Contract Confirmed; Oklahoma State football team secured a commitment from New Quarterback in a multimillion dollar deal
Jett Niu committed to the Oklahoma State football team on Tuesday.
Niu is a quarterback in the 2025 recruiting class that is rated three stars. The Lehi, Utah-born prospect weighs 185 pounds and is 6-2.
Niu decommitted from Appalachian State on Monday, although he had committed on May 24. Then, he turned down offers from Washington State and Arizona to attend OSU.
In his junior year at Lehi High, Niu passed for 2,812 yards, 31 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. In three games this season, he has passed for 701 yards, eight touchdowns, and four interceptions.
In addition, Niu is the elder brother of Bryton Niu, an OSU-bound three-star tight end in the 2026 recruiting class.
Niu is the 17th player signed by OSU for its 2025 recruiting class, which 247Sports ranks as the 54th best class in the country.
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Everything Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said at his weekly press conference ahead of Tulsa game….
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy touched on a bit of everything Monday.
Mike Gundy, the head coach of Oklahoma State, was back at the podium two days after an exciting game to answer questions from the media.
Two games into his 20th season leading his alma mater, the head coach discussed a wide range of topics, including the Arkansas game, NIL, Tulsa, and the status of collegiate athletics.
The following is what Gundy stated on Monday when he discussed this Saturday’s matchup at Tulsa.
What was captured on video?
“Just as I had mentioned, they prepared better during the week, which gave them unrestricted access to us for a quarter of an hour. Then, in the second half, we performed admirably. We were lucky to leave there with a victory because we made some extremely smart changes, players didn’t falter, and coordinators called smart plays in the second half.”
Regarding the difficult run game: “We are unable to block the number of individuals inside.” One more player is present. The rules of football state that when there is an extra player with no obligations, everyone can play heavy. This makes it difficult to block when someone is playing heavy and there is an additional player since an additional player may be approaching from this direction and there may be a heavy player over there. We therefore needed to be able to throw the ball down field, which we accomplished in the third quarter.”
Any news regarding Collin Oliver?
“What they told me is not new. It will take some time. Very regrettable. Collin and Justin Wright fall into the group where they could miss a significant amount of games. Although it’s the most difficult thing a coach has to do, there won’t be any updates for another month or two.”
Obi Ezeigbo put up a fantastic show!
“His background and a host of other factors don’t place him in that category. He engaged in genuine competition. He was challenged and had to perform in a lot of plays that he hadn’t really seen at this level. For him, it was different. I was pleased with him. I informed the employees about that. It turns out that he played better than I had anticipated, which happens rather frequently. Before a young man enters the game, we can’t truly tell how good he is. He has a lot of work ahead of him, but I’m happy he’s here. He performed better on the field than I anticipated.”
Pulls a Michael Jordan on Stribling?
“Yes, he did make a few plays. He had a few balls that we believe he will eventually make those catches as the season progresses. But his health wasn’t good. One of the things about everyday life, college football, and athletics is that sometimes, even when we’re not feeling well, we still have to go to work. Likewise with him. I was therefore pleased that he participated.”
“You want me to go back into coachtalk or do you want me to tell you the truth. The truth? He was very inexpensive. The number of players that we go after that were ready to play at this level, we can’t afford. So he was a good buy and a really quality young man that had had successful, and has physical characteristics that we can work with. Rob Glass, in developing. So that’s why he ended up here in my opinion. So we saw some things that we felt like we could develop we thought we could develop into a good player at this level, and it wasn’t going to cost us the money we didn’t have.”
Now backup to Obi?
“We’re going to investigate that this week and come up with a plan for where we’re at at that particular position. If we have to vary a style of play to get certain guys on the field with more maturity, we could do that. But we won’t know that til Thursday.”
So schematic changes?
“Could. Yes. Could.”
Is Obi similar to how y’all found Leon Johnson?
“Do you want coaches talk or the truth? He was inexpensive and he was a hell of a get for this price. So forever, used to be the old Ford Taurus, you could get it relatively inexpensive, good gas mileage, and you could go coast to coast, and you’d have a really good of getting there. The old Honda Accord; I’m more for American-made products. But the point being is, we really liked him, and he wasn’t in a position that other schools were offering a lot of money. So we could get our hands on him, and we were really glad. He was a good take for us.
Nardo connection to Obi?
“I don’t know that that factors in any at all. Obi is an intelligent young man, and he comes from a really solid upbringing, which factors in a lot of moving across the country, settling into this area and getting used to all of us that talk funny. And then realizing that if he’ll just do what he’s asked to do and work really hard, he’ll get better and improve. And so he made those adjustments on his own. The one thing that surprised me was, I didn’t think that he was prepared physically, conditioned to think well after that many plays. Because what happens is guys get tired and their mind goes. They make mistakes. And he played really well mentally in the fourth quarter and in overtime after an extended period of time, which is a pretty good example of why he’s able to move across the country and do well here. He’s a pretty mature young man.”
