What Mike Gundy said after Oklahoma State was trounced by Oregon

EUGENE — Oklahoma State was trounced by No. 6 Oregon 69-3 Saturday afternoon at Autzen Stadium.

Mike Gundy recapped the first loss of the season for the Cowboys (1-1), who are off next week and host Tulsa on Sept. 19.

Below is a transcript of Gundy’s postgame press conference.

Oregon football 2025 season schedule, scores

MIKE GUNDY

Opening Statement…

“I told the team that I did not do a very good job of getting our players in the right position. We were too complicated in all three phases. We tried to do too much on offense and defense, and we ended up not being able to execute at anything. That is my fault. I don’t fault the players for what they were doing. Oregon is a very good football team. They were trying to find ways to maneuver, get stops, and move the football. We ended up not being very good at anything and did not execute. Oregon got the early scores, and we were playing catch-up, which doesn’t help. I have to do a better job. I should have gone in there last weekend and said, “Look, guys, here’s the deal. We have to be very simple. We need to execute, be in the right spot, tackle, rush the ball, and use some play action.” We go to a point where we were so far behind that we were reaching for anything. I shared with the team that the good news is this was just one game. I am going to take the blame with them, but they have all got to come back and train tomorrow. We will evaluate the tape, the coaches have to take responsibility, and then we will move forward. We have an open week, so we have a chance to get four good days of practice in. Then, we need to get back into a game routine and get ready to play Tulsa.”

On replicating Oregon’s speed and strength in a quick turnaround…

“Well, it is difficult. They have skilled guys. There are times when we were out of place defensively and times when they just ran away from us. As coaches, we need to evaluate that. We have to see if it was the concept or just their skilled players. I know it was some of both just from watching it in the game. There were times when we were in position, and they just ran away from us. I still should have just told our guys to be simple, and I didn’t do that. I had a feeling on Thursday that we might be doing too much. We were trying to find ways to maneuver and make plays when we should have focused on executing. That is as much my fault as it is anybody’s.”

On if the game execution plan was misaligned due to all of the new coaching staff…

“Some. When I watched practice on Thursday, I kind of had a feeling that we were trying to do too much, and we are not in a position to do that right now with where we are at, from a youth standpoint. I should have known better than that. I don’t think it’s on the new staff, really. We should have just gone out and tried to execute.”

On if this was the type of situation he was referring to when speaking about playing teams with different NIL budgets…

“First of all, when I made that comment, I was complimenting Oregon for what they had done. Secondly, which I said later in the week, we have made commitments, too. We need be better and fundamentally sound. That is really what it comes down to. Sometimes you are going to play people who can run away from you. Then, we need to look at that and see where we are. We didn’t play good enough with the systems we had and execute to put ourselves in that position.”

On if this loss is disheartening…

“Yeah, I feel bad, and I told the team that. I feel bad for them, but this is football. Sometimes things like that happen. The one thing that we can do is come back next week and work our butts off. We need to continue to try and execute. Zane [Flores] throws a couple of balls to Oregon at the end, and at that point, we probably should have just run the ball. One time, Flores threw it, and Oregon had a loop where the linebacker came all the way across the field. He would have never seen that guy. We should have run the ball and tried to work on some base stuff. We were just trying to get something going.”

On where he feels this program is after seeing the result tonight, based on their previous rankings…

“We still have some places where we are young. To be honest with you, we have a lot of new guys. We are still working together from a staff and player standpoint. I don’t know if I necessarily have to do that. What is important for our staff now is next week’s practice. We need to look at what we did wrong as coaches and where our players need to improve. Some of it could be a skillset; we have to look at all three of those things.”

On what benefits Zane Flores can get from all the snaps he took today…

“Every time he plays, it is going to benefit him. There is no substitute for repetition and live reps. None. Zero. He will be better in the next game just because he has played in this game. He will see some things and the timing of it, particularly at that position. The more reps you get, the more you get used to it. That is what he will have to do.”

On if he is worried about how the team will respond at practice…

“I think they will practice really well next week. I really do.”

On where he gets the confidence that the team will respond well…

“I have been around them since July 28, and I have seen how they’ve worked. I think they will come out and practice hard. They will be excited to get back out on the field in two weeks, to be honest with you.”

On how the culture of the team on the sideline felt today…

“I think the culture part of it, we are going to find out this week. We talked about this several weeks ago. To a certain extent, nobody has been in a difficult position, so we don’t know how they are going to react. We will find out this week. In most cases, we have the guys for years, so we have them trained and we know who they are. The most important thing now will be how they react to this moving forward. They were fine on the sidelines. There was enough disappointment that it made me feel good, because it should be. They should be disappointed because they want to play better and have success. I saw that. I walked up and down the bench quite a bit when it was a difficult time during the game, and I didn’t see any finger-pointing. I didn’t see any players who were not willing to accept coaching, and I looked for it today. So, that was a positive.”

On if he likes where their bye-week is…

“I do now. Some people say this bye-week is too early, but we practice for four weeks in the summer. The timing of it is fine after game one or two, somewhere in there. It will be good for us now to get back to basic football and reprogram these guys. I also have to handle the coaches in the right way because I am just convinced that we tried to do too much. We tried to do so much to give ourselves the chance to win the game that it pushed us into not being able to execute.”

On how he thought Zane Flores played today…

“Well, obviously, he threw two balls to Oregon for interceptions and touchdowns in the second half. There were a couple of times when he was late on his throws. We had a lineman downfield, and he is holding the ball a little bit. That is part of being young, and we have to coach him out of it. I know that he competed, and he did not seem phased. He was not flinching, in my opinion. I need to talk to Coach Johns and see where he was at, but from a distance, I thought he was fine.”

On if Zane Flores’ three throws batted down by the line were a blocking issue or him not seeing someone…

“I don’t know. It would be unfair of me to give you an answer without watching the tape. I know there were a couple of times where they pushed us back, but I don’t know what he saw on one side compared to the other.”

On if he worries about the high expectations he has set in the past affecting his future…

“I am never worried about myself; I am worried about the team. My job is to continue to build this program with the new players we have and get in the position where we are in a competitive position like that. That is the only thing I am concerned about. I don’t think anybody on our staff has forgotten to coach football. It is just a matter of us giving the team= something they can execute.”

On his message to the fanbase…

“My message is to stay with us. That is what we do, and it is in our alma mater. I understand that the fans get frustrated. I don’t get frustrated, but I don’t like the result. There are different ways to handle adversity. People outside the program get frustrated, and I get that. It is just part of competitive athletics. The one thing I can say is our team will work hard in practice, and two weeks from now, they will come out and play hard. That part I am fairly sure about. We would love for the fans to come out and support their team, and we will try to do our part. There is no doubt that our team is disappointed about what happened today. I guarantee you that.”

On if there is an update on Trent Howland…

“He put a boot on. I think he turned an ankle. Honestly, we will know more tomorrow.”

On how good he thinks this Oregon team is…

“I think they are pretty good. I said a week ago that they are a good team; there is no reason to deny it. There is nothing wrong with saying the teams you are playing are good. They have a lot of skill, speed, and they are very big up front on both sides of the ball. They are extremely big. We did not put much pressure on the quarterback today. We talked about that a week ago. I was concerned about whether we could put pressure on him. They are a good football team.

-- James Crepea covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten.

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