The line of doubters Dez Bryant has far exceeds those in the line of complete believers but no one disputes the talent the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver has.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, who had Bryant before he was declared ineligible by the NCAA, is a big believer. But even he recognizes Bryant needs to mature in order to come close to tapping into his massive talent.
Gundy visited with KESN-FM in Dallas on Tuesday and talked about the receiver.
“People really don’t know Dez. He's a kid at heart,” Gundy said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “The best example for Dez is when we asked him to do something here outside of football, he did everything we asked him to do. There were times when he would oversleep and he may be late to a class, but it wasn’t in a detrimental way. That was just kind of Dez’s personality. … But if we ever said, “Dez, we need you to do something for our football team. Dez, we need you to do something for these kids out in the community. We need you to sign these posters," or "They’re here and they want to shake your hand,” he would stay on the field with them, he would play touch football with them, he did everything anybody ever asked.
“And that’s the one side people don’t know about Dez. And Dez has some issues that he needs to clean up, but as I’ve watched him over the last six months, I think he’s done considerably better. He is a good person at heart. He just has a little bit of maturing to do and little bit of growing up, but he didn’t have the background that some of us did, so he’s learning a little later in life compared to what some of us may have learned in our teenage or early adult years.”
I takes focus at the professional level, especially when people are trying to pull you in every direction and that’s why the most successful athletes have the right people around them.
“He just has to stay focused,” Gundy said. “And the thing I worry about most with Dez is there’s so much money at that level and they have so many people pulling him in different directions. If he just stays focused on what he does best,which is being a good team football player, performing on the field and not getting distracted by other issues, he’ll do really well. And I know that he’s already showing signs of maturing in those areas.
“I don’t think there’s any question that Dez can take a game over now as a receiver. But if you just watch him return punts, you’ll see the difference between him and other men that are playing that game. There’s no question that he can take a game over. And we’re very proud of him. I think at times, because people talk about a lot of the things that happened with Dez off the field, that people aren’t sure how Oklahoma State feels about him. But we’re very proud of Dez, and we’ve got his picture hanging in our hallways, in our entrance, everywhere. We’re proud that he was a part of Oklahoma State.”