Defense consistent issues to fix?
The majority of the problems we had in the first half was we got outreached, and then we got our players put in the wrong positions. We have to fix that, which that’s on us. And then we have to get our players in the right position based on giving them the best chance. That’s the simplest way I can put it.
Ark WRs not necessarily running open?
“Well, you’re a homer. That’s the first part. They were running wide open. You’re wanting to make it look better, and honestly, they were running wide open. We’re honest here. There’s no reason anybody should come to these press conferences if we’re going to bullshit each other. So the point being is that they were running wide open. And the good news is this, it’s fixable. And I know everybody’s going, didn’t look like it’s fixable. To me, it’s fixable, OK? So if players don’t have schemes that give them either an equal opportunity or better opportunity than your opponent, you’re exposed. And then if other guys have schemes that are better than yours, you’re really exposed. So there’s been a lot of times in my career that we have had better schemes that the other coaches. I just don’t take about it. But because they had better concepts than we did, and then our players got out of position, it made it look really bad.”
On the key to second-half adjustments
“One was pressure. Two was we made minor adjustments, concept-wise, with the running game. We still struggled with a g play they hit us on a few times. We fixed it. Then one time, they cut it all the way in the A gap, which is a good play on their part. We used to run that here with coach (Les) Miles. We’d run that G sting forever. Really good football play. And then (Arkansas’ running back) cut it back. But for the most part, we were sound in the run game on those issues that we had in the first half. And then pressure helped us, and we made adjustments in coverages where we had the issues, which got guys in better position. I mean, that’s what you saw in the second half a little bit.”
Is the Arkansas game good tape to watch for future games?
“Part of (our missed tackles) was (Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green’s) athleticism. It’s like, you know, running down – this is a bad example – you could be back there with Michael Vick and say you have a hard time getting him down. (Green) had a really good quick twitch, so, you could get close to him and he could move quick. And that’s hard. Obi (Ezeigbo) had him twice. We had him eight times, and we didn’t get him down. So, that was a good thing. From that standpoint, our coaches did a good job. But, you’ve got to corral him and get him down. Because (if) you don’t get him down, then it doesn’t matter. Because then if they get out, then you’re really exposed, because you don’t have as many people back there playing the pass.”
Could OSU have done anything different defensively in those situations?
“They were fine. You know, here’s the thing about pass rushing that’s interesting – so, defensive line coaches will tell those guys, ‘I want you to fight, scream, spit, claw, bite, whatever you’ve got to do, I need you to get to that quarterback. But when you get back there, don’t get out of control or they ain’t biting.’ Or, ‘Make sure you have some rush lane presence. I want you – whatever it takes to get back there, you’ve got to get back there.’ So, there’s a lot going on for those guys. That’s why the ones that go to the NFL make so much money, because it’s extremely difficult to do that. Particularly, with dual-threat quarterbacks.”
On Arkansas defending the inside zone
“They had extra guys. You know, had an extra guy everywhere. They had a good plan. I’m just saying they had good plans. You know, they’re always people — they’re always on that guy over there. I thought they were good coaches. They had good plans.”
“Well so that is a good comment, but loading it up is one full man extra. We’re getting half so like the guy that’s cheating on pass and then he’s coming in there and we don’t have a block for. Instead of a guy just standing in there, which is loaded, so we’re getting more of the half. And there’s two ways to handle it. One, as I mentioned earlier, we got to get the ball thrown over those people’s head. Or two, Ollie has to run through him or Sesi has to run through him. And our offensive line play has been average. Hasn’t been bad. We’re talking about run blocking because our pass protection has been excellent. I don’t think we’ve given up a sack this year so far that I know of. And our negative yardage plays haven’t been bad, so their play in that area, knock on wood, has been really good. The run blocking has been average. And then you add the half person and not a great combination there.”
They trying to stop the inside zone?
“They had extra guys, they had an extra guy everywhere. They had a good plan, I’m just saying, they had good plans. They are, people, they’re always on that go over there. I thought they were good coaches, they had good plans.”
