Oklahoma State - Arkansas Mike Gundy MUST WIN, National Perception Recruiting Matters

the SEC hype train has arrived and they've towed in some disrespect to with them but let's face it we needed Arkansas to completely boat race Pine Bluff to set this game up for now what it is and what it is now is an early season must [Music] win you are a locked on Oklahoma State your daily podcast on the Oklahoma State Cowboys part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day how do y'all and hello all welcome back to lock on Oklahoma State your daily stop for all things cowboy and cowgirl related my name is Cody Stovall I want to thank you kindly for stopping by to make this your first listen we're available on all of your podcasting platforms visually as well on YouTube find me personally on X at all Deo state today we partially brought to you by FanDuel make every moment matter more with FanDuel and right now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet five bucks and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket for from YouTube and YouTube TV make sure you visit fanduel.com to get started today meanwhile we get started in the conversation of Arkansas versus Oklahoma state has now become a must-win and no this is not clickbait material this is a legitimate statement because of perception perception does in fact matter regardless of what anybody in the country tries to pretend it it it has to matter right this game should happen every single year I want to get that out of ahead of time thanks to the status of the SEC and now the rebuilding newcomer kind of status of the Big 12 every other year this should be played in basketball thank you to the legend of the great galagar Abba arena in Eddie Sutton and it should be played every single year in baseball thank you o and bomb Walker stadium for being not only two of the nicest stadiums in America but maybe the two nicest stadiums in America and I got to thank Arkansas ahead of time for bringing a couple extra shots of adrenaline every every time we do Square Off on the diamond for baseball but football is here so we need to talk about Arkansas and Oklahoma State we needed Arkansas to dominate Arkansas Pine Bluff just as much as they needed to see that so did the country and realistically my country guys a few weeks ago this game was just kind of a fun deal on the schedule a few weeks ago this was just some game that Arkansas fans thought that maybe they could win simply because they're in the SEC and they're facing a big 12 team Ty Big 12 teams aren't as fast and some of the the top end SEC teams kind of blow some of the Big 12 schools out in athleticism I think to some degree Texas proved that in the Big 12 title game but Allie needs this game too simply just to remind the country that yes his 34 yard performance against the last SEC team we played in Texas was not a good performance but it wasn't a good performance because he was playing at like 7 175% max he was playing on an ankle that some of the medical staff recommended he really not play right they maybe considered that he should save it for the bowl game he said no thanks he put three pounds of tape on his ankle and he went for it well that lasted for about seven plays and now the perception is that olly Gordon was only good throughout the course of the season because of the Big 12 schedule the perception needs to change we need the perception to change a little bit with this game not only for bragging rights but also to visibly see the validation that the old perception of the cowboy poke choke is dead and gone guys I hate calling a must win in week two but for perception it does matter for my Gundy getting that perception monkey off of his back it does matter part of that perception is due to OU right the perception of the Big 12 was they can make it to the big one but never win the big one partially because of OU our perception at Oklahoma state is kind of similar to that they might be able to get to a big 12 title game but they can never win the Big 12 Title Games AKA get there but not win the big ones again thanks to OU and so I guess you can say thanks to U we are now in this position here where we get to face Arkansas and what is now building up to be a much bigger game Casey Dunn might need this more than anyone on campus or in the state of Oklahoma because there is a perception of him being a good but sometimes not so great offensive coordinator well the guy on the other sideline is pretty close to great he's as pretty close to great as you can get for an offensive coordinator and guys Mike Gundy needs this for Casey Dunn to kind of validate the fact that he rolled with Casey Dunn and said this is the guy not only for this year but the previous year and the year before that there's a little bit of that monke on his back not only Casey dun but obviously mik gundi right this is going to be a huge deal for perception perception matters and this is the season that we can changeed perception the perception of always being a top 20 25 team but never really being a top top five team that style of conversation can change it should change and this is the game to do it if there's ever been a time where Oklahoma State can make a statement to the world it it's kind of now I mean we've had opportunities and we've done that if you go back and look at the fiesta bow w we have a logo to beating OU