ByCODY NAGEL 7 hours agoOklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said on Monday afternoon that he would wait until Thursday to name the Cowboys' defensive play caller for the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame. However, Tuesday offered some hints into who might be in charge of the Oklahoma State defense on Saturday as the Pokes close out the 2021 season.
Defensive line coach Joe Bob Clementsrepresented the Cowboys during their media availability for the defense on Tuesday in Scottsdale Arizona. Oklahoma State is without a defensive coordinator for the Fiesta Bowl after Jim Knowles left to take the same position at Ohio State earlier this month following the Big 12 Championship game.
No. 9 Oklahoma State (11-2) and No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1) will meet for the first time this Saturday, with kickoff inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale scheduled for noon CT on ESPN. Here is everything Clements said about preparing for the Fiesta Bowl, the immediate impact from star freshman defensive end Collin Oliver this season, the long-term coaching goals for his career and more.
OPENING STATEMENT:
"First of all, our players are really enjoying themselves. The Fiesta Bowl is a first-class organization. This is a first-class bowl game. The guys are working hard, and at the same time, enjoying themselves a little bit. Had a chance to go to the Suns game last night. An unfortunate loss, but an exciting game to watch. We are working hard and progressing and getting ready to play this game."ON HOW PRACTICES HAVE BEEN GOING AND HOW OKLAHOMA STATE IS FEELING GOING INTO THE FIESTA BOWL:
"We got in here on Sunday. We had a lighter practice, but the guys were enthusiastic and worked hard. They had a little bit of a heavier practice yesterday, and then we'll begin to taper down moving forward before the game. But the guys have been enthusiastic. The practice facilities have been nice. They're working hard and they're excited about playing this game."ON WHAT HE IS GOING TO MISS ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR OKLAHOMA STATE TEAM:
"I think it's the overall leadership and the character of these players. This has been such a mature group to work with. Their work ethic has been second to none throughout the entirety of the season. The maturity and calmness with which they play the game; there's never any panic. They just kind of look forward to the next play. They take the call, digest the information, and just play their hearts out each and every game. I just think the maturity and the cohesiveness of it is what I'm going to miss the most."ON ANY CONCERNS WITH COVID-19 AFFECTING PREPARATIONS THIS WEEK:
"Oh, I think there's always concern. We have a very good medical staff. They tell us to space out, we space out. They tell us to put on our masks, we put on our masks. We're constantly educating our players on trying to stay away from large groups of people. For the most part, COVID hasn't been a real issue for us. Even though it's affected the entire world, it hasn't affected Oklahoma State football for the past two years. So this has been a very mature group of players that have taken care of their business."ON HOW CALLING DEFENSIVE PLAYS WOULD WORK WITH TWO COACHES:
"Well, I mean Coach Gundy is going to have to address on who's calling and how we're actually going to do that. But I can tell you, to this point, it's been a collective effort as far as the game planning. At the end of the day, whoever's mouth that the call comes out of it's just a byproduct of the collective effort the staff has put in as far as getting ready for the game."ON HOW GAME PLANNING HAS GONE WITHOUT JIM KNOWLES ON THE STAFF:
"I wouldn't say it's been much different. We all have our own parts and responsibilities that we take care of during the week. Obviously, Jim being the play-caller had a bigger role on what he wanted to call and how he wanted to do it."The great thing about our defense is there's a lot of components to it. And, really, it's just a matter of putting your minds together and deciding what components you feel that -- we feel that we have that match up good with our opponent, and then we just kind of put those together and the players go out and practice them. Some we like; some we don't like. We get rid of the ones we don't like and focus on the ones we do like."
ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE DEVELOPING THE DEFENSIVE SYSTEM WHEN JIM KNOWLES ARRIVED AT OKLAHOMA STATE:
"Well, I was excited when Jim took the job, because I liked the way they played defense at Duke. I thought it was a very aggressive style of defense. I knew that there would have to be some adjustments as far as going into the Big 12 with the defense. I know, after the first year, we asked Jim what his thoughts were and what his biggest shocks were after his first year of being a defense coordinator in the Big 12. And it was simple: Their offense was trying to score a touchdown every single snap. And that's hard to call a defense when they're not just trying to get first downs; they're trying to score touchdowns on you."So it's been fun as it evolved and as the players bought in, and it's been a good ride."
ON WHAT HE HAS SEEN FROM THE OKLAHOMA STATE PLAYERS DURING THE PAST MONTH OF PREPARATION WITHOUT JIM KNOWLES:
"Just tremendous leadership. I mean, we came back from a brief break after the Big 12 championship and Jim had taken the job and was no longer here. And the guys just went to work, never missed a beat, never skipped a beat, just had smiles on their faces, and they generally liked playing football. They just went to work."ON IF IT WAS SURPRISING HOW WELL THE REST OF THE DEFENSIVE COACHES KNEW THE SYSTEM:
"No. I mean, we've all been a part of it. This group has been together for a long, long time now. Me and Tim [Duffie] have been together for nine years. Dan [Hammerschmidt], I think, five or six. Greg [Richmond] four. So we've been together for a long time, and there's some cohesiveness that's involved in that."ON WHICH PLAYERS HAVE STEPPED UP AS LEADERS ON THE DEFENSIVE LINE:
"Well, there's a bunch of them, and I hate to single any of them out. But the easy ones -- Brock Martin has shown a tremendous amount of leadership throughout the entire season. And then you still have seniors, Brendon Evers, junior; Tyler Lacy, a senior; Israel Antwine. They've all done their part and their role in being leaders for this defense."ON PREPARING FOR MULTIPLE NOTRE DAME QUARTERBACKS:
"Well, we've had the fortunate benefit of having a month to prepare. It might have been a little bit more of a headache if we only had a week. But you see some uniqueness with the quarterbacks that they play, but you also see similarities."And it's a very deep position for them. They've got a guy that's starting for them that's playing in his second New Year's Six game for two different programs. So that doesn't just happen by accident. He also has a tremendous amount of ability.
"And then they bring in Number 12 [Tyler Buchner], and he's a dynamic runner, but he can also throw the ball. And he can make some things happen for them."
ON NOTRE DAME TIGHT END MICHAEL MAYER:
"He's been a major focus. I mean, our players had better know where Number 87 [Michael Mayer] is on the field. Notre Dame is going to do a good job of moving him around and getting him involved. I mean, he's had 100-plus targets on the season. So we know, when they need to make a play, the quarterback is probably going to be looking in that direction and we need to be looking towards him."ON KOY MCFARLAND STEPPING INTO THE ROLE OF LINEBACKERS COACH:
"I think Koy has done a great job. He's going to be a star in this profession. He's a bright young coach. He has a very bright mind when it comes to football. He was a coach's kid growing up. He's been around the game for a long, long time. I think he's going to have a bright future in this profession."ON IF OKLAHOMA STATE DEFENSIVE END COLLIN OLIVER SURPRISED HIM THIS SEASON:
"It doesn't surprise me. It may surprise me that it happened this quickly, but I saw a maturity level in Collin when we had him at a youth camp before his junior year. By the end of the camp, I had gone off script and I was trying to teach him things that we were teaching our own players, and he was picking it up at that moment. So I knew he was going to be a good football player in time."Did I anticipate that it would happen this season? No, I didn't. I'm glad it did. He's obviously made a lot of plays for us, and a lot of it comes because of the leadership of that room. They've embraced him and brought him along and helped him along the way."
