OSU, Ole Miss More Physical In Practice Heading Into Sugar Bowl

The time for talk is almost over for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, as they are set to take on the Ole Miss Rebels at the All State Sugar Bowl in what could be a hard-hitting slugfest.

Things got packed as the fans kept filing into New Orleans, ready to celebrate on New Year's Eve.

But, if you're a player, you're probably getting a little restless by now - ready to play and ready to hit someone other than a teammate.

We've talked in the past about Mike Gundy's approach to limit the physical part getting ready for games, but he's changed course for this one. In fact, both coaches let us in on some of their preparation process at Thursday morning's final news conference.

"We felt that Mississippi is a physical football team and we needed to prepare our team best we could for what we think and what we should expect from the game. Our practices have been more physical than what they have been in the last couple bowl games," Gundy said.

Ole Miss head coach, Hugh Freeze said, "We practiced differently. We were more physical, we practice more, but mainly it was more of a schedule to just make sure it's consistence and day to day, makes sense."

One obvious reason Freeze changed the Ole Miss plan? They were blown out by TCU in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl last year.

Freeze was also asked about how OSU has found creative ways to manufacture rushing yards and he compared Gundy to a high school coach, but it wasn’t trash talk, he meant it as a compliment.