Mike Gundy Is Basically a Sports Blogger

Mike Gundy is living his best #BlogLyfe, and he’s being paid well into the seven figures per year to do it. Berry Tramel wrote about this for the Oklahoman recently and pointed out the methods Gundy used to find new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. They, uh, looked a lot like the methods I use to help feed this website.

Here’s Tramel on how Gundy searched for and found Knowles.

So he devised his own criteria.

Yes.

Strong in points-per-possession, the new and best way to gauge defenses.

Go on.

Who regularly got off the field with minimal damage from a scoring standpoint? Who might be enticed by an OSU program not rooted in tradition but brimming with success the last decade?

Not necessarily daily parameters for me, but I’ve written about them and measured data against them at some point.

Gundy figured the internet was his friend.

Welcome, Mike!

He spent what he estimates as 20 hours over two weeks to personally figure every Football Bowl Subdivision team’s points allowed per possession, except he threw out results after games got out of hand and threw out Hail Marys — of which Gundy knows a thing or two.

I honestly believe I laughed out loud at this. The thought of Gundy, whose kids have to show him to play a HUDL video online, using Google Sheets to create an end-of-quarter filter in blowout games makes me weak. I want to see his search history for this period of time. How do you copy and paste in Excel?

But he insisted.

Gundy said he did the research himself. “I wanted to make sure it was done right,” Gundy said, though if a 50-year-old wants something done right with 21st-century technology, delegating to someone under 18 might be the way to go.

So there you go. Gundy could start his own blog — pistolsfiringblogsucks.com — and take this one over in a week or so. Daily mullet updates — might I suggest the Daily Mullets? — and a few points-per-possession posts every week, and he’s basically a more knowledgable and potentially better version of what we’re doing here.

On a serious note, I do love Gundy’s strategy. I know much more went into it than him banging around on BCFToys.com (great site, by the way), and I applaud him for, somewhat ironically, swiping Glenn Spencer’s preferred method of measuring defenses.

I know sometimes it takes head coaches (especially those 50 or older) a while to come around on stuff like this, but Gundy has shown a willingness to evolve over the years, starting with his first few seasons on offense when he adapted his systems to fit his personnel. That’s a great trait in the leader of an organization, and hopefully Knowles will make his internet effort seem worthwhile.