He showed up the final days of the Knowles contract deal and I haven't seen him post since this all came down. Maybe I missed it. He seemed to have great info on a contract - around $2M per, but maybe had the wrong school that was making that offer?

We have cussed and discussed the situation with losing Knowles, but what happens moving forward. I would like for us to hire Tony Gibson. Did a great job at West Virginia and is from Marlow. He is also a linebackers coach. bring him on right away. Get the current assistants signed and on board. Have Knowles coach the bowl game. The players want it and it gives us the best chance to beat Notre Dame which would be a big deal. Have Gibson work with Knowles and staff in all the bowl preparations. Get the players used to him. Hopefully that helps with the seniors considering returning like Martin, Antwine, Evers, JBC, McAlister and a few others. In addition getting Lacy to return would be huge.

And you don’t buy season tickets (to multiple sports) and don’t donate on a regular basis to the athletic department then you are indirectly part of the issue.

Historically OSU athletics has raised little to no money. That changed with Karsten Creek and continued to change over the last 17 years, but that doesn’t undo decades of futility and apathy. Hell, OSU can’t even sell out of season tickets in ANY sport.

To blame anyone in an administrative position is asinine at best and is playing ostrich with the reality of OSU’s fan and donor base. Things are moving in the right direction, but it isn’t going to happen overnight.

Does this surprise anyone really? The few female liberal friends I have left are pretty calm, but the ones that all ran to FB and unfriended me or deleted my phone number after 11/2016 were just vile, trashy and repugnant people when it came to politics.

Things are still bright Orange within our program and we should be proud of a really good season. We missed on a program changing and defining win today and that will be hard to get over. It was all laid out and the season and conference seemed to break in every way for us to finally get another championship. This one will be hard to bounce back from no doubt.

But, once that wears a bit, we need to look at an incredible and improbable season. No one projected us to be heand not only did we get here we did so in a way that has turned the direction our program appeared to be heading and you would have to be feeling super negative to not look at the short term potential and not be very excited for Cowboy football.

Let’s get Knowles re-signed, hire the best coaches possible if we have any turnover, and get this team working on getting across the line next year.

Today sucks but lots to looks forward heading into the off-season to for the first time in awhile. Go pokes!

To contemplate 12 errors their leadership advocates. Maybe it is best to think for yourself.

Does this surprise anyone really? The few female liberal friends I have left are pretty calm, but the ones that all ran to FB and unfriended me or deleted my phone number after 11/2016 were just vile, trashy and repugnant people when it came to politics.

Look, there’s no question Knowles is a big time defensive coach and that it sucks to lose him.


I’ve seen it mentioned by some, but Knowles benefited tremendously by having such a mature team of 21-23 year olds littered across the 2 deep.

I haven’t seen anyone bring up the depth and playmaking ability of our defensive line. Having a real two deep where everyone playing can make plays would make a lot of defensive coordinators look better than they are. Having the ability to get pressure rushing 3 guys would make a lot of coordinators look amazing too.

Bottom line, you need dudes. Guys like Brock Martin, Colin Oliver etc. Joe Bob and Richmond have brought talent and depth all along the d-line.

Years back, Richetti Jones was our best player host in recruiting. I have to think he’d be a dynamite recruiter and has Texas ties. He’s been brought back into the program but not in a coaching role.

If Joe Bob were to get the DC job, I’d ask Richetti about coming in to replace Joe Bob. You’d then have Richetti and Greg Richmond recruiting for d-line. If they’re able to continue getting play makers and depth, we would have a huge part of our defensive identity intact.

Having the ability to diversify the staff, get a younger staff and add a potential stud recruiter at such an important position would make me think long and hard about hiring Clements as DC.

Hopefully we land some impact players this off-season as well


Offense

He’s at Grand Prairie HS to see Savion Red, who de-committed from SMU when Sonny Dykes bailed for TCU.

I’m not convinced at all we should hire from within. Here are a few reasons why:

I know Jim said that our staff came up with the schemes together but how do we know this? Gundy said Jim will lock himself away in his office and he wouldn’t see him. My guess is Jim did a lot more work then he let on. He was probably being generous to the coaches he worked with for so long or he was wanting to leave with a statement of kindness to the OSU people to not rock the boat or to make him leaving seem “not so bad.”

Let’s say it was true though. That the staff came up with the schemes together. Jim still steered the ship. He still called the shots. He still made the in game adjustments. He still was the leader. Is one of the current staff members able to do that or are we going to end up bitching about a promotion that is questionable like we have our OC?