last year and two of the last three years that's a we have a logo to moment if we would have beat Texas in the Big 12 title game that would have been one of those moments I don't really count that Texas a MW because they were a very depleted team that didn't really know what was happening from one week to the next as they prepared for their bowl game this is a perception game and we also have recruiting to take into consideration perception does matter there is a perception that this is an SEC ball club that should be too much even for a top tier big Team guys a lot of their polls the the the power rankings in the SEC still have Arkansas in the 13 14ish range yeah you are seeing a lot of prognostications starting to matriculate out now that have Arkansas beating Oklahoma State because of the perception they did score 10 touchdowns and 10 possessions and put up 70 points as they should have and today we were going to talk more about the film but let's be real it took about seven plays of trying to diagnose film between Arkansas and Pine Bluff before I realized this was completely unnecessary but it also helped me realize that this win is completely necessary for my Gundy and the perception as we talked about yesterday this is kind of a lose lose well maybe not maybe I was wrong maybe this isn't a lose lose because if we do win now it will add to the perception that if you come into ster Oklahoma no matter what conference you're in no matter what your last game was like you're going to have a difficult proposition of winning and we've got games coming up with Alabama we've got games coming up with with Oregon the home and home style of situation but this is a perception building game for the Big 12 as well this goes beyond Mike Gundy and the Cowboys of course somebody in the Big 12 or at least a conglomerate of a group needs to get together and be the flag Bears to carry on the Big 12 in this new rejuvenated version of it the Oklahoma State Cowboys should be the focal point of that right next to a Utah and in Kansas State but games like this are what set it up and they've done some some home and homes with Big 12 schools they did a home and home with TCU and they went there and won they did a home and home with Texas Tech went to LEC and won they did a home and home with BYU went to Provo and won so the perception is this is yet another big 12 team that they can come to and beat they're not respecting our seniority all that much now when I say they I'm talking primarily about the fans and the players whenever you look at a lot of the different podcasts and you you shows and things of that nature out there involving hog Nation most of them are not being overly confident nor are they being overly cocky neither is Sam Pitman guys I love Sam Pitman I wish I didn't but I do I don't necessarily love some of the things that their players have had to say I will say that it might be beneficial it is locker room material I am glad it's getting circulated out there but not for those reasons it is bulletin board material sure but not of the variety that you might be thinking of at least not from my perception of it but before we break that down I do have to remind the fine folks remind the fine folks out here that uh FanDuel is the best in the game and you need to be rocking and rolling with FanDuel today you got to make every moment matter more with FanDuel because it's the best in the business guys there's a reason that it's the number one sports book betting partner in the United States of America America there's a reason that everybody in the country can look at FanDuel and understand that there's some moneymaking opportunities I think there's lots of money to be made on behalf of the Cowboys if you've noticed the line for this Arkansas game has gone from a 10 point spread to a seveno spread which means people are betting heavy on Arkansas the hype is building but you can capitalize on the hype building as well by doubling down on the Cowboys hammer in the over right now also we have something a little bit different for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet five bucks and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with the YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market NFL game all you'll need is a Google account and a current form of payment you can cancel at any point in time you just need to get squared away today by visiting fanduel.com to download the America's number one Sportsbook make sure you visit fandel .c to get squared away today and the number one in the land it's fandal and it's the right thing for you to get squared away with so don't waste any more time get it done today from FanDuel Back to Football are the Arkansas Razer backs doing a little bit too much now again and I'm not talking about Sam Pitman I'm not talking about the shows and the podcast for the most part of course A lot of people are now picking Arkansas to win but again this is a good thing for Oklahoma State in my personal opinion I do think that this is a buletten board M material but I don't love it for that reason I love it because you know maybe there's a false sense of security going on here but I love it also because this needs to be bullet and board material not in the locker room but in Casey dun's room his office his bedroom his bathroom every room that you can find every hallway you can put it