On Nick Martin:
“Nick plays so hard. It’s crazy. He set a record for Catapult. He was at 857 on the player load in Catapult. We’ve never had anybody over 800. Most guys that play hard float around 620 to 690. He was at 857 on the Catapult so we’re gonna check his Catapult this week to make sure it wasn’t malfunctioning, but when I watched him on tape and I watched him play, I can see why he was at that number. When you have a guy like him running around and making plays, you’re always gonna feel good about it because he shows up out of nowhere, and he did it a number of times in the latter part of the fourth quarter and overtime, as well as Kendal. Kendal’s stop on fourth down … that was a big time stop because he only had a 4-yard movement and the back had a 6-yard movement, and he stoned him right there. It was really a tribute to him and Rob Glass at that point. But Nick gives us a lot there with just his ability to run around.”
Did you see an improvement with Kendal?
“Yes, Kendal is getting better. He sure is, and he’ll continue to get better and better.”
What does the Catapult measure?
“Everything. That thing has like seven categories. I don’t make you think I understand all of it. They just tell me what three of ’em mean. One of ’em means how many miles you ran during the game, one of ’em means how fast you ran during the game and one of ’em means your player load, which is a combination of a bunch of things and how much it affected your body. An 857 number would be like somebody that doesn’t workout all of a sudden saying ‘Hey I’m gonna go run a marathon.’ It’s a huge number.”
On Big 12 parity:
“I just see some scores, and then I get home in the afternoon cause we had such an early game so I was able to watch some games. It’s really across the country. There’s probably 10 teams that deserve to be way up there that could play home or away and probably be a 6 to 9-point favorite no matter who they played, and then you could throw the other 40 or 50 in a hat and just shake them up. It don’t make a difference who you get out. And I think you’re gonna see that across the country with free agency and the NIL and portal.”
On if OSU is one of those 10 teams that can play anywhere:
“We’re not there yet.”
On how deep college football’s parity goes:
“This team we just played, 15 players from their two-deep weren’t on their team last year, so they had acquired 15 players on their two-deep that came from somewhere else. You really can change your roster now more than ever. As I’ve said for four or five or six years, this is gonna look like the NFL before too long where there will be a whole bunch of six-win teams because of that reason.
New players on teams, and how acquainted they are with each other, and how can they play with each other? It’s like in the NFL – guys trade teams. We do it in basketball in the pros, we do it in baseball in the pros, but it’s not a physical contact sport. It’s different. This is a much different sport when it comes to that, so I think you’re gonna see this more and more with teams that. Now, I watched the second half of Northern Illinois and Notre Dame, and I didn’t see an upset. I saw a team that played really well and stopped them and ran the ball. It was interesting, you know, they made a mistake and they didn’t stop the clock or they didn’t burn Notre Dame’s timeout. Did you guys see that? So, they ran the third down … Did anyone see the game because I don’t want to tell the story. Y’all didn’t see the game, so it’s not gonna do any good.
Anyway, third down and about this much and they ran the ball. Notre Dame had one timeout left. So they ran the ball and tried to get a first down, and they measured it, stopped the clock and measured it, and said it was short. It was an awful spot. When that was complete, they should’ve restarted the clock. They didn’t, and Notre Dame had one timeout. I thought, well, Notre Dame must’ve told them during the measurement, ‘Go ahead and burn our timeout. We don’t want to start the clock.’ You know how they do that. Well, they didn’t. They came back. They made the field goal. They didn’t start the clock, which would’ve burned off 40 seconds. Then they kicked off and Notre Dame still got the timeout. Nobody ever knew it. Now, I could be wrong on that, but that’s what I saw in that situation. I’m just sitting there watching the game, and I said, ‘Why’s the clock not running? And why’d they not call a timeout? And why is nobody saying anything about this?’ That was huge – big deal.”
More on the officiating in the Notre Dame-NIU game
“I could be wrong on that, but that is what I saw in that situation (they didn’t start the clock like they should have), Am I correct? I’m sitting the watching the game and I’m thinking why is the clock not running and why are they (Notre Dame) not having to call a time out, and nobody is saying anything about this and it is huge. Big deal.
Have you heard anymore from Big 12 or SEC officials on Saturday’s game?
“No, I’m going to call the director of the SEC and tell him, it’s not his fault. It’s the director nationally, Steve Shaw’s fault. He runs the officials. He is in charge of all this. He needs to get everybody (all officials coordinators) in one room and explain this is the rules and this is how we are calling them. Okay, if a guy barks out a signal and he’s in the line (of scrimmage) then it’s a penalty. If he’s back here (behind the line of scrimmage) it’s not a penalty. It doesn’t make a difference to me what they call.
I just need consistency. Okay, what upset me is we’ve done that multiple times and nobody ever said a word about it. And, so those official it’s not their fault either. It’s the guy in charge. It’s his fault. It is just like celebrations, how are we going to call celebrations now? Don’t get me wrong, Bowman should have got flagged. He should have got two flags, Okay, the point being is what’s a celebration in your mind might not be a celebration in mine. It is judgmental, and we need to clean that up and there is only one way to clean that up. No celebrations because how do we know.
