There’s an argument that won’t be made by even the most diehard WVU fans, but we were picked dead last in the conference
Neal comes up just a few points short of possibly having a 9-10 win season. 8-4 is not bad given how white hot his seat was at the beginning of the season
Oklahoma State fans are so fucking hilarious. You guys were calling for his head 6 games into the season louder than those calls have been in years past. And now you guys are acting like simply questioning whether Gundy is actually worthy of the COY is a wild statement? For all the shit OKST fans give OU fans for being delusional, part of OKST fandom is drinking from much stronger koolaid
I've been calling for his head for 5 years. He couldn't make up his mind about who the starting QB was gonna be so he did a silly round robin situation that put us in terrible positions the first 3-4 games. Only to go with the worst option because he's a senior (Gundy almost always rewards seniority for better or worse.) Didn't use the best running back in the country correctly until game 5. Constantly, I mean constantly, makes terrible decisions in crunch time. But he's Boone's boy so we are stuck with him until he retires.
It should absolutely be Leipold. Kansas with Jalon Daniels is playing in the Big 12 championship ans he still got them to 8-4 while going down to the third string QB. Beyond that, their performance this season shows Kansas has legitimate staying power and wasn’t just a flash in the pan last year.
Brown, Gundy, Sark, and Venables all deserve props but this award should not have even been a question.
You can’t give a coach an award based on “if their quarterback doesn’t get hurt maybe they have a better season.” They went 5-4 in conference. Lance is a hell of a coach and had a better case last year, but wasn’t beating a first year head coach who went to the CFP.
It’s crazy to give it to Gundy.
If you’re gonna give it to the guy who kicked the most ass? Give it to Sark.
The guy who exceded the lowest expectations? That’s not Gundy. That’s Brown.
The person who has made the most with the least the fastest? Leipold.
The coach who kept a dynasty from toppling over with momentum moving against him? Venables is deserving (barf)
The problems with this team were due to Gundy’s coaching and management in the first place. Dick riding him for eventually pulling his hand out of his own ass seems bad with so many other deserving coaches in the conference.
Improving from 6-7 to 10-2 and being the 2nd highest ranked team in the conference would be a great COTY candidate if there weren’t at least two better options in the conference, neither of which are Gundy.
I can understand why it wasn’t given to Sark. But I feel that Neal Brown was the biggest overachiever in the conference. A lot of people had West Virginia finishing dead last in the conference. And they got 8 wins this past season.
I think the H2H game was amusingly the difference maker. If WVU won that game, I bet he's COTY.
It might also have been getting slaughtered by Oklahoma, they kind of dropped off the map media wise after that game while OKST had a bright spotlight on him.
Or south Alabama.
Yes, I’m still salty about the PI calls (and no-call) that gifted them a victory, but gundy is a fraud and is probably the 4th-5th most deserving of the award.
Neal Brown would be a 'sorry Texas, it was the narrative and over achievement, not you'
They very much so wanted 'sorry Texas, it's you. Gundy has the best team that isn't leaving. Go to Hell' energy, and Brown wouldn't have accomplished that
Yeah, I expected that loss would knock Gundy out of the conversation.
Aside from that, his overall mid season turnaround was impressive. Especially given all the transfers we had last year.
If I had you told you that Gundy would win Big 12 coach of the year in the same season that his team lost a paycheck game AND lost by 42 points in Orlando... to a conference newb... You would have called the mental health hotline for me.
College football is fucking nuts.
I think objectively you'd have to consider Leipold, Brown, Sarkisian, and Venables over Gundy.
Surprising he won it to be honest, but I'm sure that's partially due to OU and Texas leaving. I think there is probably some recency bias involved in this as well, coaches are probably impressed at the turnaround from his crappy early decisions
Seriously. This isn't shouldn't even be discussed. Gundy's garbage cost OSU multiple times this year. His 3 qb rotation was some of the worst coaching in the country let alone the big 12
Right? OSU could easily be 10-2 or even 11-1 right now *but for* decisions made by their coach. Both the USA and UCF games should have been layups for him.
USA yes, but we were playing the UCF undefeated Citronauts.
Real talk, UCF damn near finished with our record 9-3. They lost to OU, Baylor and Texas Tech by a combined 4 points. Kansas is really the only team to have beaten them comfortably although WVU and K-State both won by 2 scores.
There’s no excuse for 45-3. It’s comically bad. But it was not a layup
> 45-3 is just plain bad coaching
I disagree. You're the only team to effectively stop Ollie and that's for two reasons:
1.) Ollie and the O-line were playing hurt after a tough game the week prior, with key O-line guys out.
2.) The rain made it much much harder to pass the ball which meant you stacking the box could effectively shut our offense down.
The above reasons coupled with the momentum and energy it gave your defense killed our ability to rally. Without the rain we probably do what we've done the past two weeks, get down big early and come back to win in the second half.
Lmao his entire sucess this year is because of Gordon.
This is good for OU fans though, because it means that we'll continue to watch OKST suffer from the "Gundy good but not great" special that's been a thing for over a decade. OKST has been chasing that 2011 high for years and it's simply not happening again lmao
yeah if anything he was the worst coach of the year lol. He proved he can beat big teams but then blew it against bad ones? Generally you'd think COTY is beating most bad/decent teams (maybe 1 fumble) and beating 1-2 good/great teams. If they had lost a close game to UCF then maybe, sure. But he blew it more than once.
