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Notes on Mike Gundy’s West Virginia Press Conference

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Mike Gundy opened up today with some comments on K-State and carried on to talk about, of course, The ‘Eers, 3rd downs this season, our QBs, the offense in general, Big Ben (our Big Ben) in the 4th, Ogbah, and…GREAT – Monken!!

  • Opened with, “Most of our postgame comments were accurate (see – I can do it!). The defense really did a nice job of adjusting at halftime.”
  • “We’re moving forward. We’re still a somewhat fresh and healthy football team, which is important. Defensively, we’re tackling better. Offensively, we need to find a way to run the football better and be a more balanced team.”
Regarding K-State
  • How do you explain our 3rd down success? “We’re a little better up front. Quarterback’s a little more experienced. Think we have a good group of receivers which is helping on 3rd down.”
  • “Last year we had more 3-and-out’s than we’ve had in a long time. I don’t think anybody had to look those numbers up. I think you could feel it.”
  • On Mason’s performance: “He stays very calm. We’re very pleased with his demeanor and the way he handles the game.”
On the 4th Quarter and Ben Grogan
  • “A game like that – you hate that one team has to lose. But, our players, when we gave up that touchdown on 4th down, that’s a time when guys can tank a little, but they didn’t.”
  • “We’ve come a long ways from a year ago. To be able to go out on 4th down and throw it and keep a drive alive…” 
  • Discussing Ben and kickers in general: “I’ve been involved with college football for nearly 30 years and I have no clue what goes through a kicker’s mind at any time. His demeanor – he’s been a lot like Mason’s. He doesn’t get too excited and doesn’t get too upset.”
Talking WVU
  • “If your team’s playing good, got good players, you can play just about anywhere. If you’re middle of the road, playing on the road can be difficult. I think our team is somewhere in between right now.” Somewhere in between good and middle of the road…where is that? On the shoulder?! I don’t know…
  • “We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
  • On the ‘Eers defense: “They’ve really improved. Prior to playing Oklahoma, they really haven’t given up many points at all.”
  • “They’re playing more TE, more FB. His style of play is really nowhere near what it was when he was here.”
  • Has he thought about the win on Saturday making it the 3rd longest winning streak in OSU history? “I’ll take a quote from the famous Todd Monken. ‘Whether you’re coaching in junior high, high school, junior college, or Division 13…’ Like he claims he played Division 13 ball, ‘Division 3, Division 1, the NFL, if you’re winning it’s fun; if you’re losing, it’s no fun.’” More of this at the end!
What about Ogbah?
  • “He’s kind of a coach’s dream. He just plays – and plays hard.”
  • “He’s in a difficult situation, to be the age he is and be a potential 1st round pick. You know, the value of his future and to be able to be able to set that aside and practice and perform and give some leadership skills like he has is very rare.” Wow! Love that Ogbah!!
  • “When he gets going – coming around that corner…he’s pretty good.” My nominee for The Understatement Of The Year!
  • “His best years are ahead of him. When he’s 24-25-26 years old, he’s really going to take off!”
  • OK – this is a paraphrase; but, here’s what Gundy basically said: “He looks like one of those guys that makes people think, ‘Why would you want to play quarterback in the NFL?’”
On Yurcich and the offense
  • “I think Mike and the staff are doing a great job.” This was SO Mike Gundy: “I’m usually the Grim Reaper on Monday morning and I know they don’t look forward to me coming in.”
  • Then…Bill (I’m guessing Haisten’s) phone went off – a classic presser moment! “Now that’s inexperienced journalism right there! If Bill wasn’t my buddy, I wouldn’t say that.” See – he does have friends!
  • Robert Allen: “That’s a good ringer, though!”
  • Gundy: “Not as good as Beiber’s ringer…but it’s a good ringer.”
  • Now, back to the offense: “Mike and them have done a good job not exposing the areas where we’re deficient. I believe in balance. We will continue to work to find a way to run for 150 yards a game. Last week is not a fair comparison to the progress we’ve made.”
  • Can Carson and Childs both go next week? “Yes”
  • On JW: “I want him to do more. There’s a bigger package for him. I wish he could be in there more because he deserves to be in there…I want to let him do more but I don’t want to disrupt the flow Mason has with the game.” That is SO cool – I think, for some reason.
  • On the pass-to-run ratio: “I’m sure the fans think – throw it for 600 yards and run for 10. If you’re winning, it’s ok! I’m not comfortable with it with our personnel right now.”
  • I think this answers a lot of questions for SO many of us: “If we had 7 experienced O-linemen up front, with a 2-year guy returning at QB with 20 games under his belt, I’d say, ‘Just fire away!’ But, we’re not really there. We have the WR’s to run that style of offense, but we’re not as deep up front. And the quarterback, who’s getting better, he’s just not there yet.” Coach, can we put that up for a fan vote?
  • “We still need to rush the ball 30x and get 150 yards.” Hmmmmm???
In Conclusion…
  • Coach was asked about the “free 4th down” against K-State: “I was unaware of the situation until after the game. Then, it was already over, so I didn’t care.” Visor Time!!
  • Then, Mike ended with 2 great statements. One seemed to be a shot at Cris Collinsworth for dissing B-Weeds. The other was a weird kind of shout out to Monken:
  • “One of the commentators said something…was it Collinsworth…?” Great!
  • The explanation of the “complete” Monken quote: “If you want all the words, go look at ESPN’s ‘Year of the Quarterback’ and fill in the rest.” Gundy Badger!

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