The AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic hosted their press conference with an open phone call with representatives of the Cotton Bowl and both invited teams, Ole Miss (the home team) and Oklahoma State (the visitors). All the bowl representatives, representatives of both the SEC and Big 12 and head coaches Mike Gundy and Houston Nutt are excited about the special matchup taking place on January 2nd, 2010.
To listen to the full audio from the December 7th call, click here. Here are some excerpts of questions asked of both head coaches by media personnel participating in the call:
What is the general feeling of matching up with each other in this game given your history of working together and being on the same sidelines before? (Robert Allen, Cowboy Radio Network)
Coach Nutt: Well, I’ll tell ya, when I was working for Pat Jones, my first memory of Mike Gundy was right at the very first two-a-days we noticed a guy who was pretty confident stepping into that huddle and once he got his chance as a true freshman – he took over about midway through – and we knew there was one person we wanted in that huddle. And it was Mike Gundy. A tremendous leader, had a lot of confidence and he knew how to move those chains. And so now as you fast-forward, as you see him work as the head coach now things are pretty much the same except now he’s directing things. I have an awesome respect of what he’s done and I’m proud of him and we had some fun times.
When you talk about Hart Lee Dykes – that’s who I got to coach – he called me last week, in fact. You talk about Barry Sanders, Mike Gundy and the rest of the crew – those were fun times. And of course Diana, my wife, that’s who I met the last month of school when I was a senior at Oklahoma State. This is going to be a great month for us. We’re going to get to see a lot of people – Dave Martin, Holder – there’s going to be a lot of people. I’m sure Sandra and Joyce are still there, right Mike? So there’s a lot of people, a lot of familiar faces we’re going to get to see.
Coach Gundy: Well Coach, they’re still here. We just moved into a new building, but they’re still here. I feel the same way coach does. When he was here we had some great times, some great memories. And I’m sure Hart Lee probably called you for tickets and I’m sure he’s probably gonna call me for tickets next week. He always has got some kind of way to get tickets.
Kristen and I have followed Coach Nutt’s career ever since he left here and moved on to several places and been a head coach. It seems like late at night if you ever get a chance to watch games, you flip through the channels to try to find somebody that you know, that you’ve been around and that you care about. Kristen and I always watch the games late at night. The SEC teams always play those night games and we turn it over there. Coach Nutt’s teams have always had success and have found a way to move the football and score points and win.
As he said earlier, there’s just a great amount of respect. And I think that’s what makes this profession so special is when there’s people that have been together at one time or another and they’ve been able to branch out and it all goes back to the ties of hard work and leadership. So we’ve been very impressed – not surprisingly – with what coach Nutt has done and his success and just looking forward to being at the bowl and seeing his family. I’m looking forward in him having a chance to meet my three boys. I knew he had young children when he was at Oklahoma State and now I’ve got young boys and I know they’re looking forward to meeting him, so it will be a great day.
How influential was your time at Oklahoma State as a young coach and player on you as a coach now? (Chris Talbot, Associated Press)
Coach Gundy: I think one thing that’s interesting is if you look at Oklahoma State and then you look at Coach Nutt’s career and his success he’s had at Ole Miss, I think it was instilled in us to find a way to run the football. I can’t speak for coach, but I know for us here at Oklahoma State - I think this year was the fourth year in a row that we’ve led the Big 12 in rushing and I would say looking back on my time here as a player at Oklahoma State when I was with Coach Nutt would be what Coach Jones and the staff and it was just instilled in us was to play good sound defense, be tough and run the football.
Coach Nutt: Absolutely. And, of course, Jimmy Johnson was my head coach when I was playing and Pat Jones the defensive coordinator so early on you talk about defense, you’re talking about good special teams play and then offensively it pretty much was a ground-oriented team and you always wanted to establish the run back in those days. Unlike now, things are much more wide open – a lot of different formations. But that’s where it all started though. Those were great learning days and I wouldn’t trade any of that. The same thing goes as far as Eddie Sutton too. Eddie Sutton, who I played for – defense, discipline and dedication was his motto. So you just take all those coaches and you learn from them and you’ve got to be yourself, but that’s were we had a lot of good learning days there on that campus in Stillwater.
How do you feel Jevan Sneed has lived up to the expectations coming into this year? (David McNabb, rivals.com)
Coach Nutt: Well, there’s been some times during the season where we’ve all been disappointed, I think Jevan would be the first to tell you. We had a lot of high expectations and we played that first Thursday night game and South Carolina’s defense shut us down a little bit there, and that was a tough time for him. But I think if you go back and you look through – the thing that, that I love, what Jevan has – the perseverance, the attitude, a team player, unselfish guy that knows he has to get better and knows he has to be very focused each week in the league that we play in. Especially if you play a team like Oklahoma State, you know you can’t force things. I think if you look at the Arkansas game, the Tennessee, the LSU – there’s some games where he did an excellent job of managing our team, taking care of the ball and getting us in the right play, getting us out of a bad play, managing the clock.
You know, he just had high, high expectations and a lot of that was the first time in, I don’t know, 30 or 40 years we were ranked in the Top 10. We were ranked #4 in the preseason and we were in some uncharted waters. So, I was proud of the way he kind of finished, the way he came out of some games, especially the South Carolina game – not very good. Come back the very next week and plays much better. And I was proud of him overall, but I think he’ll be the first to tell you he’s not satisfied and he wants to get better.
How do you feel Oklahoma State has lived up to this season’s expectations? (David McNabb, rivals.com)
Coach Gundy: Well, not to repeat what Coach Nutt said, but we were in some uncharted waters ourselves. You get on the cover of SI and everyone in the country is telling you how good you are, it’s a little different. And our players handled it fairly well, but then there were some times when it was a little more difficult than what we had been accustomed to around here. We had a few guys that got hurt and then obviously the Dez Bryant situation, and so it kind of threw us a curve ball for a little while but I was proud of the team. Proud of the way that they continued to work hard in practice and stayed focused and gave great effort on the field. Those things are really important to us and so our team is very excited about this opportunity to play in the AT&T Cotton Bowl.
It’s interesting that both teams were kind of in the same situation early in the year and then wished they had a few games back but I think that’s kind of the way college football is. That’s why you play 12. You wish you could play at a high level each week and I think that’s all each one of our goals, but at times it just doesn’t happen that way. And we’re just thankful that we had a good season and get an opportunity to play in a great bowl.
Pokes are gonna be ridin high in the Cotton Bowl…