What Mike Gundy said about facing BYU this week

Mike Gundy has long been known as one of the most eccentric coaches in college football, and that reputation was further solidified as he spoke to media members Monday afternoon.

Oklahoma State’s head coach — who usually meets with reporters in person — opted instead to hold his weekly press conference virtually with no video feed. But why?

“Well, I had a little run-in with my cattle over the weekend,” Gundy said. “I guess they’ve been watching us play, and I got head-butted.”

Yes, Gundy had an altercation with a cow and now has an eye injury to show for it. Talk about an eventful bye week. There truly is a first time for everything.

As for Gundy’s team, Oklahoma State will travel to Provo this week for a Friday night clash with No. 13 BYU.

The Cowboys will be searching for their first Big 12 win, while the Cougars will attempt to remain unbeaten.

“They’re having a great year, Kalani (Sitake) is doing a great job,” Gundy said of BYU. “They’re very mature. They’re getting really, really good quarterback play, in my opinion, and they have good players. I think they’ve got probably three or four guys that are going to get drafted on the team, just what I see from the naked eye.

“... They’re playing with confidence. The quarterback’s playing really good at this time and they’re getting good pass rush. They get good pressure on the quarterback with a four-man rush.”

The Cougars and Cowboys last met in 2023’s regular season finale in Stillwater, where Gundy’s squad escaped with a double overtime win to advance to the conference championship game.

BYU, on the other hand, fell to 5-7 that day and failed to reach bowl eligibility for the first time since 2017.

Now, the script is flipped, with the Cougars being considered as a Big 12 contender and Oklahoma State desperate to right the ship, though Gundy says he believes his team is headed in the right direction.

“Obviously, they want to win and have success, but I watch their willingness to compete in practice, their attentiveness in meetings and practice, and it’s been good,” Gundy said. Like I said, they were really good last week. I think that the maturity does help us. I think they understand and they can see where we’ve been deficient in certain areas and ways to improve that to give ourselves a chance to win the game.”