Will he, or won't he? Should he, or should he not?

I think he will. But a retired college coach thinks he should not. At least not the way he's done it in the past.

And so it goes for Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy, who has yet to announce his intentions when it comes to moonlighting another season as the play-caller for the Cowboys' lethal offense.

Life has never been dull in Gundy's four seasons running the program at his alma mater. Whether he's maniacally screaming at the media or calmly operating in his own world during a game, Gundy has a way of drawing unwanted attention to himself.

The former Cowboys quarterback obviously knew his press conference rant after the 2007 Texas Tech game wouldn't go unnoticed. But he had no idea his sideline demeanor during the 2008 season would become so controversial.

After the numbers OSU's offense amassed with Gundy personally directing the action, you would think any controversy would be over.

And you would be wrong.

A former successful college head coach, whose name won't be revealed to protect the innocent, hopes Gundy decides to remain on the sideline watching OSU's defense instead of retreating to a seat where he maps out the next offensive series.

"There are a lot of really good things that Mike's doing," said the coach, who is one of Gundy's staunchest supporters. "But when you are trying to win the game on defense and he's over there on the sideline drawing up plays and talking to the offense, I think that loses a little luster as far as the cohesiveness of your team."

The old ball coach isn't the only one with a strong opinion on the subject.

Gundy's unique approach became the talk of the nation last October when No. 17 OSU upset undefeated and No. 3 ranked Missouri. ESPN televised the thrilling 28-23 Cowboys win, and the network's director couldn't keep his cameras off of Gundy.

Sideline reporter Erin Andrews quickly broached the subject with Gundy after one of OSU's biggest wins ever. Sure, the defense came up huge by intercepting Tigers quarterback Chase Daniel three times, but why was Gundy sitting on that large equipment trunk drawing up plays instead of paying attention to the defense?

"Well, I have a lot of faith in coach (Tim) Beckman and the (defensive) staff," Gundy said of the former defensive coordinator. "And our responsibility on offense is to come up with the next series what plays to run. So I have to go over there and do it."

By season's end, Gundy's system seemed perfect. With the only offense in the county to produce a 1,400-yard receiver (Dez Bryant) and 1,400-yard rusher (Kendall Hunter), OSU reeled off nine wins for only the eighth time in school history, finished No. 16 in the final Associated Press poll and played Oregon in the Holiday Bowl.

Despite those impressive numbers, the media continued to question Gundy's decision to basically ignore the defense during the game. The retired coach's comments indicate those questions won't go away if Gundy continues to call the plays this season.

"Mike's improved a lot in the way he handles everything," the coach said. "But I don't think a very confident feeling comes across when he's just working with the offense.

"And people are going to use that against him in recruiting with defensive players."

College football coaches are always going to find some way to go negative when they are battling other schools for top prospects. And if that's the only thing they can come up with to use against Gundy, I doubt if that tactic will win many recruiting fights.

Gundy waited until last August before revealing that he had decided to take over the play-calling duties. The position came open when offensive coordinator Larry Fedora became Southern Mississippi's head coach.

During spring practice, Gundy let co-coordinator Gunter Brewer and the rest of the offensive staff call plays. He used the freedom to spend more time with players on both sides of the ball.

Brewer was a finalist for the offensive coordinator's job at Minnesota after last season. Some have speculated that Gundy was able to keep Brewer on staff by promising to turn the play-calling job over to him in 2009.

I'm not buying that theory. To me, the arrival of highly regarded Bill Young to replace Beckman as D-coordinator is a strong indication of what Gundy plans to do this fall.

When Miami coach Randy Shannon hired Young to run the Hurricanes' defense a year earlier, he took a hands-off approach when he said, "I don't get involved in what (Young) does."

Even though his approach is very passive, nobody said a word about Shannon because he prefers to watch every play on both sides of the ball.

So what will silence the critics if Gundy decides to keep his second job? Nothing, probably. But an offense that makes even more noise than it did last season might drown them out.