In my opinion you go out and find someone who will come in(outsider) and do what Monken did when he followed up Holgy. The defensive staff does know the concepts so go hire someone that will mesh well with this current staff and is willing and knowledgeable of the concepts we run. Someone who excels at making in game adjustments. Someone who is a heck of a LB coach. Yes that all sounds like JK. He doesn’t have to be JK. Bring in your own way of doing things but not someone who is going to steer to far away from what we do scheme wise and is willing to learn and listen to our current staff who knows the system.

I love JBC. He is probably well undervalued by OSU fans. He has been getting and coaching up big time dlineman for us for a long time. He has been loyal and hasn’t ever seemed to let things get the best of him. Let’s face it, when we brought on Greg Richmond he could have taken that as a major insult and took his ball and gone home but he never did. He embraced it and the two have worked well together and put a very nice product on the field. Kudos to JBC. I just don’t think he is the guy for the job. My fear would be a Dunn situation. It’s one things to coach up dlineman and it’s another to know everything there is to know about offensive schemes and how the secondary should cover and what adjustments to make.

I think OSU needs to bring in a leader like they did when they hired Jim.

Knowles brought the 4-2-5 defense he learned from Patterson. That 4-2-5 defense did not work 1st year at OSU. Defense is a hybrid, Knowles told RA the entire staff came up with the current defense, it was not all his doing. tOSU is keeping their staff together. OSU staff could stay together and Knowles said the staff knows that defense.

RA talked to Gundy, he was disappointed in losing him, lamenting the ability some programs have financially. Gundy was disappointed. The rest was a private conversation.

Schematics not as important as players. Knowles admitted he had extremely veteran players this year that allowed them to run a sophisticated defense. NFL scout told Hunzicker our defense was advanced and more sophisticated than some NFL defenses. Older and experienced players allowed for that.

Players came over to Jim's house and had a cigar party last night with some of the older players.

Really hard on the fans, been since the 80's we had a great defense. This one hurts.

RA - The communications that needed to happen at the last minute for whatever reason did not happen. Gundy was trying to get ahold of Knowles and vice-versa and for whatever reason did not happen.

'Kudos to them': New College Football Hall of Famer Leslie O'Neal grateful to all-star OSU coaching staff​

Ryan Aber
Oklahoman

LAS VEGAS — It’s funny how things work out.

There was a time when Leslie O’Neal wanted to be the next Billy Ray Smith. Ultimately, it was Smith that played an unknowing role in helping O’Neal land at Oklahoma State.

Tuesday, more than 35 years after his Cowboys career ended, O’Neal became the fourth former Cowboys player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

O’Neal was part of the hall’s 2020 class, but the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out last year’s ceremony, so both the 2020 and 2021 classes were inducted this year.

“It signifies that the people at Oklahoma State — the Jimmy Johnsons, the Butch Davises, the Dave Wannstedts, the Houston Nutts, the George Walstads — all these people who put time and effort into helping the players develop and when you have players from that group getting an award like this, kudos to them,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal had to wait plenty to be inducted after a two-time All-America career with the Cowboys made him eligible.

But O’Neal wasn’t about to launch a campaign for induction — for this or the Pro Football Hall of Fame.



“Realistically, there’s nothing you can do,” O’Neal said. “I could go out and toot my own horn or whatever. But is that gonna get me in? And if it does, how do I feel about that? I know that, hey, I played, and now I’m getting that recognition for how I played.”

O’Neal joins Bob Fennimore (1972), Barry Sanders (2003) and Thurman Thomas (2008) as OSU inductees among players. Former coaches Pappy Waldorf (1966) and Johnson (2012) are also enshrined.

O’Neal was far from a sure thing coming out of Hall High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“The teams that I was looking at were basically telling me, ‘We’re going to redshirt you your first year,’” O’Neal said. “Because I was 190, 199, 200 pounds playing defensive tackle or whatever. The story was, ‘We’re going to put some meat on you,’ that type of deal.”

He wanted to follow in Smith’s footsteps at Arkansas and the Razorbacks coaches worked to sell O’Neal on being the next in line.

“Can I compete for a job?,” O’Neal asked.

“No, we’re going to redshirt you,” he was told.



So Butch Davis swooped in from Stillwater and offered O’Neal a chance.

And O’Neal took advantage, anchoring the 1984 and 1985 defenses that were among college football’s best, allowing just 34 touchdowns over those two seasons.

He earned All-Big Eight honors in each of his last three seasons with the Cowboys and set still-standing school records with 16 sacks in 1984 and 34 sacks in his OSU career.

