Today, we talked to Cale Gundy of "The Middle of the Day Show" in Oklahoma City, and he talks about the Oklahoma Sooners' expectations coming into the season. He talks about how important it is for OU Quarterback John Mateer and Head Coach Brent Venables to live up to expectations. He spoke about the impact of transferring Running Back Jadyn Ott. He gives us three freshmen to look out for in having an impact this season. He explains how important it is to recruit in the SEC in the trenches. He explains what it will take for the Sooner to be successful. Then he gives his prediction for the football team. You can hear it all here on "The Morning Kickoff Show!"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We went down south to Sam Marcus. Now let's go
north of the Red River and talk to my guy,
Cal Gundhy of the Sports Animal in Oklahoma. And Cale,
first off, good to talk to you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's been a minute. I'm glad to catch up with you.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
All is good. It's always good to get on and
talk a little ball and a little chop it up
a little bit with you. So I'm glad I'm here today, no.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, let's get right into a year four, year four
of Brent Vinables being back as the head coach of
the Oklahoma Sooners. Obviously, the first couple of seasons has
not gone the way that the Sooners fan had hope,
but there's some change that is happening.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You got yourself a quarterback, and.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
If anybody knows anything about quarterbacks, it will be you.
Off off the field issues have been arise, but on
the field, there's no doubt that your quarterback, John Mader
is one of the best in the country.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, and he's going to have to have some magic
this year. Uh. And that's that's one of the big
points of this football team this season. Like you mentioned,
coach Venables was six and seven, ten and three and
six and seven, and that ain't that ain't gonna fly
around here. About one more year of that and that'll
be a wrap. So uh. But there's been some change
(01:25):
obviously last year with this football team, lots of injuries
on the offensive side of the football. The defense was solid,
and I think they just kind of ran out of
gas as the season went along because the offense was
so depleted, and you know, defensively, I think they just
(01:46):
knew they weren't going to get much out of the
offense game in and game out. But this year, bringing
in Ben Arbuckle, the new offensive coordinator who's a West
Texas guy, uh, come from Washington State, and and coach
Arbuckle bringing his quarterback John Mattier, there's some new life.
John is a exciting player. I really like him as
(02:12):
a as a young man. I like him as a
ball player. I think he has it. Now what will
that translate to? Will that mean one more win, two
more wins?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Three four?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It's yet to see. They've got to stay healthy. Uh.
The offensive line struggled tremendously last year. They got They've
got a bunch of those guys back who have gotten
better who I believe was one of the best offensive
line coaches in Bill Beanbow in the country. Uh, they've
got a handful of running backs. They went out of
the transfer portal and got some wide receivers, some skilled players,
(02:47):
so it'll it'll be interesting again. Everybody's just you know,
it's hot around here. I know it's hot and Austin,
but it was. It was the hottest day of the
year last year. I heard there might even been a
player to fall out. I want to practice, say for
ten minutes, Mike, and it was so hot, I said,
the hell with this. I left. So but you know,
the hotter you get, the more rumors you get, the
(03:08):
more exciting Oklahoma fans get. And we can do this,
we can do that. But once you roll on that
sec you better pump the brakes a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
You know, you mentioned the transfers, and one of those
transfers is I haven't heard lately.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Hopefully he's feeling okay. Is Jaden?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Oh, the running back that is transferred in, and he's
somebody that they're expecting a lot from And is it
too much to ask of a player and the quarterback
as well for them to turn that offensive firepower into Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, it's you know, and you understand this. I mean,
everybody's got to do their job.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
At the end of the day, if the offensive line
can be can be good, can be solid, it will
allow John but here. It will allow the running backs,
it will allow this system to get the ball in
the hands of some receivers, they will be better. So
it all starts with that offensive line.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Again.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
You mentioned Jay Not, who they brought in from Cal,
who two years ago when twenty three had a great
season out there. Last year did not have as good
a season. Some people said he was injured, and I'll
be honest with you, Mike his name. He was talked
(04:34):
about a bunch. He hasn't been talked about as much
the last two weeks. There's some other guys, and there's
a young man who's a true freshman, and I'm gonna
get to that. But let's go back to Jay Not
from Cal. He's had a little deemed up shoulder, hadn't
been practicing that much, so not sure if he's going
to be that guy the most talked about. I'm gonna
(04:55):
give you three names, and I don't know how these
young men, well, what kind of season they will have
this year as true freshmen. But the three most talked
about names besides John Mattier on the Oklahoma football team
this year have been three freshmen from Texas. Tory Blaylock
(05:21):
running back Houston, Michael Fasusi offensive lineman Lewisville Courtland Guillery
defensive back Houston. Those are three freshmen that their names
on the street have been talked about as much as anything,
and again, how productive can they be as true freshmen?
