Best guess: Mike Gundy won't be his own offensive coordinator again
Published: 12/11/2012 10:19 AM
Last Modified: 12/11/2012 10:19 AM
In between the stints of offensive coordinators Larry Fedora and Dana Holgorsen, Mike Gundy served double duty as head coach and playcaller for Oklahoma State. And statistics say he was good at it, until injuries to quarterback Zac Robinson hobbled the Cowboys late in the 2009 season.
OSU in in search for a playcaller again because offensive coordinator Todd Monken is being introduced today as the new head coach at Southern Miss. I’m trying to go through Gundy’s handlers to ask him if he harbors any ambitions of being a playcaller again. My educated guess is he will remain the CEO of the program and let someone else tinker with x’s and o’s.
Why do I feel that way? I pack-ratted many of Gundy’s interviews on a digital recorder this season and found a SiriusXM question-and-answer session where he was asked about how some head coaches manage to pull double-duty as CEO and playcaller.
Gundy said when he was doing both, he came into the film room at 6:15 a.m. and was in the office until 9:30 or 10 p.m. He said he did that “four days a week and all day on Sunday.”
Said Gundy, “It was just overwhelming for me and I thought it affected our football team and I thought it affected my attitude, the way I handled myself with the team because I was tired and frustrated.”
Gundy said there are a number of head coaches who call plays and are successful doing it.
“But I do think it takes an enormous amount of time,” he said. “And the way college football is going with all the media responsibilities and the recruiting and the fund-raising for a head coach, I know -- for me here at Oklahoma State -- I have got my hands full just keeping up with all those areas,
“So I have been able to hire coordinators that are essentially the head coach of the offense and the head coach of the defense and the head coach of the special teams. And that’s their responsibility. I give them some input during the week on what I think is best and if they use it, great, and if they don’t, great. Sometimes during a game I may give some input and most of the time it doesn’t work and I have learned to stay out of it because I don’t watch enough tape to have critical input on X’s and O’s.”
Bottom line on double-duty coaches? “There are some guys that still do it,” Gundy said. “But the time demand has got to be huge.”
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
