Mike Gundy Addresses Variety Of Topics In ESPN Interview

Fresh off of his appearance at the 2015 Big 12 Media Days, Mike Gundy spent Wednesday afternoon in Bristol, Conn., for ESPN’s annual Car Wash media tour.

Gundy sat down with senior ESPN’s Ivan Maisel for a nine-minute podcast to discuss everything from Daxx Garman, burning Mason Rudolph’s redshirt, transfers, and the rumors that he was on his way out last season.

As you may recall, Gundy missed last year’s Car Wash to attend one of his son’s baseball tournaments, a move that was criticized by many as more evidence of Gundy’s disconnect and apathy towards the media and promotion of Oklahoma State.

Regardless of whether that is true or not, this podcast serves as just more evidence of Gundy’s massive attitude turnaround from last season, when he was often stand off-ish with media, offering little information or insight.

Here are a few highlights from the podcast:

Gundy on the rumors of his desire to leave last season:

We went through a point in our season where we weren’t very good. There wasn’t answers. We were young up front, we had some injured lineman, our quarterback was hurt, we were playing with a guy that wasn’t really mobile. There wasn’t answers, so I got a little frustrated. And somebody took it and ran with it and made it into a big story. But my commitment to Oklahoma State and the commitment from them to me has been really good for the last 11 years.”

On whether he thought Rudolph was ready to be the starter last season before the Baylor game:

“No. I didn’t think he was ready, because if so, I would have played him. But he understood the offense, he hadn’t taken hits. His throws were good, not great, because he was a freshman. But now looking back, he was better than what I thought he was and that question has come up a lot. I admitted it. He played better than I thought he would.”

On Daxx Garman’s transfer:

…we have an obligation to every young man that comes to our program to do everything we can to get an opportunity to get a degree, be a part of a team and enjoy his four-year experience. There’s times it doesn’t always go as smooth as you want. That’s just the way life is and that’s just the way it is with college football. So, we have to reach out to the players at times. Keeping Daxx Garman at Oklahoma State would have been better for us, because now we have an experienced third-year quarterback 0r second-team quarterback, but it’s not what’s best for Daxx Garman in his opinion. So, we have to follow through.”

You can check out the full podcast here.

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