STILLWATER – Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy met with media at Boone Pickens Stadium on Monday to preview the Cowboys’ first road test of the season against Oregon. Some of their comments: Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy On the running game:

“We just need to become more physical. The interesting thing is that I watched a few more games than I ever watched because we had an extra day, and it’s not as easy to run the ball. When you look at teams trying to rush the football, it’s not as easy at times. Defenses are gaining a little bit on the offense when it comes to stopping the run, but we still have to create some space to be more physical.”

On his initial thoughts of Oregon’s team:

“They’re a good football team. Oregon is playing really well. I think they’re well-coached, they’re spending a lot of money, and they’ve invested a lot in that organization. You can see they’re a good football team. This will be a good challenge for our team. They’re going to be essentially going up against players that what people would think are comparable to the best organizations in the country at this time, so we’re aware of that. I don’t think there’s any secret that they have really good players, but I feel like our players will be excited to compete.”

On quarterback Zane Flores making his first collegiate start in Eugene:

“Our coaches need to put him in a good position— give him things that he does best, and he needs to go play and be aggressive, not look over his shoulder. He needs to go out and do what he’s done all his life, play quarterback— go out and play hard, have fun and compete. Zane traveled with us some in conference, we took him on several games, and we took him as a true freshman to Texas. He’s been in it, now he’s not been the guy out there playing. I feel like he’ll be fine in the stadiums that he’ll be competing in this year. I don’t know that that’ll affect him a lot. The maturity of getting experience and going and playing would be more of a factor, in my opinion.”

On if there’s any extra difficulty with Zane Flores making his first start on the road:

“I guess. The comfort level at home would be better than playing on the road, but that’s everybody, much less the guy making his first start. Zane has been around. He’s been with us a long time. The system is somewhat new to him, not 100%, so I would expect him to function just fine, I really would. I will go back and say that the coaches need to do a good job of preparing him and putting him in a good situation, and not get out of our box too much and put him in a position where he has to do a lot of thinking. We need to live on reps and not necessarily concepts.”

On Flores’ performance against UT Martin:

“He made a good throw down their sideline in a crucial time. We talked about that after the game. He made a good scramble; he did some things check-wise that were good for a player’s first time out there. He’s got a long way to go, and you can go back and look at teams playing across the country – teams that have quarterbacks that are relatively new and inexperienced can take a while to get going, but we understand that.”

On Jacobi Oliphant Jr.’s versatility: “They’re playing him down (at linebacker) some. He could play some nickel, could play inside some on passing downs and such, but he’s so big. He’s like 225 pounds now... I don’t know that we expected (his weight) to change that much, but he’s going to end up being 230 plus. So he’s going to live down closer to the ball than he is (in the secondary).”

On the transition Brandon Rawls and Terrill Davis have made from Division II to Power Four football:

“Brandon fits the same mold as McCoy. Those two are like identical twins when it comes to how they feel about being at Oklahoma State, and so that’ll give you an example of the reason he’s playing well and getting all the reps and doing well. That’s what he brings to the table. At the wide out slot, that’s one position that you can have guys, in my opinion, that may be a level or two lower, that can make that jump to this level if they have the physical attributes, because it’s not as physical for them. Like offensive linemen, you’ve got to really evaluate it, based on the physicality at this level in the trenches, which is much different. But out on the perimeter, they can live in that world. So, we’re looking for him to continue to make plays for us.”

On Terrill Davis getting a bigger role at wide receiver: “He’s been productive in practice. He makes his catches. He knows what to do, he’s intelligent and he was productive... He was very productive in practice and understood, picked the system up, and did very well.”

On trying to get Christian Fitzpatrick more involved:

“He had some targets. We didn’t connect with him. We had him running wide open out to the boundary one time but didn’t get the ball to him on time. The way certain things fell, he didn’t become as much of a factor as what he needs to be. So, we’ve got to get him more involved. He’s got some talent, he’s got length, he’s got maturity, and he’s had some success. He’s just one of the players we’ve got to get involved.”

On the expectations of improvement:

“My message today to the team’s going to be the same thing I told him that on the first of August, ‘If you’re not improving each week as an individual and we don’t improve as an offense, defense, special teams, and then as a unit, then we’re not doing a good job coaching.’ We have to improve each week.”

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