Gundy and Stoops are much different guys in terms of approach to coaching. Stoops has a defensive background and Mike an offensive one. Both frames of mind were on display at Big 12 media days.
Think about Bob Stoops. He is not an offensive guy and does not claim to be one. Over the years we know what we are going to get out of Bob Stoops: he will hire an OC and let them do their thing. He hires an OC based on what has been proven to him what he most dislikes to defend.
His first and most important hire was Mike Leach, since he found the Air Raid the most difficult offense to defend when he coached at Florida and faced the Kentucky Hal Mumme attack. He won a NC with Mangino at OC who ran the Air Raid he got from Leach. Over time, his subsequent OC's moved away from the Air Raid, and Bob did not seem to notice . If the wins keep coming who cares? He is a defensive minded coach and that is his focus. He mas met with Saban to talk shop in offseason years, he never met with a "offense guy" to my knowledge. That's not his thing.
In recent years, Stoops seems to back to his default mode: what hurts us is what I want. When Manziel emberassed OU in a bowl game he decided they needed a Dual threat QB, thus the Trevor Knight experiment was given every chance to succeed. When he watched TCU rocket to the top of the conference with the Air Raid he decided to go back to the future and hire a Leach disciple in Lincoln Riley and try to recreate a little of that 2000's magic. He hires what hurts him, and does not pretend to be an offensive savant.
Gundy is a different cat. He considers himself an offensive genius (not necessarily a bad thing by the way). Gundy wants to be, and feels he is, the smartest guy in the room. Their are two types of Offensive Coaches. One is the Les Miles, Tom Osborne type: Create a philosophy and an identity and build around that and try to do it better then anyone. For Miles it was we are going run it with power football and throw it deep. Gundy could not wait to junk this system after he became Head Coach, and it led to some growing pains in 2005.
Gundy wants to be cutting edge, always one step ahead of his competition. If it was done 5 years ago, don't look for Gundy to repeat it. He wants to be a step ahead. The smartest guy in the room.
2005: His first offense he hired Fedora and went from the Miles Michigan offense to a run first spread with a QB run game. Along with Fedora came Wickline, who believed in the philosophy that all OL players need to also be Tackles. Thus no road graders, no true guards, but guys who could move their feet and pass block and play multiple positions if needed. It worked. Gundy no longer believes in this BTW.
2008-09 Gundy moved to OC and a play calling roll, and it was very effective. Had he never made the decision to start an injured Zac over a NFL Weedon he may still be calling the plays today.
2010: We still don't completely understand what went on behind the scenes with the hiring of Holgerson. Whether Gundy was forced or not to make a change is irrelevant. Someone as stubborn and prideful as Gundy was on board with the hire, regardless if he resented giving up play calling duties. That much we know.
The 2010 success led to another milestone decision by head coach Mike Gundy. With the offensive firepower displayed everyone felt a hire was coming from the Leach/Mumme coaching tree. Gundy threw a curveball.
2011: In hindsight, it should have been obvious. Gundy believes he is the smartest guy in the room. He was never keeping the Miles Attack. He was going for the shiny new spread offense. He may have resented the credit Holgy got, but I don't think so. He wanted to do what he has ALWAYS done as Head coach: Evolve, Grow and try to stay one step ahead of his competation.
Enter Monken. It never would have worked if they weren't close friends. Gundy wanted two things: consistency and evolution. He did not want Wholesale changes. He wanted the same attack but with a different look and feel and that's what we got. Monken tinkered with the passing tree and had an amazing feel for his QB's strengths and got productivity out of 3 different ones.
2013: Gundy was again faced with a choice. He did not want to hire a big time OC that would make massive changes. He did not have another close friend that would take the job and not make waves. He did not want to hire a Leach guy because he always wants to evolve and change. SO he decided to go small. His original idea was to double down on the play fast idea. OSU was going to play faster then anyone had ever done before and he hired a guy known for playing faster then anyone else.
The 2013 season: This was Gundy's best job as a Head Coach. IT was a bad interception call away from an amazing season. Gundy started out looking to play fast, and learned some things very quickly: his offense was not as efficient as during the Monken years, and that his defense was much better then in previous years at getting off the field.
He adjusted by playing slower, and in the past two years he has incorporated playing tempo only at times, using FB's and TE's, and giving more Ships to defense then offense. (Coach Bro at Tech is doing the opposite)
We have two coaches making opposite bets. Their are trade offs in every decision you make.
Stoops has decided to go back to the future, that the 2000's defenses are not what they want to focus on. They want to play track meet football. They see the success of TCU and Baylor and have decided to outscore them.
Gundy is making an opposite bet. You saw what he is thinking in the bowl game. He wants to race to a lead, and then have the power to keep it. He has identified the weakness in up tempo spread teams: the unability to mainatain leads. Teams dare you to throw in the 4th quarter when you are a spread team. When it works, great. When it does not you go 3 and out, leave a short field and an exhausted defense takes the field. the 2011 OSU defense against Iowa State and the 2014 TCU defense against Baylor know that story toow ell.