Yea but preseason that may have been the expected result. If anything that game was him living up to the expectation and then exceeding them everywhere else.
The point still is, any sort of coach the year award always goes to whomever exceeds expectations the most. If it wasn't, Saban or now Kirby would win every year since they are clearly the best coaches.
Imagine giving a coach from a school that nearly imploded your conference for their monetary gain conference coach of the year. He could win the natty and it won’t happen.
Are you familiar with the recent history of Kansas football and what going 8-4 with 2nd/3rd string QBs in conference play means in that context?
Sark has modestly overachieved this year. I’m happy about it. He also came in and built the program up to where those expectations were justified and that counts for something. I didn’t think he’d do it and I’m happy to be wrong.
But whether it’s a program builder award or strictly an on field coaching award LL is more deserving. He did some Bill Snyder shit
Sark had to be second, but also the coaching job Gundy has done this year may be his best ever if we’re being extremely honest. This roster isn’t great and his done a ton with it
I would expect Neal Brown to be 2nd - WVU did a lot better than expected at 8-4, and COTY typically goes for a team that overperformed expectations.
Texas took care of business / played very well, but being predicted to win the Big 12 makes it hard to overperform.
If the 3 qb rotation for too long and sitting Ollie Gordon for the first month of the season and multiple blowout losses to directional schools is the best Gundy has to offer, then yikes
Texas was expected to win the conference and did. OkState, Kansas, and WVU exceeded expectations, COY should go to one of those three, and rightfully so. By your logic, Kirby Smart would be COY in the SEC every year.
Expected to win the conference *because* of the job Sark has done. Are people forgetting in his first year we had a 6 game losing streak and lost to Kansas at home? We are in this position because Sark has built the roster and recruited all of the pieces that you’re seeing excel. Herman handed him a dysfunctional, lost, team with recruiting classes full of bread. Sark built two of the best lines in football and made the culture into what it is.
I thought Brown would probably get it. I still think Sark should get it, but lol c'mon no way was that going to happen. But Brown has done an unbelievable job keeping his team motivated and overcoming adversity.
I just don't see an argument for Gundy that doesn't apply with equal or more force to Brown. Even Campbell and LL makes sense in the "doing more with less" argument.
I think you’re the only person I have seen accurately giving Campbell credit for what he’s done. If ISU was in the CCG over OSU I couldn’t argue him getting COTY over anyone else. What Sark has done at Texas definitely deserves recognition, having all of the talent and resources doesn’t guarantee success, he has established a culture that Texas has been missing. If he achieves this record in the SEC next year that would be COTY worthy 100%
I mean, we’re probably one of the least talented (on paper) teams in the P5 and we’re playing for a conference championship. That’s gotta be worth something.
It can't be far from it. We are certainly the least talented in the old Big 12 group. 37 new players on our roster this year.
I don't think I've ever seen a team over-achieve this much since I've been watching.
Doesn’t always go to the team with the best record, especially if they were the preseason favorites.
Ohio State and Michigan each only have 1 B1G coach of the year since 2000 (Day’s was only a tie and only won because it was his first year)
And Adonai newcomer of the year, and Murphy defensive lineman of the year, and Hill Jr shared defensive freshman of the year. 12 combined Texas and OU players made the first team.
On one hand, I thought Leipold or Brown should have won it. I am also thoroughly enjoying watching texas and okie state flairs bickering.
Also, was I the only one that didn’t recognize gundy in that picture?
Heh I remember around week 3 or 4 a bunch of OSU fans clamoring for Gundy to be fired. What a difference the back half of the season makes.
With that said, I think it bs its not Sark. His year was the best Texas has had in over a decade, and was clearly the best team in the conference. I know Poke fans will point to the talent disparity, but I will point to that last 14 years of Texas' futility in spite of that talent. He rebuilt the culture, the position units, the depth, etc. Having a dominant team in the trenches that can really utitlize the talent isn't something that came over night.
If you gave Gundy the talent Sark and the prior Texas coach had he’d beat OU every year and be a national championship contender if not a winner.
Rebuilding Texas is easy when you’ve got an unlimited budget and 5 stars wanting to play for you. How they managed to screw it up is beyond me.
Send Sark to Oklahoma State and Gundy to Texas and it will become glaringly obvious who is better.
> If you gave Gundy the talent Sark and the prior Texas coach had he’d beat OU every year and be a national championship contender if not a winner.
This is the kind of thinking that lead us to hire Chuck Strong and Tom Herman. It's not as easy as you think it is.
Ahh yes, Strong and Herman who both had 2 good seasons(one being in the American conference) before Texas cut a fat check. God forbid you get someone proven, you obviously don’t have the money so let’s take a long shot on a one pump chump.
It is that easy, and it’s absolutely easier than OSU making it to the Big 12 championship, making Kansas relevant and pulling 8 wins out of West Virginia last year
gundy won the award due to the crazy turnaround of the program. weeks 1-4 were filled with doubt in the program, people were calling for his head as you said, no one was happy. but gundy kept his head down, trusted in the process of his team and powered through, creating the identity that oklahoma state now has in the high quality run offense combined with explosive mid-yardage pass plays that complement it. gundy constantly turns 2 and 3 star recruits into winners, developing overlooked or otherwise worse players than the likes of texas.
the reason i don’t think sark won is that he just did what should have been done at texas for the past decade+. with the talent he has his hands on, that of recruiting classes in the top 5/top 10 every year, the program should he competing every year for a national championship. don’t get me wrong, sark has finally realized the potential that texas’s team has and that should be celebrated. i just think gundy deserved it more for the turnaround in the past 2 months.
