Mike Gundy Is Starting to Scare Me with How Much He Likes This Team

Tiger Woods has coined this ridiculous phrase that’s become somewhat of a punch line in golf media circles (which I’m sure all of you are totally plugged into). “Feels travel” he says when asked questions about hitting white spheres with metal sticks in far-flung lands.

My feels, indeed, have traveled with me to Wisconsin as I sit here awaiting the start of the 97th PGA Championship. But they are not the feels Woods is talking about.

I have the feels about Oklahoma State’s 2015 football team and Mike Gundy is doing nothing to dissuade me from this. The phrases “deeper than 2011” and “most I’ve ever enjoyed it” are being thrown around like they’re third team out routes (and handled as ambivalently!)

Sigh…

#okstate Gundy agrees that OSU has more depth overall than 2011 Big 12 champion Cowboys: "It’s a good time for me. I’m enjoying it.”

— Bill Haisten ?? (@billhaisten) August 10, 2015

“I don’t have to coach much,” he continued to the Tulsa World. “You want to play hard and be aggressive and get them ready, but then try to keep them all fresh so we can keep that depth. It’s a good time for me. I’m enjoying it.”

I know better than to purchase what is being sold without at least stuffing the receipt somewhere safe, and yet, as one email friend put it the other day, “this isn’t the OSU you grew up with, buddy.”

It’s not. I did not grow up with Jordan Burtons and Emmanuel Ogbahs and Victor Salakos. I certainly did not grow up in a world where losing your No. 1 CB for two weeks was barely an afterthought because it allowed other guys who will play time to understand how exactly they will be playing.

“We have a chance to be pretty good out there on defense,” Gundy said. “I’m really excited about watching them play. Their practices and their aggressiveness have been good up to this point.”

Think about how crazy that is if you’re a lifer. All-Big 12 CB goes down with knee injury. No biggie, we have four (!) guys right behind him who can offer 85-90 percent of what he brings.

You see why I have the feels.

And Gundy isn’t backing off. In fact, more like doubling down. On Tuesday, he repeated a mantra that’s been familiar this fall. “Get us to September healthy and let’s see what happens.”

“We have a more mature team this year, so we want to be smart in how we handle the players … I think we’re really comfortable with where we’re at, X’s and O’s-wise and on both sides of the ball. We just want guys to compete.”

This is so wildly different from what last year was like that it’s hard to believe we’re talking about the same program right now. Glenn Spencer even seems to be enjoying himself (as only Glenn Spencer can enjoy himself).

So I’ll soak in the optimism and let the future wash over me because nobody knows what October and November will bring. That’s the great thing about the (sort of) democracy of college football — at some point you have to go back up all that hoopla from August.

The way this man is talking and feeling, something tells me we can.

Gundy has been sporting this smug "I know something you don't about this team" grin all summer. (via @osuathletics) pic.twitter.com/YnOShEl1Zw

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) August 12, 2015