down that pertains to Casey dun if his wife has got to put it on his toothbrush I'm okay with it because that did happen South Alabama did publicly laugh at how basic our play calls were and how easy our offense was to read they had they had a couple different okis on that team that talked about how it was the most simplistic thing they've had to diagnose and they knew what every single route was going to be because they found him in practice and they worked on them and sure enough the game comes and literally every single thing that they had scheduled pretty much came to fruition so it made the game not fast for them at all so the speed of the Big 12 compared to South Alabama didn't even matter because they knew all of the routes they knew all the concepts predicated upon who we had in Personnel wise and and who we had shifting and that basic packaging was was an absolute disaster they did laugh at us and Maris Robinson did fact in fact come in and say that he expects them to come dominate this Arkansas Team he expects them to come dominate because to some degree he did with South Alabama and yeah he only had a couple tackles and a pick but as Cowboy fans we do remember number seven flying around and being a massive problem so I'm not going to throw shade and say he's not good enough to make these comments he is but again that's another reason why I love it this shouldn't be in the locker room it should be in Casey dun's room office bedroom you get the drift this has become a must-win now for perception not only for Mike Gundy but definitely for Casey Don and even a bigger layer is going to be Brian Nardo but we're going to break down some of the matchups tomorrow but we have to prove that this is the new age nil Gundy and the perception of Oklahoma State not always winning the big ones can change with this one guys this is not just a about competing against their big three this is not just you know talking about their their players being overly confident I mean you do want your players confident right there's a difference between cocky and confidence there's some Cockiness with the fans there's some Cockiness with some of the players but overall it's been pretty positive and Sam Sam pitman's obviously been one of those guys that has been you know very very positive in viewing this and Mike Gundy he had a lot of wonderful things say I implore you to go check out um what he had to say but this is not South Alabama this is not the same locker room South Alabama was in fact able to capitalize on the fact that the locker room was fractured we had a decent number of guys that kind of wanted to follow Spencer Sanders then we had a decent number of guys that didn't want to follow Spencer Sanders Spencer Sanders had some disagreements although some of them were viable right there there was some reasoning for Spencer sander to have some of that disgruntlement but at the end of the day it caused so many problems in the locker room that it it wasn't really a good look now we H we found a way this this last season to battle through that right because what what happened the the year prior the beginning of last season there was still some locker room fracturing it wasn't near as bad as the previous season but we hadn't rebuilt the cowboy culture exactly to where we have it now it took last season for that to happen and last season proved to everybody in America that mik Gundy has all of his his traits still available right fast ball curve ball slider he has all of it still at his disposal the game hasn't passed him by he's not viewing things from a Nick Sabin I want to be done with this or a Dabo Sweeney or I'm refusing to be around this he hasn't done all that but it took last season for him to fully kind of show it to all of us out here in cowboy country so the disrespect that we're feeling is real the animosity that some of the players and some of the fans are building between Oklahoma State and Arkansas also real but the ability for this to catapult Oklahoma State into a potentially new category that's something that's also very real and I think that this confidence that that Arkansas has could be slightly problematic you wanted a team like South Dakota state to roll in a little bit overconfident and I think that they did and if you listen to some of the things that are coach has to say there's a little bit of that rat poison going around maybe there's some rat poison going around at Arkansas and maybe not but seemingly if you listen to the player interviews although not many of them are like you know out outright saying the things that that Mr Marcus is but you can definitely get the feeling that although they're although they're given respect right uh they had the offensive lineman interview and he talked about how from the o line dline perspective Oklahoma state is an SEC siiz team with the SEC style depth I'm glad that the some of the players are taking some recognition of what this Oklahoma State team is we do have sec size all up and down the lineup did we a couple years ago no will we have in a couple years maybe maybe not but this team is SEC sized we play an SEC style of of of football or at least the old school SEC style of football we are going to lean on Ole Gordon but we do have a lot of faith in the wide receivers Arkansas does have some eliminations limitations sorry as much as I think ton green was phenomenal