Do The Right Thing Dana

It’s that time of year again. Nope, not egg nog chugging and gingerbread house building. It’s the time of year when assistant coaches get to unwrap presents sent to them by athletic directors at other schools. It’s time for coordinators to make history off the field instead of on it. It’s time for Dana Holgorsen to make a decision.

To quote Field of Dreams (cross-sport reference!) “people will come, Dana, people will most definitely come.” And allegedly they already are coming. Depending on what reports you read and/or believe there are rumors swirling around the mullet-wearing offensive genius becoming the next head coach at Pitt, OC at Florida, OC at Miami, and even one about him replacing Greg Davis down in Austin.

As a college sports fan I’ve been taught to believe something when I see it (Stoops to Notre Dame!) but as an Oklahoma State fan I’m always ready for the other shoe to drop (blowing 30-point second half leads to Texas!).

So in the interim (pun!) here are 4 reasons OSU and Dana Holgorsen need each other:

CEOs are replaceable – Coaches these days, especially in big-time programs, are nothing more than figure heads. Don’t believe me? Read this piece by Pat Forde on Mack Brown. In it Mack is quoted saying, “I own the restaurant. There are a lot of cooks, waiters and waitresses in this restaurant. They worry about their problems. I worry about all the problems.” Gundy finally figured this out after last year, hired Holgorsen, and voila, we lead the nation in yards. The point is, we can find another Gundy. It’s easier to train someone to run the company than it is to train someone to be the company. That’s Holgorsen, and he’s really good at it.

He holds the chips – Weeden and Blackmon know it too. They’ve been tentative at best when asked about the NFL draft and I’d be willing to be that if Holgorsen bolts at least one (if not both) of them are gone too. You don’t come back to a 2^nd tier program with an offensive coordinator job in limbo when you’re projected to be a top-15 pick. Or, I don’t anyway.

Offensive greatness – According to this article in the Tulsa World, Dana Holgorsen’s offenses have improved from the first year to the second in every job he’s held. Somehow (and I’m not real sure how this happened), OSUs offense improved by going from Larry Fedora’s wide-open spead option attack to Holgorsen’s quick-hit-tons-of-screens-take-a-shot-over-the-top-every-once-in-a-while scheme. Or as I like to call it, “the annoying offense Houston used to run that nobody in the world can defend.” I don’t see that transition being quite as smooth if we lose Holgorsen. Of course, there were 11 other Big XII coaches saying the exact same thing about our program last year so I could be dead wrong.

Holgorsen’s destiny –  I see a great head coach as somebody like Mack Brown or Mark Richt – somebody who might not necessarily be the best playcaller or Xs and Os guy but a guy who knows how to manage an organization. Just because you’re the CEO doesn’t mean you have the most outstanding operational mind. It just means you’re bright enough to hire the best people, create the best atmosphere, and lead better than anyone else. I don’t really see Holgorsen doing that. Give him $800,000 and sign him up for life to run plays, drop f-bombs on QBs, and hang 70 on everybody – that’s his destiny.

Somebody should print this off and hand it to Holgorsen, especially the last paragraph. Then he should walk right to Mike Holder’s office, highlight the 6-digit number above and Holder should say “OK, Merry Christmas.” Then we should put up 60 on the wrong Stoops in San Antonio.

But you know how these things usually end…