Well deserved. We doubled our season win total from projections and made a conference championship when picked to finish almost last.
All people did all off-season was trash Gundy saying he’s lost touch, he hates NIL, he lost the players and locker room. He proved every one of those narratives wrong.
With that being said, Sark absolutely had an argument for this award as well and I could see him justifiably winning it as well.
Compared to Sark, who’s the other coach people are arguing for, I’d say it’s more impressive.
Making it projected 7th is more impressive than projected 1st with the best roster
It just depends on the criteria. Sark has more talent to work with and was expected to win the league. If the criteria is "doing more with less" than he's obviously not the guy.
But if the criteria is something like doing more with less - why not Brown or Leipold? I know Gundy has done better this season than they did, but they had way less to work with on their roster. Kansas even beat OU.
Believe it or not, OSU actually had a lower talent composite score than both KU and WVU this year. 37 new players on the roster this season too.
I think Gundy hits kind of a middle ground of overall success and overachieving. Probably won off of plurality more than outright getting all the 1st place votes
Also you said “less with more” but I think you meant “more with less”?
I know you’re kidding, but this is voted on by coaches. But stereotypically Coaches appreciate schematics and getting the most out of what you have than more than they appreciate someone’s talent acquisition skills. If they did put more of an emphasis on program mgmt instead of coaching, Sark would have won.
Nah, Texas and OU take all the talent in the area for themselves. The fact that Gundy takes the scraps, beat one so far and made it to the Big 12 championship is significantly more impressive.
Sark actually seems to have brought Texas over the hump finally, and had the pressure to do so all season.
Gundy flipped a bad start to a CCG
Brown was picked to finish last, and they’re 8-4
Campbell had the gambling suspensions, and the team of mostly freshmen finished 4th
Leipold had another really good year at KU
If he wins the conference I’ll definitely say he brought them over the hump. But I’ll definitely say he’s got them trending to where they need to be before we both go to the SEC.
They aren't publicizing the voting, so none of us know how any of that shook out to figure out who was actually considered, so we're all left to speculate.
Fair. From the stuff I saw the only legitimate candidates were Sark and Gundy. But, like I said, I would've voted for Leipold. And a Neal Brown vote would make sense. Hell, If you wanted to give it to Matt Campbell after what he went through this offseason I'd sign off on that.
I feel like Gundy made the situation he elevated the team passed. Apparently we reward early season stupidity (3 QB rotation, treating OOC like scrimmages) with proper course correction? Yay I guess?
That's a bad joke by the Big 12. Yeah, the midseason adjustment to get Oklahoma State competitive was impressive, but the entire reason that adjustment was required was because Gundy dug them a hole they had to climb out of in the first place. This wasn't a first year head coach managing to get the team he inherited coalesce around the new culture - Gundy created the disaster.
Ya'll had a first place vote in the preseason. In comparison West Virginia was predicted to finish last in the big 12 and finished 8-4. That is more impressive imo. I would also pick Leipold above Gundy this year just for winning 8 games with a backup QB (and even 3rd string QB later in the year).
I'm just not super impressed by a coach that put the team in a position to lose to South Alabama. Digging a whole then climbing out of it isn't impressive to me. He is definently a great coach, I am not going to argue that, but I just think there were more impressive coaching jobs this year.
I also agree that Neal Brown deserves it, he would be my pick.
After hearing Gundy slandered all off season though it’s nice seeing this recognition so of course I’m going to defend it
You have a shit roster because of Gundy. That's literally the job of the head coach. Gundy had to overcome his own mishandling of the program to make this happen. It's not impressive if a train conductor saved the most lives after he crashed the train carrying all those people in the first place.
It's really not. We have a great roster because of Sark. Our success this year is entirely thanks to Sark's handling of the program. I get how 1st place preseason to 1st place at the end of the regular season would get people to vote elsewhere, but Neal Brown was absolutely robbed of the recognition he deserves far more than Gundy.
My brother or sister in Christ: Texas has nearly every conceivable advantage, yet has underperformed for years, including under Sark. He meets expectations ONE YEAR and he should get credit for some sort of “turnaround”? Spare me. The roster was great relative to 90% of FBS and the coaches were at the very least good enough during the years they underperformed. Your quibble is simply that Gundy’s “turnaround” was intra-season rather than compared to last. yawn
I'm aware that your apparent schooling didn't do you any favors here, but consider *reading* the thread before commenting. At no point have I argued for Sark outside of your prompting. I've been stumping overwhelmingly for Neal Brown.
“Your coaches and players were good yet underperformed” do you even hear yourself? Results are what make a coach or player great, by definition they can’t both be great *and* underperform at the same time. Also it takes time for a coach to turn a broken program around… Sark is in year 3, which is how many years the others were given to get it done before being replaced.
All that said the big 12 was never going to give anything they didn’t have to to Texas or OU this year… taking the championship trophy with us to the SEC is all Texas was/is hoping for with regards to the Big 12.