he also mechanically has some things that are exploitable the wide receivers they look good but against Arkansas Pine Bruff they didn't really need to run crisp routes they haven't really necessarily been tested like like like our wide receivers will and I think the same can be said on the other side of the ball our Corners haven't been tested by a wide receiver group quite this good in in a little while from a speed perspective for sure I'm not worried about size I'm not worried about strength speed might be a little tricky we're going to find out if we have it we have several guys that have been clocked over you know 18 to 22 miles an hour this spring this fall do we have enough of those guys to keep up they certainly don't seem to think so and for all of the coaches that are not saying well we're in the SEC therefore we should just be better than a 12 school you know most of them feel it right you know in the position group meetings there's got to be a little bit of that yeah but yeah but they are the Big 12 right I mean they're good we respect how good they are we respect mik Gundy we respect the the 20 returning starters and the 90% of the roster but they're still the Big 12 and we just witnessed what Texas with a full compliment of of topend SEC Talent can do to the best Big 12 team again perception matters it's going to be up to Brian Nardo and Mike Gundy and Casey Dunn to change this perception this is the season to do it I I don't know of another time where we've had this much coming back especially at meaningful positions that have played meaningful snaps in what has now become a massively meaningful game and not to mention again the recruiting we have lots of battles with Arkansas I mean kind of have for a long time this is a a a big moment a must-win to kind of help shift perception even in the recruiting department sometimes you got to make those shifts sometimes sometimes you got to do those things just like we got to make a shift to talk about eBay motors with the right passion drive and performance it's never any wonder why eBay Motors is so highly sought after just like it shouldn't be any question for you on who you're going to use to replace any part you have coming up on your ride or die rig eBay Motors is going to have everything you need to maintain your vehicle whether it's s superchargers roof racks LED lighting kits exhaust speed power style doesn't matter eBay Motors is going to have you covered with over 122 Million Parts to choose from it is very easy to keep your rig alive today you'll find exactly what you're looking for and what the eBay guaranteed fit the part is guaranteed to fit your rig every time or your money back with eBay Motors the objective is to have 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perception is because of OU and their shortcomings and BCS games and and playoff games just like that same shortcoming is viewed at Oklahoma State with Mike Gundy in bedum the recruiting that's the layer that maybe means the most the Oklahoma connection make makes this to me an even bigger must-win Arkansas has always been a little bit of a thorn on our recruiting sides like we don't want to exasperate exacerbate that issue now if we do it'll eventually become a problem right Sam p man is an Oki he's an Oki with Oklahoma High School recruiting connections he runs in the same recruiting circles and and he knows kale Gundy very very well from recruiting he's from Grove Oklahoma he went to pit state in Kansas literally right up the road from the Oklahoma border guys they currently have a solid handful of ois on the roster they have an equally solid handful of you know Kansas Topeka witto area dudes on this roster they've got a handful of kids from Frisco Texas they've got a handful of kids from the DFW metroplex area they stole AJ Green who was a fourstar from us from right out of the Tulsa High School area as they originally stole Colin clay who I believe was a fourar at the time as well he he switched it up made the right decision decided to come back home but originally he was an Arkansas Razer back they got 6'5 295 PB Oso tackle Blake cherry to to commit when his teammate right rer half is a cowboy he's coming to Oklahoma State we had to compete with the in the 2025 class against them with wide receiver Cameron poell Running Back DJ Dugger quarterback Kobe foran wide receiver Jaden Perez tied end Jordan voury and vorne Perez Foreman Dugger they all had Arkansas I believe in their final three so it wasn't just we had to compete against them we had to compete against them at the very very end to even land the dudes and then in the 2026 class it's much of the same with Norman Oklahoma wide receiver Mason Jones Taj Brooks out of aaso the Jinx running back KD Jones he might not even have us in his top five really just like Luke hws didn't he didn't legitimately have Oklahoma State in his top five or his top three right that was a statement in my opinion even though he's got a bunch of uh you know teammates on this team it still wasn't much of a consideration for him I'm not going to say that's disrespectful but I mean it kind of is right to some degree at the end of the day this game does matter especially now for perception purposes because Sam Pitman and the Arkansas Razorbacks they recruit in the same areas we do they talk to the same dudes we do about essentially running the