'Start doing some work': After a day off, Mike Gundy will begin OSU's defensive coordinator search
Scott Wright
Oklahoman
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — After Saturday’s
Fiesta Bowl victory over Notre Dame, Mike Gundy loudly proclaimed his pride in the Oklahoma State logo.
Now, as the calendar turns to 2022, the OSU coach’s next job is solidifying the list of people who will be wearing that logo in the fall.
That includes
the defensive coordinator position, super-seniors who choose to return, and the players going in and out via the transfer portal.
Gundy discussed all of those things on Sunday morning before he and his team departed the Scottsdale Plaza Resort to return to Stillwater.
The super-senior and portal issues will solve themselves, and have already begun to do so.
Shortly after Saturday’s 37-35 win over Notre Dame, senior safety Tre Sterling announced that he would be declaring for the NFL Draft, and some others are likely to follow.
Senior defensive end Brock Martin is the only player to officially announce his plan to stay at OSU for the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA as a result of last year’s COVID-19 pandemic.
But Gundy said on Sunday he expects cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse, defensive tackles Brendon Evers and Israel Antwine, and defensive end Tyren Irby to return as well.
Offensive lineman Hunter Anthony announced his commitment to Nebraska on Sunday morning, leaving OSU with three players in the transfer portal: safety Tanner McCalister, defensive tackle Jayden Jernigan and running back Dezmon Jackson.
More portal movement, going in both directions, is a virtual certainty, particularly with players coming in to replace those who leave.
The defensive coordinator position is Gundy’s most pressing matter when he gets back to work.
“I promised my wife that I would take at least one day off,” Gundy said. “But then I have to start doing some work. I need to go back and look at this (Fiesta Bowl) tape. I need to evaluate our staff.
“And then think through what’s the best direction to go with that position, because coordinator positions are huge hires with me as a head coach, because I don’t coach defense. I don’t really coach offense, either. I’m willing to let them do their job. So that person has to be able to control that room, has to be highly intelligent and has to be very savvy and quick-thinking on gameday, in my opinion.”
Former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who was set to officially begin his work at Ohio State on Sunday, showed Gundy what is possible from a coordinator as a gameday play-caller.
“Jim was a great play-caller,” Gundy said. “I have to decide what’s best for us, and I’m gonna work hard on that over the next three to four days and start moving. If we don’t promote from inside — and I honestly, right now, don’t know — then I’m sure I’ll interview at least six or eight guys, just because it’s defense and that’s not my gig.
“I can kinda tell, but I’m not gonna try to pretend that I know that. I can listen to an offensive guy for 30 minutes and I know if I want to hire him or not. Defense is different for me.”
Gundy has internal candidates to consider for the job, primarily defensive line coach Joe Bob Clements, cornerbacks coach Tim Duffie and safeties coach Dan Hammerschmidt.
Those three were the coaches involved in play-calling for the Fiesta Bowl — a process that started out like a too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen scenario, but smoothed out in time for the Cowboys to allow only one touchdown to Notre Dame in eight second-half possessions.
“We struggled in the first quarter, but then in the second quarter, we were better, play-calling-wise, communication-wise,” Gundy said. “I had three guys talking about play calls. We took two guys and put them in the box, and took two guys that had normally been there and put them on the ground.
“Would I do that again? Yes, because I don’t like to have a play-caller on the ground. But was that an issue? Yes. The communication wasn’t good and there was too much talk. I think I did the right thing, but I don’t know that I’d do it again, because I don’t know if we could ever make up the ground that we lost in the first quarter. We got busted a couple times in the first quarter where we got out-coached… A couple times, we just couldn’t get it communicated — it was just Jim Knowles not being here is what caused it.”
Gundy said Notre Dame’s offensive style of play — a more methodical approach, rather than the up-tempo pace that many Big 12 teams use — allowed for more communication among the staff before making a play call.“If they were a tempo offense, we could not have done that,” Gundy said. “So I anticipated some issues, because it’s new and it’s extremely difficult to call plays. And it’s even more difficult with them because of their tight ends.
“I knew there would be some adjustments because of that. But because they weren’t a tempo team, those discussions could take place during the time they were getting lined up. But it took a quarter, and I was almost in head coach panic mode after the first quarter of just saying, ‘Hey, we’re not doing this anymore.”
But the communication issues resolved themselves and OSU settled in to rally for the victory to cap a sensational 12-win season.
“I heard communication on the headsets before the defenses were called, and that’s what I wanted,” Gundy said. “I wanted everybody to be involved, from the standpoint that we hadn’t had anybody on our defensive staff that’s called plays in a game, and calling plays in a game’s not easy. I know that for a fact.
"So they worked together as a group. They had great practices the last three weeks, and once they settled in, I thought they were really good.”
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