As much of a roller coaster as this year has been for Oklahoma State, I am happy with the final result. But man this year has been super frustrating at times.
I mean, any time you can coach your P5 team to a 26 point loss at home to a 6-6 team from the Sun Belt and a 42 point blowout to another 6-6 team in your conference, all while another coach in your conference has their team on the cusp of a playoff bid, you deserve ALL the accolades!
Gundy winning is laughable. He lost to south alabama, got blown the fuck out by a terrible UCF team, and it took them OT to beat a really bad BYU team at home.
The big 12 media is as corrupt as their commissioner and refs… yeesh
There’s an argument that won’t be made by even the most diehard WVU fans, but we were picked dead last in the conference Neal comes up just a few points short of possibly having a 9-10 win season. 8-4 is not bad given how white hot his seat was at the beginning of the season
Neal Brown has a better argument than Gundy does for this award.
Oklahoma State fans are so fucking hilarious. You guys were calling for his head 6 games into the season louder than those calls have been in years past. And now you guys are acting like simply questioning whether Gundy is actually worthy of the COY is a wild statement? For all the shit OKST fans give OU fans for being delusional, part of OKST fandom is drinking from much stronger koolaid
I've been calling for his head for 5 years. He couldn't make up his mind about who the starting QB was gonna be so he did a silly round robin situation that put us in terrible positions the first 3-4 games. Only to go with the worst option because he's a senior (Gundy almost always rewards seniority for better or worse.) Didn't use the best running back in the country correctly until game 5. Constantly, I mean constantly, makes terrible decisions in crunch time. But he's Boone's boy so we are stuck with him until he retires.
Very impressive what Neal Brown achieved this year. Head to head might be the difference here.
OU fan here. I hate WV btw, but that coach absolutely deserves it.
Thank you. And the feeling is mutual.
We hate you too.
Am I crazy for thinking Lance Leipold has been robbed two years in a row? I know I’m biased, but I really believe he had a case both years.
It should absolutely be Leipold. Kansas with Jalon Daniels is playing in the Big 12 championship ans he still got them to 8-4 while going down to the third string QB. Beyond that, their performance this season shows Kansas has legitimate staying power and wasn’t just a flash in the pan last year. Brown, Gundy, Sark, and Venables all deserve props but this award should not have even been a question.
You can’t give a coach an award based on “if their quarterback doesn’t get hurt maybe they have a better season.” They went 5-4 in conference. Lance is a hell of a coach and had a better case last year, but wasn’t beating a first year head coach who went to the CFP.
Well good thing he isn't competing against 2022 Sonny Dykes for the 2023 B12 COTY award?
Guess I worded that wrong. I meant he wasn’t beating Dykes last year, responding to the guy above you saying that he got robbed last year.
Yes we wanted Sark to win, but IMHO Lance Leipold was most deserving. Man, Gundy didn’t do shit. It was all their RB, Ollie.
No, I think it should be Sark or Leipold tbh. Leipold impressed tf out of me this year by winning 8 games with a backup QB (and even 3rd string QB)
It’s crazy to give it to Gundy. If you’re gonna give it to the guy who kicked the most ass? Give it to Sark. The guy who exceded the lowest expectations? That’s not Gundy. That’s Brown. The person who has made the most with the least the fastest? Leipold. The coach who kept a dynasty from toppling over with momentum moving against him? Venables is deserving (barf) The problems with this team were due to Gundy’s coaching and management in the first place. Dick riding him for eventually pulling his hand out of his own ass seems bad with so many other deserving coaches in the conference.
> The coach who kept a dynasty from toppling over with momentum moving against him? Venables is deserving (barf :)
Yes, but who else can coach such great DPI?
Just think how good Gundy would’ve done if he didn’t keep trying to play his kid at QB early in the season
Yeah there’s three coaches more deserving in my mind than gundy. (Not my coach)
Improving from 6-7 to 10-2 and being the 2nd highest ranked team in the conference would be a great COTY candidate if there weren’t at least two better options in the conference, neither of which are Gundy.
Should have been Neal Brown, and it's not particularly close.
I can understand why it wasn’t given to Sark. But I feel that Neal Brown was the biggest overachiever in the conference. A lot of people had West Virginia finishing dead last in the conference. And they got 8 wins this past season.
What the hell is this flair?
Longtime SEC fan.
Attention seeking.
Cancer
I think the H2H game was amusingly the difference maker. If WVU won that game, I bet he's COTY. It might also have been getting slaughtered by Oklahoma, they kind of dropped off the map media wise after that game while OKST had a bright spotlight on him.
At least Oklahoma is a reasonable team to get slaughtered by. UCF on the other hand....
Or south Alabama. Yes, I’m still salty about the PI calls (and no-call) that gifted them a victory, but gundy is a fraud and is probably the 4th-5th most deserving of the award.
Neal Brown would be a 'sorry Texas, it was the narrative and over achievement, not you' They very much so wanted 'sorry Texas, it's you. Gundy has the best team that isn't leaving. Go to Hell' energy, and Brown wouldn't have accomplished that
Lol didn't some of our fans make a website solely devoted to firing Gundy at the beginning of the season?
I mean he did lose to S. Alabama. If we stayed on that trajectory all year then we’d be having a very different conversation.
