Who?

Leave it to Gundy to hire somebody whose name nobody had even considered for the job.

Enter 45-year old Todd Monken, your new Oklahoma State offensive coordinator and ringleader of this year’s big top event: the most dangerous offense in the country.

For the last four years Monken has been the receivers coach in Jacksonville for the Jags. In that time his receiving corps. have finished #20, #14, #19, and #26 respectively.

There’s college precedent though. Monken has coached receivers at OSU before and his resume of pupils includes Prentiss Elliot, Skyler Green, Dwyane Bowe, and two of the three Woods brothers, so yeah, that’s a pretty decent group. He’s never had a quarterback like Weeden though. I would imagine he and his new monstrous six-figure salary are salivating over the possibilities. He knows it too, “With all of the returning starters, it would be silly to break up what they already have going. The key is to be flexible”

This hiring is weird, not because I think it’s bad, but because Gundy doesn’t seem that excited about it, not that Gundy gets excited about much of anything. His only quote thus far is this, “Todd is a really good fit for what we need, he’s been in the Big 12 and SEC and he’s coached at places that have won at a high level. He’s an experienced, intelligent coach who will be able to come in and help us pick up where we left off. We’re excited to have him join our staff.”

Far be it from me to know the inner-workings of the OSU coaching community, but would it have been that different to just hire Doug Meacham?

Mike Sherman brought up a terrific point in The Oklahoman today that Gundy continues to reach outside the program for coordinators which leads to current assistants looking (where else?) outside the program for new jobs. It’s an interesting dichotomy for sure.

I’m hesitant to judge a hiring that’s only 1ish hours old but this seems odd. Let’s see how it plays out this year. For all I know this time next year I’ll have a “Monken Rocks” tattoo on my left shoulder blade because OSU just won the title and set an NCAA record for points scored in a season.

Also, for the message board faithful of you, here’s a great story about him from an LSUer.