(05:43):
But these guys as true freshmen, all from the state
of Texas, have have had a great camp.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And the one thing that I wanted to talk to you,
we're talking to Cal Gundhy of the Sports Animal in Oklahoma.
He is one of the former former offensive coordinators for
the Oklahoma soenters and former quarterback as well. He understands
what ball is supposed to look like. And when he
tells you that there's some freshmen that are making noise,
that is clutch for Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Because the one thing that I've.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Always said about Oklahoma obviously coming into Texas, getting those
players brings a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
But they've always recruited well.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
But now with everything that's going on going into the SEC.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Do you feel the recruiting.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Has changed a lot and that's why he's had to
go out and get so many transfers in the transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, you got to have depth in the SEC, as
you know, again, and I've said this obviously. You know,
playing at Oklahoma a long time ago, coaching there for
almost twenty three years, you know, everybody always knew about
the SEC, and the SEC really came on in the
(06:57):
late two thousand and teams is when they really started
to be something special. When when I was at ou
in the from ninety nine to twenty two, but in
the early two thousands, you know, SEC football wasn't what
it is now. It has really made huge strives. So
you've got to recruit differently. Your defensive lineman. You can't
(07:17):
have defensive linemen playing in the SEC that are weighing
two hundred and eighty two hundred and ninety pounds. You can't.
They have to weigh three fifteen three thirty three forty.
Same with the offensive lineman. You can't have offensive linemen
that weigh three hundred three hu or ten. They need
to be weighing three twenty five three thirty. It's just
it's a different uh, they're they're different body types, so
(07:42):
they have had to make a change in coach Vnables
has done that. They have done a tremendous job building
their players across the board. I think they only have
one defensive lineman who's under three hundred pounds now, and
I'm talking about defensive tackles who's under three hundred pounds
and it was because he came in as a defensive
(08:02):
end at two fifty and he's weighing about two ninety now.
The same with the offensive line that you know, their
guys are three fifteen to three hundred and twenty five
pounds now, So you got to recruit differently, and then
you've got to have that depth if you don't, and
that's what takes. I think takes what Texas has done
so good as they have not only gone out and
(08:24):
got some really really good players, but they've acquired depth
in case one or two guys go down. They're coming
in with the same style and the same type of
body types to play in the Southeastern Conference, no doubt. Kel.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Before we let you go, I wanted to ask you this.
I mean, you you talked about it. There's some things
that you can do at Oklahoma and there's.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Some things you can't do.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You can't consistently have a bad product on the field,
number one. Number two, you can't lose the games that
you should be winning and putting your team in a
stressful situation.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
If you had to.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Pick what the season is going to look like, what
will be your prediction of the Oklahoma Sooners record.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well, Mike, the couple of things I think they got
going for them. One, they play seven home games. That's
a bunch that that helps. And Secondly, compared to last season,
last season you had the Southeastern Conference had some veteran,
(09:34):
very good quarterbacks. There's not as many of those guys
this year. You've got a lot of programs that are
that are having new quarterbacks step out on the field
for the first time. To that have to be the guy.
And I'm not talking about coming in and playing sparingly,
(09:55):
coming in and a few snaps in the game here
and there, but I mean having to be the dude now.
So that I think that plays a role and plays
a factor in the Oklahoma Sooners. Now. Everybody tells me,
I'm I'm a bit of a homer uh to to
to the Oklahoma Sooners. But most people look at me
like like I've got three eyes on my forehead. I
(10:19):
have them winning nine games this season. Uh. I know
the overrunnder is somewhere around seven and a half. And
if you would have started having this conversation back in
about April or May, everybody would have said about seven.
But you know, as the season goes along, like I said,
it starts, every day gets a little hotter. So the
(10:39):
more rumors start to get flowing, people think that they
gonna they're gonna win a few more games here and there,
and you know, the sunshine starts to pump a little bit.
People probably raised their expectations. At the end of the day,
You're playing in the Southeastern Conference and it's just it's challenging.
So but I have them going nine to three this year.