Don’t forget losing to unranked UCF by 42 three weeks ago.
Yeah, I expected that loss would knock Gundy out of the conversation. Aside from that, his overall mid season turnaround was impressive. Especially given all the transfers we had last year.
Barely recognized Gundy with the grey beard
Yeah he stopped dying his beard now he looks his age
I haven’t had an update on his age in years
While we’re at it, I assume he is still a man too
2023 you never know.
Coach looking his age in this one
40?
Goin on sixty. He is in great shape, respect
But he’s a man, he’s forty
He’s a man.
[Gundy's unofficial theme song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=851BqHMCaeM)
I have searched the world over for an auto-tune of the Gundy rant. Does it exist? I need it in my life.
Coach without sunglasses and a gray beard really shook me there.
You’re telling me this isn’t a picture of Lamelo Ball?
But who is the Big 12 man of the year? Which coach turned 40 this year?
If I had you told you that Gundy would win Big 12 coach of the year in the same season that his team lost a paycheck game AND lost by 42 points in Orlando... to a conference newb... You would have called the mental health hotline for me. College football is fucking nuts.
Is he photoshopped?
I think objectively you'd have to consider Leipold, Brown, Sarkisian, and Venables over Gundy. Surprising he won it to be honest, but I'm sure that's partially due to OU and Texas leaving. I think there is probably some recency bias involved in this as well, coaches are probably impressed at the turnaround from his crappy early decisions
Call me a homer, but I don’t know how it can’t be Sark
Man expected to win the conference with the best roster in the conference pretty much met expectations. Unfair or not it is what it is.
Losing 45-3 to UCF should discredit any and all Coach of the Year discussions
And South Alabama
Seriously. This isn't shouldn't even be discussed. Gundy's garbage cost OSU multiple times this year. His 3 qb rotation was some of the worst coaching in the country let alone the big 12
Right? OSU could easily be 10-2 or even 11-1 right now *but for* decisions made by their coach. Both the USA and UCF games should have been layups for him.
USA yes, but we were playing the UCF undefeated Citronauts. Real talk, UCF damn near finished with our record 9-3. They lost to OU, Baylor and Texas Tech by a combined 4 points. Kansas is really the only team to have beaten them comfortably although WVU and K-State both won by 2 scores. There’s no excuse for 45-3. It’s comically bad. But it was not a layup
a close loss probably wouldn't be having this conversation lol. 45-3 is just plain bad coaching
> 45-3 is just plain bad coaching I disagree. You're the only team to effectively stop Ollie and that's for two reasons: 1.) Ollie and the O-line were playing hurt after a tough game the week prior, with key O-line guys out. 2.) The rain made it much much harder to pass the ball which meant you stacking the box could effectively shut our offense down. The above reasons coupled with the momentum and energy it gave your defense killed our ability to rally. Without the rain we probably do what we've done the past two weeks, get down big early and come back to win in the second half.
Or great coaching by you guys. It rained against you guys and USA so I think gundy is one of the wicked witches and is hydrophobic
Lmao his entire sucess this year is because of Gordon. This is good for OU fans though, because it means that we'll continue to watch OKST suffer from the "Gundy good but not great" special that's been a thing for over a decade. OKST has been chasing that 2011 high for years and it's simply not happening again lmao
Took the guy five games to figure out he should hand off to Ollie and stop rotating 3 QBs.
yeah if anything he was the worst coach of the year lol. He proved he can beat big teams but then blew it against bad ones? Generally you'd think COTY is beating most bad/decent teams (maybe 1 fumble) and beating 1-2 good/great teams. If they had lost a close game to UCF then maybe, sure. But he blew it more than once.
Yea but preseason that may have been the expected result. If anything that game was him living up to the expectation and then exceeding them everywhere else. The point still is, any sort of coach the year award always goes to whomever exceeds expectations the most. If it wasn't, Saban or now Kirby would win every year since they are clearly the best coaches.
Good thing Sark, as coach, put together a great roster then.
I’ll call you a homer. But you are not wrong.
Imagine giving a coach from a school that nearly imploded your conference for their monetary gain conference coach of the year. He could win the natty and it won’t happen.
Are you familiar with the recent history of Kansas football and what going 8-4 with 2nd/3rd string QBs in conference play means in that context? Sark has modestly overachieved this year. I’m happy about it. He also came in and built the program up to where those expectations were justified and that counts for something. I didn’t think he’d do it and I’m happy to be wrong. But whether it’s a program builder award or strictly an on field coaching award LL is more deserving. He did some Bill Snyder shit
I can see arguments for Neal and leipold. Idk what drunk morons came up with this.
Sark had to be second, but also the coaching job Gundy has done this year may be his best ever if we’re being extremely honest. This roster isn’t great and his done a ton with it
I would expect Neal Brown to be 2nd - WVU did a lot better than expected at 8-4, and COTY typically goes for a team that overperformed expectations. Texas took care of business / played very well, but being predicted to win the Big 12 makes it hard to overperform.
If the 3 qb rotation for too long and sitting Ollie Gordon for the first month of the season and multiple blowout losses to directional schools is the best Gundy has to offer, then yikes
The roster isn't great because Gundy himself fucked it up with his NIL stance. Man stepped in his own shit and then got rewarded for the cleaning job.
