Five Notes of Interest from Mike Gundy’s Presser

Mike Gundy conducted his annual pre-spring practice presser on Monday, and was surprisingly very forthcoming talking about personnel, his recent trip to OKC to watch Steph Curry, and more. Gundy spoke for a little less than an hour, but in case you missed it, here’s five points of interest you need to know.

1. Tralund Webber is up to 270 lbs.

Gundy mentioned that during his last trip to see junior college defensive end signee Webber was in January, and at that point he was up to 270-pounds. Robert Allen noted during the presser he was easily the most dominant player in his conference playing for Blinn College; and it’s a big area of interest given the talent departing from the defensive end position with Jimmy Bean and Emmanuel Ogbah. Webber was sitting around 245-250 earlier, but at 270-ish, he projects to be an immediate impact guy – a luxury for a junior college prospect.

2. The Barry J. Sanders intrigue is real

It was brought up during the presser that of the several players interviewed before practice, James Washington had a comment about Barry J. Sanders that he was “curious” of what the Stanford transfer could bring. He’s somewhat of an unknown, but Gundy agreed, saying, “Most everybody is going to be curious of what he can bring to the table.”

3. Several notable omissions from the spring roster

As noted by Tulsa World’s Mark Cooper, there are several interesting figures not listed on the spring roster, of which Gundy did not address.

• Chris Hardeman – Four-star cornerback signee from Alief, Texas who signed in 2014. Hardeman is a big talent who is slightly undersized and never made it into the rotation at cornerback, but saw time on special teams last season.

• Louis Brown – Brown was a last-minute addition to the 2015 recruiting class after backing out of his commitment to Texas. A four-star athlete who was expected to fill out at the defensive end position, Brown had a big upside with a ton of raw talent.

• Jack Kurzu – Kurzu was a three-star offensive lineman from Missouri who, to my knowledge, never played for Oklahoma State.

• CJ Curry – Curry is a receiver and brother of Darrius Curry who never saw the rotation in the deep core of receivers.

4. Staff continuation a big plus

From Gundy: “It makes it much easier for recruiting [when you can keep staff] .. it’s a headache to find quality people that fit.” The offensive line transformation has come along nicely with the recruiting prowess of Greg Adkins, and the other staff, Dan Hammerschmidt, Jason McEndoo and Marcus Arroyo, have all been nice additions. From a recruiting standpoint, having a continuation with staff and not being forced to forge new relationships with recruits is a huge plus.

5. Jeff Carr’s body is .. different

Jeff Carr looked a little out of place in his first year in Stillwater; if it were any other team, he would have been a leading candidate for a redshirt year. But the Cowboys desperately needed depth, and Carr found a niche contributing in the passing game. But Gundy spoke glowingly about Carr’s offseason progress, which speaks to his work ethic and dedication to build off last season. “Jeff Carr has reshaped his body,” Gundy said. With Barry J., Chris Carson, and Rennie Childs, the running back competition should be pretty fierce this offseason.