Mike Gundy credits Texas players for creating difficult matchups in Big 12 Championship

After getting thumped by Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy had high praise for the competition. Not only are the Longhorns a supremely talented outfit, especially on offense, but head coach Steve Sarkisian is deft at creating mismatch opportunities for his weapons.

That, Gundy said, is what made it so hard for Oklahoma State to match up. Not only were they at a talent disadvantage trying to run, cover and tackle the receivers and running backs and tight ends that Texas has, the Longhorns were putting those players in great spots.

“I don’t want to repeat myself. There’s no secret that matching up with them across the board can be difficult. I will give Sark credit offensively. He did some good things — I mean, Nick can run with them. He can run with those backs and stuff on their routes. They brought them across and kind of got caught up in the trash. He had good concepts out there. It’s not something we haven’t seen, and I will give him credit for that,” Gundy said.

The Cowboys head coach did add that the game script aided the Longhorns. Texas bolted out to an early lead and only needed to keep the competition at arm’s length the rest of the afternoon. And with that cushion, Sarkisian had more license to delve deep into his bag of tricks.

“I will say this, I’m just going to call it like it is. When you start getting multiple scores, you can start dialing stuff up a little easier. I’ve always said that. The reason I know that is because I’ve been in situations where I’m calling plays, and things that I have that I might not get to, I can get to them easier if I’m at multiple scores,” Gundy said.

But the mismatches weren’t just confined to when Texas’ offense was on the field.

Gundy raved about the plethora of talent interior linemen that Texas features on defense.

“We had good concepts. We got the ball out there in the flat. We were effective on the perimeter, short passes here and there, which is what we thought we had that gave us the best chance based on I’m trying to protect against those big guys,” Gundy said. “Those guys that we played against today in the inside, they’re going to be playing on Sundays. We’ll be watching them on Sunday. We competed against them. I thought our offensive line run block, they held up, and I thought for the most part pass block we held up. When we became a little more one-dimensional, it’s more difficult.”