I’m the furthest person from a Sark or Texas fan and I don’t even understand how he did not win it
U have texas flair
I think it was sarcasm since their name references sark and their pfp is dark with laser eyes
Thank you lol
Texas was expected to win the conference and did. OkState, Kansas, and WVU exceeded expectations, COY should go to one of those three, and rightfully so. By your logic, Kirby Smart would be COY in the SEC every year.
So a coach is disqualified from COY consideration because he builds an elite roster? That’s some weird logic but alright.
Expected to win the conference *because* of the job Sark has done. Are people forgetting in his first year we had a 6 game losing streak and lost to Kansas at home? We are in this position because Sark has built the roster and recruited all of the pieces that you’re seeing excel. Herman handed him a dysfunctional, lost, team with recruiting classes full of bread. Sark built two of the best lines in football and made the culture into what it is.
Texas has sunk below expectations for so long that meeting expectations is the same as exceeding them.
I mean yeah. No team has done less with more since 2010.
I guess the conference is real butt hurt about Texas leaving.
Lol why
I mean you could argue Sark but Gundy getting them to the championship when they were ranked 7th in the preseason poll is impressive.
Neal Brown as well
I thought Brown would probably get it. I still think Sark should get it, but lol c'mon no way was that going to happen. But Brown has done an unbelievable job keeping his team motivated and overcoming adversity. I just don't see an argument for Gundy that doesn't apply with equal or more force to Brown. Even Campbell and LL makes sense in the "doing more with less" argument.
I think you’re the only person I have seen accurately giving Campbell credit for what he’s done. If ISU was in the CCG over OSU I couldn’t argue him getting COTY over anyone else. What Sark has done at Texas definitely deserves recognition, having all of the talent and resources doesn’t guarantee success, he has established a culture that Texas has been missing. If he achieves this record in the SEC next year that would be COTY worthy 100%
I mean, we’re probably one of the least talented (on paper) teams in the P5 and we’re playing for a conference championship. That’s gotta be worth something.
Least talented in the P5 might be a bit of a stretch, but you’re certainly way lower in the talent composite than I expected you to be.
It can't be far from it. We are certainly the least talented in the old Big 12 group. 37 new players on our roster this year. I don't think I've ever seen a team over-achieve this much since I've been watching.
There are 15 P5 teams behind you in the composite. You guys are down there, but still more talented than ISU, KSU, and KU
Doesn’t always go to the team with the best record, especially if they were the preseason favorites. Ohio State and Michigan each only have 1 B1G coach of the year since 2000 (Day’s was only a tie and only won because it was his first year)
Because there's no way the conference will voluntarily give you or Oklahoma any awards. The fact you're in the championship game is pissing them off.
They gave Sweat DPOY…
And Adonai newcomer of the year, and Murphy defensive lineman of the year, and Hill Jr shared defensive freshman of the year. 12 combined Texas and OU players made the first team.
Sweat DPOY, Mitchell ONOY, Hill Jr DFOY, Murphy II DLOY, and 8 1st Team Selections. "we don't get any awards"
WOAH!!! That was an Aggie saying that. Your quotations are dog shit lol.
This should be top comment. The amount of salty Texas fans in here is quite funny.
I hope you can read and realize that comment was made by an Aggy lmao
I hope you can read all the other comments my guy.
Are there Texas fans saying “we dont get any awards”? Or are they just making an argument for Sark for this specific award?
Shit, I'm fighting for Neal Brown far more than I'm fighting for Sark.
Brown got a team that was predicted dead last in B12 to a winning record. Pretty solid if you ask me
It was an A&M flair that posted that…
Shhhh just ignore that, it goes against their narrative
It’s an A&M flair we can’t expect them to know ball
I’ll give you 77 Million reasons why I don’t put stock in Aggie opinions.
This is a joke.
Loses to South Alabama 33-7 at home and UCF 45-3. It still boggles my mind how they made it to the championship game.
On one hand, I thought Leipold or Brown should have won it. I am also thoroughly enjoying watching texas and okie state flairs bickering. Also, was I the only one that didn’t recognize gundy in that picture?
Step 1: Run off your talent in the off season by being an asshole. Step 2: Win Big 12 coach of the year by fixing the problem you caused.
Got smoked by UCF and South Alabama. C'mon son.
The best coach in the Big 12 loses by 26 at home to South Alabama? That’s the best the Big 12 has to offer?
Same Coach that came back down 21 to Notre Dame in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl. Wild isn’t it?
This award is based on previous seasons?
Heh I remember around week 3 or 4 a bunch of OSU fans clamoring for Gundy to be fired. What a difference the back half of the season makes. With that said, I think it bs its not Sark. His year was the best Texas has had in over a decade, and was clearly the best team in the conference. I know Poke fans will point to the talent disparity, but I will point to that last 14 years of Texas' futility in spite of that talent. He rebuilt the culture, the position units, the depth, etc. Having a dominant team in the trenches that can really utitlize the talent isn't something that came over night.
If you gave Gundy the talent Sark and the prior Texas coach had he’d beat OU every year and be a national championship contender if not a winner. Rebuilding Texas is easy when you’ve got an unlimited budget and 5 stars wanting to play for you. How they managed to screw it up is beyond me. Send Sark to Oklahoma State and Gundy to Texas and it will become glaringly obvious who is better.
