. Last season, Baylor defeated the Cowboys 38-28 in Waco.
eric.bailey@tulsaworld.com
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Eric Bailey
Tulsa World OSU Sports Reporter
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