Like I said, most people around here are more around
(11:03):
seven to eight wins. Three things that have to happen
for this team. Matier has to have some magic, The
offensive line has to be solid, and the defensive front
seven for the Sooners have to dominate and be one
of the top defenses in the country for them to
win nine games.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I love it though you're not by yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
There's a lot of folks that seem to think that
they will be the surprise team this season as the
expectations continue to grow. Once the season starts, you know
I'm gonna be reaching out to you. We'll have you
on right before that Oklahoma and Texas matchup at the
Cotton Bowl. You know how important that is. But we
got to get this season started on Saturday, man, So
(11:45):
best of luck to you and I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Brother.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Thanks, Mike, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
As always good talking to my guy.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Cal Gundhy very optimistic for the Oaklahoma soon as
We went down south to Sam Marcus. Now let's go
north of the Red River and talk to my guy,
Cal Gundhy of the Sports Animal in Oklahoma. And Cale,
first off, good to talk to you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's been a minute. I'm glad to catch up with you.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
All is good. It's always good to get on and
talk a little ball and a little chop it up
a little bit with you. So I'm glad I'm here today, no.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, let's get right into a year four, year four
of Brent Vinables being back as the head coach of
the Oklahoma Sooners. Obviously, the first couple of seasons has
not gone the way that the Sooners fan had hope,
but there's some change that is happening.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You got yourself a quarterback, and.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
If anybody knows anything about quarterbacks, it will be you.
Off off the field issues have been arise, but on
the field, there's no doubt that your quarterback, John Mader
is one of the best in the country.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, and he's going to have to have some magic
this year. Uh. And that's that's one of the big
points of this football team this season. Like you mentioned,
coach Venables was six and seven, ten and three and
six and seven, and that ain't that ain't gonna fly
around here. About one more year of that and that'll
be a wrap. So uh. But there's been some change
(01:25):
obviously last year with this football team, lots of injuries
on the offensive side of the football. The defense was solid,
and I think they just kind of ran out of
gas as the season went along because the offense was
so depleted, and you know, defensively, I think they just
(01:46):
knew they weren't going to get much out of the
offense game in and game out. But this year, bringing
in Ben Arbuckle, the new offensive coordinator who's a West
Texas guy, uh, come from Washington State, and and coach
Arbuckle bringing his quarterback John Mattier, there's some new life.
John is a exciting player. I really like him as
(02:12):
a as a young man. I like him as a
ball player. I think he has it. Now what will
that translate to? Will that mean one more win, two
more wins?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Three four?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It's yet to see. They've got to stay healthy. Uh.
The offensive line struggled tremendously last year. They got They've
got a bunch of those guys back who have gotten
better who I believe was one of the best offensive
line coaches in Bill Beanbow in the country. Uh, they've
got a handful of running backs. They went out of
the transfer portal and got some wide receivers, some skilled players,
(02:47):
so it'll it'll be interesting again. Everybody's just you know,
it's hot around here. I know it's hot and Austin,
but it was. It was the hottest day of the
year last year. I heard there might even been a
player to fall out. I want to practice, say for
ten minutes, Mike, and it was so hot, I said,
the hell with this. I left. So but you know,
the hotter you get, the more rumors you get, the
(03:08):
more exciting Oklahoma fans get. And we can do this,
we can do that. But once you roll on that
sec you better pump the brakes a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
You know, you mentioned the transfers, and one of those
transfers is I haven't heard lately.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Hopefully he's feeling okay. Is Jaden?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Oh, the running back that is transferred in, and he's
somebody that they're expecting a lot from And is it
too much to ask of a player and the quarterback
as well for them to turn that offensive firepower into Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, it's you know, and you understand this. I mean,
everybody's got to do their job.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
At the end of the day, if the offensive line
can be can be good, can be solid, it will
allow John but here. It will allow the running backs,
it will allow this system to get the ball in
the hands of some receivers, they will be better. So
it all starts with that offensive line.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Again.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
You mentioned Jay Not, who they brought in from Cal,
who two years ago when twenty three had a great
season out there. Last year did not have as good
a season. Some people said he was injured, and I'll
be honest with you, Mike his name. He was talked
(04:34):
about a bunch. He hasn't been talked about as much
the last two weeks. There's some other guys, and there's
a young man who's a true freshman, and I'm gonna
get to that. But let's go back to Jay Not
from Cal. He's had a little deemed up shoulder, hadn't
been practicing that much, so not sure if he's going
to be that guy the most talked about. I'm gonna
(04:55):
give you three names, and I don't know how these
young men, well, what kind of season they will have
this year as true freshmen. But the three most talked
about names besides John Mattier on the Oklahoma football team
this year have been three freshmen from Texas. Tory Blaylock
(05:21):
running back Houston, Michael Fasusi offensive lineman Lewisville Courtland Guillery
defensive back Houston. Those are three freshmen that their names
on the street have been talked about as much as anything,
and again, how productive can they be as true freshmen?
(05:43):
But these guys as true freshmen, all from the state
of Texas, have have had a great camp.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And the one thing that I wanted to talk to you,
we're talking to Cal Gundhy of the Sports Animal in Oklahoma.
