Poll Results: Majority of Fans Think Gundy is Big 12’s Best Coach

With the retirement of Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, OSU’s head honcho Mike Gundy is now the longest, continuous tenured coach in the Big 12.

Yes, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder has coached longer, but even he took a break. TCU’s Gary Patterson has actually coached the Horned Frogs longer than Gundy has coached the Cowboys, but TCU didn’t join the Big 12 until 2012.

While Gundy is the longest tenured, does Stoops’ retirement also make Gundy the best coach in the conference? That’s the question we posed on twitter.

To be honest, the response was… as expected.

This week's poll question: With Bob Stoops' departure, is Mike Gundy now the best coach in the Big 12?

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) July 18, 2017

An overwhelming 86%, or 1,490 of you who voted, said that yes, Gundy is now the best.

While most of you voted Gundy, most of the comments were pro Bill Snyder.

Here’s a sampling of some of the comments we received.

“Still have to go with Snyder, but I would have done that before Stoops left too. One of the hardest places to win in the big 12.” – Zach Mauch

“As much as I love Coach Gundy Coach Snider is still the best coach.” – Farmer

“Not just because the other guy is gone…he always was!” – Kandice

“Coach Gundy was already the best, before Bob left.” – Kirk Williams

I, like most of you, am a diehard Oklahoma State fan. I bleed orange and have my own pair of orange-tinted glasses. However, I think this is a tricky question to answer. How do we quantify “the best”?

Is it Big 12 titles? If that’s the case then it’s Bill Snyder who has two compared to Gundy’s one.

Is it total wins? That goes to Snyder, too, who’s got 202.

Or is it win percentage? The winner here goes to Gary Patterson with 73.4% compared to Gundy’s 67.5%.

While Bill Snyder is a hall of fame coach for what he’s been able to do at Kansas State, he has been coaching longer as a whole than Gundy so he should have more wins. Plus, Kansas State hasn’t had a double-digit win season since 2012. Gundy has had three since then.

Patterson may have a better winning percentage, but he won a lot of those games while coaching in Conference USA and the Mountain West. His winning percentage in the Big 12? 54.8%.

If you want to claim that Gundy is the best coach in the league right now, I don’t think I can argue. Snyder is getting closer and closer to retirement every year. Outside of two seasons, TCU has been mediocre at best facing a non group-of-five schedule. Riley, Herman, and Rhule could be really good coaches, but they haven’t coached a single game at their schools yet.

However, I don’t think I can completely disagree if you argue Snyder is still the best, even if he hasn’t been at his best the past couple of seasons.

I think if Gundy wins the Big 12 this year, then the answer becomes undeniably yes, he is the best. Until then, the topic remains up for debate. Just not among OSU fans.