So O’Neal enjoyed seeing the Cowboys get back to playing strong defense this season.

“To win a national championship, which is what they’re trying to do, you have to play great offense and you have to have a defense that can get stops,” O’Neal said.

“You’ve got to be able to stop people late in games. … I’ve always thought that as a defensive guy, that the best way to get better, the best way to win right away is to improve your defense. If I keep you from scoring, I don’t have to score as much. It’s just one of those deals.”

When O’Neal’s Cowboys career ended, he was drafted eighth overall by the San Diego Chargers in the 1986 NFL Draft.

The Chargers had drafted Smith with the fifth overall pick three years earlier.

Suddenly, the two Arkansas natives were teammates.

“Hey, you’re the reason I didn’t go to Arkansas,” O’Neal told Smith.

O’Neal had to wait to become teammates with Smith, but that wait ultimately wound up paying off.

"The sad aspect of this is the Oklahoma State coaches contracts call for a buyout if a coordinator leaves for anything other than a head coaching position in college or a coordinator job in the NFL. Because the previous athletic director let all the assistant coach’s contracts run out and did not negotiate and renew them there is no buyout money coming from Ohio State."

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Joes C is the best, the absolute best. Joe C is the best AD in the country, etc...He knows what he is doing, no one is better.

Dude just lost their HC that they intended to lead them in to the SEC and be their Coach for a long time and he is the BEST?

How does Joe C get a COMPLETE pass on that? History has not been fully written on Joe C. One OU NC in Football in the last 22 years. History very well may say in another 20 years that Joe C totally screwed up by losing LR and going to the SEC and set back the OU program big time. How did both Bob and Joe C miss so badly on just how bad LR wanted to be at OU long-term?

And should they have known by Joe C constantly patting himself on the back for hiring Bob, and for Bob to get all the credit for building the OU program in to what it is today, giving Bob credit for hiring LR, bragging that Bob left LR the keys to the Ferrari, and that LR was just lucky and woke up one day on third base without even taking a swing? The big egos at OU always wanted to remind everyone who really built the program and who deserved all the credit. They were the adults in the room and LR was just the snot nosed kid that should be thankful he got the job.

They hire a young Coach and they only give him credit for maintaining the program and for LR to leave the running of the program to the experts. Be a good lap dog LR. Sound familiar? - Holder/Boone/Gundy dynamic? These guys mismanaged LR, just as Gundy was mismanaged. All Coaches have big egos, but those in charge have to be the adults and stroke the ego of that HC and use sugar and not vinegar to keep them happy and motivated and moving in the direction you want. Give a good HC ALL the success, he is the FACE of the program. This is why LR is stealing these recruits and players, these players did not come to OU to play for "There is only one Oklahoma", or Bob's program, and Joe C's unmatched capabilities as an AD. They came to play for LR. It is a lesson for all schools. Yeah, you might think no one person is bigger than the program and there is some truth to that (see Eddie Sutton as an example), but when it comes to strictly winning football games and coaching football games, YOUR HC IS THE PROGRAM.

I read an interview last night about Barry Switzer holding court at Othello's in Norman (his table is called the "table of truth" or some BS), and it said Barry is royally pissed over this and has major concerns that all of what is going on right now could turn OU in to Nebraska. Barry used the term "tilting", that the OU program right now is tilting and in a very precarious situation. Barry also said that kids today could give 2 shits about OU's history and the recruits today many do not even know who Bud, Barry, and Bob is and all they know is who they see on TV on winning. Barry not getting much media attention right now, I wonder why?

Joe C's ego and others around that OU program mismanaged this whole deal. They are so arrogant they probably do believe they can roll on from this like nothing happened. Maybe they do, but we also know many bluebloods take awhile to find that perfect fit at HC, it can take several tries. Barry Switzer seems pretty concerned, and IMO he has been around OU football far longer than Bob or Joe C and is not a paid cheer leader right now. Barry should be concerned, he is probably dying in the next 10 years. As an ex-HC, your legacy gets tarnished if the program declines drastically. Do you still look at Devaney and Osborn the same way today compared to when Nebraska was good? Nebraska been so bad for so long many have forgotten about Devaney and Osborn. Legacies are at stake here to some degree. Barry's concern to me is very interesting. It further reinforces Joe C is not infallible and he absolutely had a hand in driving the ship in to the iceberg.

Give she/ze/they the Profile in Courage Award now!

I look forward to the usual suspects posting all the articles telling us our eyes are lying and should not be believed.