Think about Bob Stoops. He is not an offensive guy and does not claim to be one. Over the years we know what we are going to get out of Bob Stoops: he will hire an OC and let them do their thing. He hires an OC based on what has been proven to him what he most dislikes to defend.
His first and most important hire was Mike Leach, since he found the Air Raid the most difficult offense to defend when he coached at Florida and faced the Kentucky Hal Mumme attack. He won a NC with Mangino at OC who ran the Air Raid he got from Leach. Over time, his subsequent OC's moved away from the Air Raid, and Bob did not seem to notice . If the wins keep coming who cares? He is a defensive minded coach and that is his focus. He mas met with Saban to talk shop in offseason years, he never met with a "offense guy" to my knowledge. That's not his thing.
In recent years, Stoops seems to back to his default mode: what hurts us is what I want. When Manziel emberassed OU in a bowl game he decided they needed a Dual threat QB, thus the Trevor Knight experiment was given every chance to succeed. When he watched TCU rocket to the top of the conference with the Air Raid he decided to go back to the future and hire a Leach disciple in Lincoln Riley and try to recreate a little of that 2000's magic. He hires what hurts him, and does not pretend to be an offensive savant.
Gundy is a different cat. He considers himself an offensive genius (not necessarily a bad thing by the way). Gundy wants to be, and feels he is, the smartest guy in the room. Their are two types of Offensive Coaches. One is the Les Miles, Tom Osborne type: Create a philosophy and an identity and build around that and try to do it better then anyone. For Miles it was we are going run it with power football and throw it deep. Gundy could not wait to junk this system after he became Head Coach, and it led to some growing pains in 2005.
Gundy wants to be cutting edge, always one step ahead of his competition. If it was done 5 years ago, don't look for Gundy to repeat it. He wants to be a step ahead. The smartest guy in the room.
2005: His first offense he hired Fedora and went from the Miles Michigan offense to a run first spread with a QB run game. Along with Fedora came Wickline, who believed in the philosophy that all OL players need to also be Tackles. Thus no road graders, no true guards, but guys who could move their feet and pass block and play multiple positions if needed. It worked. Gundy no longer believes in this BTW.
2008-09 Gundy moved to OC and a play calling roll, and it was very effective. Had he never made the decision to start an injured Zac over a NFL Weedon he may still be calling the plays today.
2010: We still don't completely understand what went on behind the scenes with the hiring of Holgerson. Whether Gundy was forced or not to make a change is irrelevant. Someone as stubborn and prideful as Gundy was on board with the hire, regardless if he resented giving up play calling duties. That much we know.
The 2010 success led to another milestone decision by head coach Mike Gundy. With the offensive firepower displayed everyone felt a hire was coming from the Leach/Mumme coaching tree. Gundy threw a curveball.
2011: In hindsight, it should have been obvious. Gundy believes he is the smartest guy in the room. He was never keeping the Miles Attack. He was going for the shiny new spread offense. He may have resented the credit Holgy got, but I don't think so. He wanted to do what he has ALWAYS done as Head coach: Evolve, Grow and try to stay one step ahead of his competation.
Enter Monken. It never would have worked if they weren't close friends. Gundy wanted two things: consistency and evolution. He did not want Wholesale changes. He wanted the same attack but with a different look and feel and that's what we got. Monken tinkered with the passing tree and had an amazing feel for his QB's strengths and got productivity out of 3 different ones.
2013: Gundy was again faced with a choice. He did not want to hire a big time OC that would make massive changes. He did not have another close friend that would take the job and not make waves. He did not want to hire a Leach guy because he always wants to evolve and change. SO he decided to go small. His original idea was to double down on the play fast idea. OSU was going to play faster then anyone had ever done before and he hired a guy known for playing faster then anyone else.
The 2013 season: This was Gundy's best job as a Head Coach. IT was a bad interception call away from an amazing season. Gundy started out looking to play fast, and learned some things very quickly: his offense was not as efficient as during the Monken years, and that his defense was much better then in previous years at getting off the field.
He adjusted by playing slower, and in the past two years he has incorporated playing tempo only at times, using FB's and TE's, and giving more Ships to defense then offense. (Coach Bro at Tech is doing the opposite)
We have two coaches making opposite bets. Their are trade offs in every decision you make.
Stoops has decided to go back to the future, that the 2000's defenses are not what they want to focus on. They want to play track meet football. They see the success of TCU and Baylor and have decided to outscore them.
Gundy is making an opposite bet. You saw what he is thinking in the bowl game. He wants to race to a lead, and then have the power to keep it. He has identified the weakness in up tempo spread teams: the unability to mainatain leads. Teams dare you to throw in the 4th quarter when you are a spread team. When it works, great. When it does not you go 3 and out, leave a short field and an exhausted defense takes the field. the 2011 OSU defense against Iowa State and the 2014 TCU defense against Baylor know that story toow ell.