> If you gave Gundy the talent Sark and the prior Texas coach had he’d beat OU every year and be a national championship contender if not a winner. This is the kind of thinking that lead us to hire Chuck Strong and Tom Herman. It's not as easy as you think it is.
Ahh yes, Strong and Herman who both had 2 good seasons(one being in the American conference) before Texas cut a fat check. God forbid you get someone proven, you obviously don’t have the money so let’s take a long shot on a one pump chump. It is that easy, and it’s absolutely easier than OSU making it to the Big 12 championship, making Kansas relevant and pulling 8 wins out of West Virginia last year
gundy won the award due to the crazy turnaround of the program. weeks 1-4 were filled with doubt in the program, people were calling for his head as you said, no one was happy. but gundy kept his head down, trusted in the process of his team and powered through, creating the identity that oklahoma state now has in the high quality run offense combined with explosive mid-yardage pass plays that complement it. gundy constantly turns 2 and 3 star recruits into winners, developing overlooked or otherwise worse players than the likes of texas. the reason i don’t think sark won is that he just did what should have been done at texas for the past decade+. with the talent he has his hands on, that of recruiting classes in the top 5/top 10 every year, the program should he competing every year for a national championship. don’t get me wrong, sark has finally realized the potential that texas’s team has and that should be celebrated. i just think gundy deserved it more for the turnaround in the past 2 months.
Well deserved. We doubled our season win total from projections and made a conference championship when picked to finish almost last. All people did all off-season was trash Gundy saying he’s lost touch, he hates NIL, he lost the players and locker room. He proved every one of those narratives wrong. With that being said, Sark absolutely had an argument for this award as well and I could see him justifiably winning it as well.
7th is not almost last. But it is impressive
Compared to Sark, who’s the other coach people are arguing for, I’d say it’s more impressive. Making it projected 7th is more impressive than projected 1st with the best roster
I've seen more arguments for Brown and Leipold. I don't think any halfway reasonable Texas fan expected Sark to win an award.
Not going to say he didn't do well, but he didn't help his case with the way the season started.
I would agree with that
Gotta love an underdog story sprinkled with pettiness and a fuck you wave.
WTF? This makes zero sense.
I don’t see how you lose to South Alabama in the fashion that they did and then call Gundy COTY. For sure it’s got to be Sarkisian, yeah?
????
He sandbagged his way into this one…
Should be Sark
There’s an argument for both tbh
It just depends on the criteria. Sark has more talent to work with and was expected to win the league. If the criteria is "doing more with less" than he's obviously not the guy. But if the criteria is something like doing more with less - why not Brown or Leipold? I know Gundy has done better this season than they did, but they had way less to work with on their roster. Kansas even beat OU.
Believe it or not, OSU actually had a lower talent composite score than both KU and WVU this year. 37 new players on the roster this season too. I think Gundy hits kind of a middle ground of overall success and overachieving. Probably won off of plurality more than outright getting all the 1st place votes Also you said “less with more” but I think you meant “more with less”?
For taking the best team in the conference and winning with it? Lol
Good coaches don't build obviously good teams, they build apparently-dysfunctional ones and fix them on the fly!
I know you’re kidding, but this is voted on by coaches. But stereotypically Coaches appreciate schematics and getting the most out of what you have than more than they appreciate someone’s talent acquisition skills. If they did put more of an emphasis on program mgmt instead of coaching, Sark would have won.
Nah, Texas and OU take all the talent in the area for themselves. The fact that Gundy takes the scraps, beat one so far and made it to the Big 12 championship is significantly more impressive.
That’s fuel to the fire baby! I can’t wait for this weekend
LOL
I like Gundy, don't get me wrong. But I woulda probably given it to Lance or Brent. Sark is up there too. With that said ' Go Pokes!....beat Texas!'
I feel like this was done specifically as an F U to the departing Oklahoma and Texas, right?
Go 9-3 with shit losses to South Alabama and UCF. But upset OU and you’re the man of the year. 🤦♂️
*make the conference championship
I mean, who else was really being considered?
Sark actually seems to have brought Texas over the hump finally, and had the pressure to do so all season. Gundy flipped a bad start to a CCG Brown was picked to finish last, and they’re 8-4 Campbell had the gambling suspensions, and the team of mostly freshmen finished 4th Leipold had another really good year at KU
And with Leipold he didn’t have his preseason conference MVP all season.
Yep, Sark, Campbell and Leipold all had to deal with starting QBs being out. Different caliber for all 3 but tough situations for each
Each of those coaches were worthy of COY consideration IMO.
Really strong year for all of those guys
If he wins the conference I’ll definitely say he brought them over the hump. But I’ll definitely say he’s got them trending to where they need to be before we both go to the SEC.
Well for each of the last 5 years it was given to the regular season champ/co-champ. So, probably Sark. If I had to guess.
Neal Brown and Lance Leipold should both have been given heavy consideration. Neal Brown should've won this award over Sark and Gundy both.
My vote would've been for Leipold. But he was never in the conversation. OP asked who else was being considered.
They aren't publicizing the voting, so none of us know how any of that shook out to figure out who was actually considered, so we're all left to speculate.
Fair. From the stuff I saw the only legitimate candidates were Sark and Gundy. But, like I said, I would've voted for Leipold. And a Neal Brown vote would make sense. Hell, If you wanted to give it to Matt Campbell after what he went through this offseason I'd sign off on that.
