Just read through this article, and thought his comments were worth sharing:
On if he knew much about Lance Leipold when Kansas hired him
“I’d seen Buffalo play some but didn’t pay attention much, but I thought, just from a distance, I knew that they had success. I thought they were pretty fundamentally sound, but again, it’s so far up there that I never crossed paths with him. From what I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a bit, they’re fundamentally sound. In my opinion, they’re well coached, from what I see. I like and don’t like the direction they’re going. I appreciate quality coaching and fundamentals and technique and stuff but not when I have to play against them.”
On balancing Big 12 title game picture and day-to-day operations
“Honestly, I mean I would love to help with the story, but [the players] don’t bring that up. Maybe because I don’t. We need to work on Kansas. This is a team that has gotten considerably better, and so there shouldn’t be anybody thinking about that because we need to play well against Kansas first.”
On if OSU will try to use more running backs against Kansas
“Well, there’s not very many plays in these games. Iowa State plays extremely slow. Kansas plays extremely slow, or they have. I’m guessing that’s what they want to do. So, there’s not as many plays in the game, so it’s not as much of a concern.”
On what surprised him most about the Kansas-Oklahoma game
“They were a physical team. Their quarterback is athletic, and they have a freshman running back that we offered. He’s a good player. And defensively, they made plays. First thing I did was flip on the Kansas-Duke game from about four weeks ago and start working it back, and I thought I was going to see a blowout. There’s 2:56 seconds to go in the third quarter, and Kansas was ahead. And then I watched some of the other things that happened, and watched [Saturday’s] game, they’re a well-coached team. [Lance Leipold] does a good job with technique and fundamentals, and every week they’re getting better, in my opinion. That’s what I saw, and I saw the best performance against Oklahoma.”
On if there is any risk in Oklahoma State overlooking Kansas
“We’re not far enough along to overlook anybody. I expect this to be a fourth-quarter game. When you have an offensive capability to score 45 or 50 points, then there are times that you can say, ‘Well, maybe we’ll overlook somebody.’ But we’re not in a position right now, based on a variety of things to overlook anybody because we don’t score as many points as we have the years past for whatever reason, so that shouldn’t be an issue.”
On what he saw in Kansas running back Devin Neal in the recruiting process
“We offered him early in his career. We liked him, and he’s a fantastic baseball player. I think he was draftable. My buddy, who’s an agent, called me about him a couple of years ago, felt like he was really draftable in baseball. We tried to get him, and he committed early to Kansas, just from right down right there (being from Lawrence).
“He’s fast. He’s physical, strong physically. I don’t know what his size is right now, but we felt like he would be a 200-pounder after he’s in school for a year or so. I don’t have any idea how big he is now, but we liked his physique and what we thought could be a really good college running back.”
The Rundown: What Mike Gundy Said at His Weekly Media Luncheon
On Iowa State, Kansas and his new contract.
pistolsfiringblog.com
On if he knew much about Lance Leipold when Kansas hired him
“I’d seen Buffalo play some but didn’t pay attention much, but I thought, just from a distance, I knew that they had success. I thought they were pretty fundamentally sound, but again, it’s so far up there that I never crossed paths with him. From what I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a bit, they’re fundamentally sound. In my opinion, they’re well coached, from what I see. I like and don’t like the direction they’re going. I appreciate quality coaching and fundamentals and technique and stuff but not when I have to play against them.”
On balancing Big 12 title game picture and day-to-day operations
“Honestly, I mean I would love to help with the story, but [the players] don’t bring that up. Maybe because I don’t. We need to work on Kansas. This is a team that has gotten considerably better, and so there shouldn’t be anybody thinking about that because we need to play well against Kansas first.”
On if OSU will try to use more running backs against Kansas
“Well, there’s not very many plays in these games. Iowa State plays extremely slow. Kansas plays extremely slow, or they have. I’m guessing that’s what they want to do. So, there’s not as many plays in the game, so it’s not as much of a concern.”
On what surprised him most about the Kansas-Oklahoma game
“They were a physical team. Their quarterback is athletic, and they have a freshman running back that we offered. He’s a good player. And defensively, they made plays. First thing I did was flip on the Kansas-Duke game from about four weeks ago and start working it back, and I thought I was going to see a blowout. There’s 2:56 seconds to go in the third quarter, and Kansas was ahead. And then I watched some of the other things that happened, and watched [Saturday’s] game, they’re a well-coached team. [Lance Leipold] does a good job with technique and fundamentals, and every week they’re getting better, in my opinion. That’s what I saw, and I saw the best performance against Oklahoma.”
On if there is any risk in Oklahoma State overlooking Kansas
“We’re not far enough along to overlook anybody. I expect this to be a fourth-quarter game. When you have an offensive capability to score 45 or 50 points, then there are times that you can say, ‘Well, maybe we’ll overlook somebody.’ But we’re not in a position right now, based on a variety of things to overlook anybody because we don’t score as many points as we have the years past for whatever reason, so that shouldn’t be an issue.”
On what he saw in Kansas running back Devin Neal in the recruiting process
“We offered him early in his career. We liked him, and he’s a fantastic baseball player. I think he was draftable. My buddy, who’s an agent, called me about him a couple of years ago, felt like he was really draftable in baseball. We tried to get him, and he committed early to Kansas, just from right down right there (being from Lawrence).
“He’s fast. He’s physical, strong physically. I don’t know what his size is right now, but we felt like he would be a 200-pounder after he’s in school for a year or so. I don’t have any idea how big he is now, but we liked his physique and what we thought could be a really good college running back.”
