Mike Gundy reacts to controversial trick play by Oklahoma vs. Auburn

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy was asked about the controversial trick play during the Oklahoma–Auburn game and he had an interesting take. Gundy acknowledged that he and others have done similar deception plays in the past.

He didn’t see the exact example from Saturday, but noted that teams will try and get away with it. However, officials want to crack down on those types of plays, especially on special teams.

Essentially, they want to eliminate or at least control deception plays, according to Gundy. He even brought up an example from his team’s past playbook.

“Not, I did not see it, but I read about it,” Gundy said. “They’ve made a big point of that over the last few years, because there was quite a bit of it. You remember when we did it against TCU and the fake field goal guy, ineligible number is throwing passes, and then we went to Iowa State the next week, and I’m sitting there in the locker room before the game. We had six plays for Iowa State, and they walked in and said ‘You can’t do that.’ Like, what? Can’t do that?

“So it’s a deception deal that I’m guessing right, act like I’m on the sideline? If you can pull it off, pretty smart. But the officials have made a point that they there’s two areas that they don’t want to see. What they’ve said, they don’t want deception to be a part of the game, and in particular on spec, on special teams, like, who’s on the ball who’s off the ball and all that.”

Gundy referred to former Baylor coach Art Briles, who had a crafty special teams play on the punt unit. Sometimes, the risk is worth the reward.

“You remember when Coach Briles was at Baylor,” Gundy said. “He ran that fake punt all the time where the wing would be like, halfway on the ball. Remember, they take it and then they throw it to him. They did it to us. And we knew it was happening twice. We knew it was happening. 

“I was screaming at it, and they still did it to us because we didn’t know. We coached it up. They’re trying to not take deception out of the game. But obviously it worked, pretty smart on their part. They pulled it off. Now it’s supposed to be a 15 yard penalty, right? So the risk, reward, whatever. But I did not see it, but obviously it worked.”