Mike Gundy On Barry J. Sanders: ‘He’s Nothing Like His Dad’

One of the biggest questions coming into fall camp was whether Barry J. Sanders could be a solution to OSU’s running game problem. If you have been paying attention, you know the running back issues run a lot deeper than a single transfer, and there are myriad ways to fix them so it seems a little unfair to hoist those expectations on one guy, even one with Barry’s last name. Mike Gundy agreed with that notion on Saturday at fan appreciation day.

Note: Gundy calls Barry J. Sanders “Junior” because he is Barry Sanders’ son, not because he has a “Junior” attached to his name anywhere. This is confusing because people think his name is Barry Sanders Jr. It’s not. It’s Barry J. Sanders.

“People don’t necessarily want to hear about the norm, they want to hear about things that could potentially be bigger,” said Gundy while also inadvertently referencing why sports blogs like this one exist.

“He draws a lot of attention and he’s been tremendous in the way he’s handled it. He’s humble and he understands his background and embraces it and does a good job with it. His temperament has allowed him to be a member of our team really quick. I always suspect each week that people are going to ask, whether it’s from the local media or the team that we play, about Junior. It’s just what drives the market.”

Yes, this is a thing that’s going to happen pretty much every press conference Gundy has. Everyone knew this coming into the year.

“Junior is nothing like his dad,” added Gundy.” Junior’s got great communication skills. He loves to talk to people. When you get Barry Sr. in the right element, he’s good, but he doesn’t want to be in that element. Junior is like his mom. He’s got great people skills, he’s got a great smile, he likes to be around people and he’s a great communicator. He’s going to go out into the world and do very well.

“He catches the ball well. I have seen clips of him when he was playing out west, where he does some cuts and things that are similar, but it’s unfair to even begin to compare anybody to his dad. We’re going to know a lot more about him in three weeks, and we’re going to know a lot more about him at the end of September and October and what he can bring to our team.”

The running back battle has been fierce though. As Kyle B. pointed out, it likely will be all fall. Jeff Carr, who is in the mix to get a ton of touches, spoke briefly about that at fan appreciation day as well.

“The competitiveness,” Carr said when he was asked what stuck out. “Everyone’s competing at a high level and thinks they can be the guy. Everyone feels like they can help the team.”

Gundy agreed.

“They have a good working relationship, but I would agree that there is some truth to that just by human nature. There’s some freshmen in this class that I think has helped push the entire group, but one thing that I have enjoyed watching in just the last few days is that Chris Carson’s work ethic and approach, and Rennie (Childs’) work ethic has been really good. Whether it has been (because of) Junior or just them wanting to improve an area on our team that we need to help improve the overall picture has been good.”