I do not understand the Gundy hate. He coaches at a program that is the little brother in its own state and was not in the top five most prestigious programs in its own conference for most of his career. He was close to playing for a national title last year and had great teams in 2008-2010. He also still won seven games this year after he lost Weedon (sp?) and Blackmon last year and his top two quarterbacks at different times this year. Even without the high level recruiting accolades, he finds big time offensive playmakers and scores a ton of points every year. Contrary to popular opinion around here, the Big 12 is a very, very good football conference with Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas State, TCU, and, to a lesser extent, West Virginia in it this year and the conference previously had A&M (which did pretty well this year in the SEC), Missouri, and Nebraska. His defensive rankings have been pretty pedestrian but the Big 12, typically, has higher caliber offenses than the SEC (yes, shockingly, other conferences play high level football other than the SEC) and that explains, to a certain extent, the lower ranked defense. I think Gundy would need to put more of an emphasis on defense with the move to the SEC and change defensive recruiting tactics (i.e., defensive tackles and linebackers are more important in the SEC because of the emphasis on running whereas defensive ends and defensive backs are more important in the Big 12 because of the emphasis on passing). I, however, think he would put a high level offense on the field and, if he can improve defensively with a great DC, that could be a recipe for success. I question whether he can recruit at a top ten level and in the South because he hasn't done it before but I think he is a very good coach. Aside from Gruden, I prefer Patterson, Petersen, and Fisher, but I would be happy with a Gundy hire.
