Gundy Talks Win Over KU, Motekiai Maile, Laterals

Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy sat down with Cowboy radio voice Dave Hunziker Tuesday night at Chick-Fil-A for his weekly coach's show. 

On the win over Kansas:

"It was good for our guys to play on the road and play well in the latter part of the third and fourth quarter. We were able to force some turnovers, and then offensively we were able to rush the ball pretty well in the fourth quarter. In this league, you turn around and you're in a close game. It's important that you benefit from the turnover side of it. When you're on the road, it's important that you rush the ball so you can settle down the other team and settle down the crowd. We were able to accomplish some of that.
 
"Kansas still has a ways to go, and we were the better team. The encouraging part of it is that it's been a number of years since we've been able to rush the ball against anybody, so I was excited about that. It was a great day for Ben Grogan to become the all-time scoring leader here. There have been a lot of good kickers and offensive players here that have played here at Oklahoma State and that's a great accomplishment for him and our team. You have to score touchdowns in order for those guys to break that record and you've got to get down there so they can kick field goals.
 
"We were able to get out of the game pretty healthy. We were healthy for the first time in three weeks last week, for the most part, so we got out of that where guys can practice this week. I told them in the meeting today that it's important that we're healthy and we practice, and that the Iowa State game is a good example of what happens when we don't practice. We had enough guys hurt that didn't practice, and when you don't practice, you just don't play very well. At this age, these guys are influenced by the quality of reps they get in practice. Overall, it was good for us. We had a good workout Sunday night. As you can imagine, there is a lot of enthusiasm. The players feel good about themselves and had a good workout today."
 
On using Motekiai Maile on the offensive line in short yardage situations and if we can expect more of that this season:

"We have three guys that we can use, and we felt like with the defense that Kansas had, the style and the structure, it was important for us to run those plays. It's not always that way. It just depends on the personnel matchups. (Maile) did very well. He blocked off the edge and his guy was knocked off the edge almost every play, so he did well."
 
On if he's talked to the defensive players about lateralling the ball after turnovers:

"Well, I was delicate with it from the standpoint of not wanting to take away their fun. Two of the laterals were okay. One of them was pretty congested, but they're excited about turnovers, blocked PAT's and field goals. They've kind of taken that to another level. I thought it was pretty interesting that it ended up in Vincent (Taylor)'s hands and he ended up pitching it. At the start of the season, to think he's a defensive lineman and he would end up in a live game making a pitch twice in one season is kind of funny. They understand that if they're in the open field and there's nobody out there, they can do it, but if they're in traffic we would prefer that they not do that. We are happy that they're in a position where they're getting the turnovers and they're having fun with that part of the game."