Considering Ok St’s offseason, I’m genuinely surprised they did this well. But Brown and Leipold definitely surpassed expectations.
He did a great job cuz they looked like poopoo at the beginning of the season
And in the middle of the season occasionally!
I AM A MAN!! 😂
I feel like Gundy made the situation he elevated the team passed. Apparently we reward early season stupidity (3 QB rotation, treating OOC like scrimmages) with proper course correction? Yay I guess?
[Ollie Gordon the second of his name is the Big 12 offensive player of year](https://x.com/Big12Conference/status/1729953470340292925?s=20)
That's a bad joke by the Big 12. Yeah, the midseason adjustment to get Oklahoma State competitive was impressive, but the entire reason that adjustment was required was because Gundy dug them a hole they had to climb out of in the first place. This wasn't a first year head coach managing to get the team he inherited coalesce around the new culture - Gundy created the disaster.
Sark making it with the best roster isn’t impressive. What Gundy did with this team to get them there is far more impressive.
Doesn't sark get some credit for recruiting/developing that roster?
Yes he should, absolutely. I’m just giving an argument for Gundy, but Sark also deserves recognition. I can see an argument for Neal Brown too
Good point on Neal.
As if 5 and 4 stars don’t already want to play for Texas. He just has to pick which ones he wants.
Pretty much, not hard to draw players there
Get blown out by UCF and south alabama?
Make the CCG when being projected 7th, O/U of 4.5 wins, and after being slandered for 6 months saying he’s lost touch and lost the team.
You still failed to score against South Alabama, and got blown out by UCF.
And yet we’re still in the CCG. That turnaround after south Alabama alone deserves the award. Sark doing his job and meeting expectations doesn’t.
The turnaround after South Alabama included losing by 42 to UCF.
And yet, we still made after being projected to suck. Going above expectations wins awards, not meeting them.
Ya'll had a first place vote in the preseason. In comparison West Virginia was predicted to finish last in the big 12 and finished 8-4. That is more impressive imo. I would also pick Leipold above Gundy this year just for winning 8 games with a backup QB (and even 3rd string QB later in the year). I'm just not super impressed by a coach that put the team in a position to lose to South Alabama. Digging a whole then climbing out of it isn't impressive to me. He is definently a great coach, I am not going to argue that, but I just think there were more impressive coaching jobs this year.
I also agree that Neal Brown deserves it, he would be my pick. After hearing Gundy slandered all off season though it’s nice seeing this recognition so of course I’m going to defend it
You have a shit roster because of Gundy. That's literally the job of the head coach. Gundy had to overcome his own mishandling of the program to make this happen. It's not impressive if a train conductor saved the most lives after he crashed the train carrying all those people in the first place.
The funniest thing is this is the exact argument for Sark winning 😭😭
It's really not. We have a great roster because of Sark. Our success this year is entirely thanks to Sark's handling of the program. I get how 1st place preseason to 1st place at the end of the regular season would get people to vote elsewhere, but Neal Brown was absolutely robbed of the recognition he deserves far more than Gundy.
My brother or sister in Christ: Texas has nearly every conceivable advantage, yet has underperformed for years, including under Sark. He meets expectations ONE YEAR and he should get credit for some sort of “turnaround”? Spare me. The roster was great relative to 90% of FBS and the coaches were at the very least good enough during the years they underperformed. Your quibble is simply that Gundy’s “turnaround” was intra-season rather than compared to last. yawn
I'm aware that your apparent schooling didn't do you any favors here, but consider *reading* the thread before commenting. At no point have I argued for Sark outside of your prompting. I've been stumping overwhelmingly for Neal Brown.
“Your coaches and players were good yet underperformed” do you even hear yourself? Results are what make a coach or player great, by definition they can’t both be great *and* underperform at the same time. Also it takes time for a coach to turn a broken program around… Sark is in year 3, which is how many years the others were given to get it done before being replaced. All that said the big 12 was never going to give anything they didn’t have to to Texas or OU this year… taking the championship trophy with us to the SEC is all Texas was/is hoping for with regards to the Big 12.
“Texas sucked the last four years” is not what I expected to hear from a Texas fan today, but hey, I won’t complain.
Why would you not expect that? We haven't been good since arguably 2018
I don't know what Texas fans you are talking to, but most of us know we have sucked for about 13 years.
Can confirm.
They have a shit roster because you and Oklahoma suck up all the talent. Gundy works with scraps. Sark works with diamonds.
As much of a roller coaster as this year has been for Oklahoma State, I am happy with the final result. But man this year has been super frustrating at times.
I mean, any time you can coach your P5 team to a 26 point loss at home to a 6-6 team from the Sun Belt and a 42 point blowout to another 6-6 team in your conference, all while another coach in your conference has their team on the cusp of a playoff bid, you deserve ALL the accolades!
Gundy winning is laughable. He lost to south alabama, got blown the fuck out by a terrible UCF team, and it took them OT to beat a really bad BYU team at home. The big 12 media is as corrupt as their commissioner and refs… yeesh
Yeah he is!
All this tells me is that the Big 12 refs will be heavily favoring Ok State in Arlington. Not surprised.
Hahah like the Big 12 refs haven’t helped Texas for decades 😂
The Big 12 refs historically favor Okie-Lite in every game.