I see it differently than you do. That (offsides) call was an issue. We had the cut block on the touchdown. We threw a touchdown to Brennan, right? They call the cut block based on the tackle box. So, the tackle box is an imaginary area that we used for blocking and we use for the quarterback to throw the ball away, and once the play is established based on where the outside leg of the tackle is that tackle box is established. That never moves. So, if there is anything that goes on outside by rule that is illegal, it is a penalty. Anything that stays inside is not a penalty based on cut blocks, chop blocks, quarterback, and all those things. We’re getting inconsistencies on those things and we shouldn’t be.
On the pick play penalty they waved off.
“Which is okay because on that play I saw the receiver catch a ball and I saw an offensive player bump into a defender, so I’m not sure. I’m going to throw the flag and then we’re going to talk about it. Was it behind the line, which is legal. Then I’m going to talk to him (other official) and we’re going to make a decision to pick it up. I’m good with that, I actually think that is good officiating, especially if they pick it up for us and it is in our favor. Here is the issue I have.
I don’t have any problem with the SEC officials. I don’t have any problem with the Big 12 officials. I have a problem with Steve Shaw because he is in charge. He needs to get them in one room and say this is what we’re calling. I go to play a game and the ACC is officiating. If they make three calls and they say this is what we do in the ACC and it hurt my team then that is not fair to my team. I need to know what the rules are. I just need to know what they are. As long as I know what the speed limit is and I get a ticket for going over it that’s my choice, but if I didn’t know what the speed limit is then maybe it is not my fault.
Did he think with the current climate in college football and business that the parity would grow or the opposite would happen?
“There are several ways to look at this. There is a group of teams that are running away with it. In the offseason and the free agency and the bidding that is going on for players. There is a certain group of them that we don’t even get involved in. You call them and they say, ‘I get $300,000 just to take an official visit. Okay,well who is next? There is a group that is doing that. That is still out there. The challenge, here is what the challenge will be, from what I can see in reading between the lines with this judge (Claudia Wilken) what she is talking about and then I had a conversation last night with somebody, I don’t think they are going to sign this.
I think they are a long ways off. If that happens then we’re in another year of what you would call ‘collective NIL’ which is paying players which we are not supposed to be doing. I think she is going the other way on this revenue sharing, in my opinion. What we have to be careful of in that instance is the accumulation of money spent by those schools in a period of time. Like the ACC is upset because we get this amount of money per team, the SEC and the Big Ten get this amount of money per team, over a four-year period it is this amount of money. So, it’s like if investing in the stock market, if you invest this amount and the other guy invests this amount then over a after eight years his money goes here (Gundy gestures with his arms) and his money goes here (he widens his arms).
You doubled your money, but he doubled his money. That is the concern. That is what we have to get under control. If we a few schools in the country and we have more than a few, say 20 schools in the country that are extending themselves and investing that in the team where are we going to be four years from now, that is the concern. It is heading that direction, that is my opinion. If she doesn’t sign this and we get out of player revenue sharing the descrepancies are going to be that way.”
Expect hoarding of talent in NIL era?
There’s several ways to look at this. There’s a group of teams that are running away with it. In offseason free agency and bidding that’s going on for players, there’s a certain group of them that we don’t even get involved in. You call them and they say, ‘Look, I get $300,000 just to take an official visit.’ OK, well who’s next? There is a group that is doing that. That’s still out there. Here’s what the challenge is gonna be.
From what I can see in reading between the lines with this judge (U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, who is overseeing the NCAA antitrust settlement), what she’s talking about — I had a conversation last night with somebody — I don’t think they’re gonna sign this player revenue. I think they’re a long ways off. So if that happens, then we’re in another year of what you would call “collective NIL,” which is paying players, that we’re not supposed to be doing.
So I think she’s going the other way on this revenue sharing, in my opinion. What we have to be careful of in that instance is the accumulation of money spent by certain schools over a period of time. Like the ACC is upset because they said we get this amount of money per team, the SEC and Big Ten get this amount of money per team. Over a four-year period, it’s this amount of money. So it’s just like investing in the stock market.
If you invest this amount and another guy invests this amount, after eight years, his money goes here and your money goes here. You doubled your money but he doubled his money. That’s the concern. That’s what we have to get under control. If we have a few schools in the country — more than a few, but if we have 20 schools in the country that are extending themselves by $15-20 million a year, and investing that in the team, where are we gonna be four years from now? That’s the concern.
So the discrepancy is coming?
It’s heading that direction. My opinion is if she doesn’t sign this and we get out of player revenue sharing, the discrepancies are gonna be that way and you’re not gonna have anymore parity.