same style of programs that we both do they have the percep ception on their side though they have the SEC and all the nil abilities the TV marketing the TV viewership and all the fun stuff that comes with all of that we may not have that but we have the consistency right our Cowboy culture has needed a couple of injections over the 20 years of my Gundy being here but by and large the cowboy culture is typically always going to be the same and it's going to be the same due to consistency that consistency has equaled a bunch of wins Arkansas's culture has taken many twists and turns and ups and downs and things that they need to adjust so I would argue that they lowkey need this to be a must-win as well to help their fan base validate that this is a new Razorback crew and the addition of Bobby patrino isn't just GNA be good for a few games but it's going to be good for Sam Pitman and all of us as a fan base moving forward we have the winning on our side we have the recent tradition of having those double digit Seasons right we don't have the TCU issues of winning 11 12 down to four or five we don't do that we'll win 112 then go down to eight which isn't acceptable that's the perception of Oklahoma State inside still Oklahoma and the the area of Oklahoma has obviously improved the perception of Oklahoma State and Big 12 country has obviously improved but has it improved enough clearly not enough in the recruiting landscape and there should never be a scenario where somebody as good as Luke HW gets out of the state of Oklahoma without Oklahoma State being in the top three I mean I don't want to make the argument but I will almost make the argument that even OU should be in the top three or the final three of the Oklahoma top end recruits it's not always going to happen Arkansas has always been an issue for us to some degree in the recruiting area area so as much as the perception is that Arkansas is in the SEC and therefore it comes with all of these perks and all of these benefits the perception of Oklahoma State needs to change this season any negativity surrounding Oklahoma State nationally has the ability to change this season but not if you lose this game if they would have just barely beat Pine Bluff and then turn around and just barely beat Arkansas it's probably not even much of a conversation it was just a game on the schedule that was kind of fun that had some old Southwest Conference you know ties to it but they did boat race Pine Bluff they did display a quarterback in ton green that looked like uh an athletic specimen that fits right in with all of the the other secc athletes they do have a running back in J Quinn and Jackson that went from from playing quarterback to running back to excelling to then transferring to now showing that he can do more than just get North and South he can he can wiggle a little bit of East and West in there as well and of course Luke hws don't really want to talk a bunch about him because it does hurt my heart and soul okay at least at least a little bit but that's the perception perception has been that Oklahoma State can get to some games but they can't always win those games perception is that Oklahoma State and Mike Gundy can get to the top of the mountain but not over the top of the mountain and certainly a weak two matchup against virtually anybody doesn't typically have much of a bearing on whether you're going to eclipse the mountain top or not and at the end of the The Day The Season's goals don't really have a lot to do with this game so from that P perspective on both sides of the aisle whether you're an Ary fan or Cowboy fan I get that but I think Arkansas fans would argue that we've got a win on the road we're kind of better on the road than we are at home at least last season and we've got to steal a couple Road Gams whether it be Oklahoma State Auburn whatever it may be they are viewing this as a a stealable game they're also viewing this as a game that will showcase everybody nationally that okay Arkansas we got some stuff to prove but we're here and on the other side for my Gundy he needs this this game for perception oie Gordon needs this game for perception our fan base to grow at at at any clip we need this just as much as everybody else for what for perception perception on the field perception in the rankings perception in recruiting perception on the road perception in general I think has gotten better under Brett yar's leadership in the new Big 12 but it will take a hit if this game goes sideways just like it would take a hit is if SMU beat up on BYU these are the things that we don't need to have happen we've got to take care of business we've got to make this statement because that's what it is it's a statement to everybody in the country in a must-win in what kind of felt like a lose lose not too long ago all righty y'all that's all we're going to have for this one rice here as always you know I love you God bless go pokes thank you for tuning in to make this your first listen here in lockon Oklahoma State you could be anywhere so happy you choose to be here like it if you like the dag on thing dislike it if you don't because that's okay to more importantly share comment and subscribe on podcast people out there you're the bricks The Bu Foundation do what you do hit the Stars leave a review later my 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