He is one of the former former offensive coordinators for
the Oklahoma soenters and former quarterback as well. He understands
what ball is supposed to look like. And when he
tells you that there's some freshmen that are making noise,
that is clutch for Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Because the one thing that I've.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Always said about Oklahoma obviously coming into Texas, getting those
players brings a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
But they've always recruited well.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
But now with everything that's going on going into the SEC.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Do you feel the recruiting.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Has changed a lot and that's why he's had to
go out and get so many transfers in the transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, you got to have depth in the SEC, as
you know, again, and I've said this obviously. You know,
playing at Oklahoma a long time ago, coaching there for
almost twenty three years, you know, everybody always knew about
the SEC, and the SEC really came on in the
(06:57):
late two thousand and teams is when they really started
to be something special. When when I was at ou
in the from ninety nine to twenty two, but in
the early two thousands, you know, SEC football wasn't what
it is now. It has really made huge strives. So
you've got to recruit differently. Your defensive lineman. You can't
(07:17):
have defensive linemen playing in the SEC that are weighing
two hundred and eighty two hundred and ninety pounds. You can't.
They have to weigh three fifteen three thirty three forty.
Same with the offensive lineman. You can't have offensive linemen
that weigh three hundred three hu or ten. They need
to be weighing three twenty five three thirty. It's just
it's a different uh, they're they're different body types, so
(07:42):
they have had to make a change in coach Vnables
has done that. They have done a tremendous job building
their players across the board. I think they only have
one defensive lineman who's under three hundred pounds now, and
I'm talking about defensive tackles who's under three hundred pounds
and it was because he came in as a defensive
(08:02):
end at two fifty and he's weighing about two ninety now.
The same with the offensive line that you know, their
guys are three fifteen to three hundred and twenty five
pounds now, So you got to recruit differently, and then
you've got to have that depth if you don't, and
that's what takes. I think takes what Texas has done
so good as they have not only gone out and
(08:24):
got some really really good players, but they've acquired depth
in case one or two guys go down. They're coming
in with the same style and the same type of
body types to play in the Southeastern Conference, no doubt. Kel.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Before we let you go, I wanted to ask you this.
I mean, you you talked about it. There's some things
that you can do at Oklahoma and there's.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Some things you can't do.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You can't consistently have a bad product on the field,
number one. Number two, you can't lose the games that
you should be winning and putting your team in a
stressful situation.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
If you had to.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Pick what the season is going to look like, what
will be your prediction of the Oklahoma Sooners record.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well, Mike, the couple of things I think they got
going for them. One, they play seven home games. That's
a bunch that that helps. And Secondly, compared to last season,
last season you had the Southeastern Conference had some veteran,
(09:34):
very good quarterbacks. There's not as many of those guys
this year. You've got a lot of programs that are
that are having new quarterbacks step out on the field
for the first time. To that have to be the guy.
And I'm not talking about coming in and playing sparingly,
(09:55):
coming in and a few snaps in the game here
and there, but I mean having to be the dude now.
So that I think that plays a role and plays
a factor in the Oklahoma Sooners. Now. Everybody tells me,
I'm I'm a bit of a homer uh to to
to the Oklahoma Sooners. But most people look at me
like like I've got three eyes on my forehead. I
(10:19):
have them winning nine games this season. Uh. I know
the overrunnder is somewhere around seven and a half. And
if you would have started having this conversation back in
about April or May, everybody would have said about seven.
But you know, as the season goes along, like I said,
it starts, every day gets a little hotter. So the
(10:39):
more rumors start to get flowing, people think that they
gonna they're gonna win a few more games here and there,
and you know, the sunshine starts to pump a little bit.
People probably raised their expectations. At the end of the day,
You're playing in the Southeastern Conference and it's just it's challenging.
So but I have them going nine to three this year.
Like I said, most people around here are more around
(11:03):
seven to eight wins. Three things that have to happen
for this team. Matier has to have some magic, The
offensive line has to be solid, and the defensive front
seven for the Sooners have to dominate and be one
of the top defenses in the country for them to
win nine games.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I love it though you're not by yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
There's a lot of folks that seem to think that
they will be the surprise team this season as the
expectations continue to grow. Once the season starts, you know
I'm gonna be reaching out to you. We'll have you
on right before that Oklahoma and Texas matchup at the
Cotton Bowl. You know how important that is. But we
got to get this season started on Saturday, man, So
(11:45):
best of luck to you and I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Brother.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Thanks, Mike, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
As always good talking to my guy.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Cal Gundhy very optimistic for the Oaklahoma soon as
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