Ranking the Big 12 Coaching Performance this year to date.

[BlackNGold]

I thought I would rank how the Big 12 coaches have performed to date...This is not how I rank the coaches but how they are doing this year. Gill and Tuberville are excluded because they are in their first years although I will give a few comments. This could and will change as the season goes on.

1. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State - Gundy gets the top spot because he has OSU playing very good in what many thought was a rebuilding year. OSU lost a lot of talent last year but has come back to be 6-0 and looking good in the process. Easy schedule has helped to date but they are winning most games in convincing fashion. I expect them to end up with 3 losses but not bad for a rebuilding year.

2. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma - Stoops gets the nod because he is 6-0 and has his team on track after a tough year in 2009. Beating Texas was huge for them and they have a chance to run the table. Struggled against Air Force at home is cause for concern. I want to watch the Missouri OU game - it will tell a lot about these teams.

3. Bill Snyder - Kansas State - this is hard for me because I do not like Bill Snyder but the Wildcats are 5-1 and ranked in the BCS standings. We will see how they do against Baylor on the road this week. Snyder has coached them to play tough and smart. I expect them to struggle a little down the stretch but they will make a Bowl game. This may be a tough one for CU.

4. Gary Pinkel - Missouri is 6-0 so you have to give credit where credit is due. Both their Offense and Defense are playing well. They play OU and Nebraska back to back in the next 2 weeks so we will see how good they really are but probably a top 25 team.

5. Bo Pelini - Nebraska is 5-1 but failed their first tough test with Texas at home. The Huskers are once again relevant in football which makes their fans happy. Nebraska is playing hard nose football which is something they lost under Callahan. Okie State and Missouri are the biggest challenges left on their schedule. They and Mizzou are the odds on favorite to win the North.

6. Art Briles - Baylor. As we saw Baylor is not a bad football team especially on offense. I watched the Baylor players on the sidelines and they certainly looked like they were playing with emotion and intensity. Winning at Baylor recently has not been easy and it looks like they have a good shot at going to a bowl game for the first time since joining the Big 12. Schedule gets tougher as they get into the meat of the B12 south schedule.

7. Mack Brown - Texas. I almost dropped him lower because of the bad lost to UCLA at home although he seems to have the shipped righted with the win at Nebraska. With the talent that Texas has they should not struggle on offense as much as they have this season. I would of like to see NU beat them just to get the horns grumbling. With their talent 9 wins should be a shoo-in without much coaching...

8. Mike Sherman - Texas A&M, (remember we are only ranking 10). I put him here because all 3 of their loses have come at the hands of ranked teams. I do not expect Sherman to survive after this season, it always seemed like a strange hire.

9. Paul Rhoades - Iowa State, did not know rather to put him at 9 or 10 but looking at their loses - all four have been to ranked teams (or in the case of KSU ranked in the BCS). So their schedule has been tough and Rhodes is only in his second year but time is running out to get the program moving in the right direction. Bad on both offense and defense.

10. Dan Hawkins - Colorado. Got to put him somewhere. Also expect him to be let go after the season. Bad road record, 3 losses to unranked teams is not good. Do not have to go on everyone knows the issues.


Turn Gill - Kansas. No only is Gill in his first year but the cupboard was bare. Team is not playing well but there is not much talent either. Gill will have to improve KUs fortunes on the recruiting front.

Tommy Tuberville. The contrast between Leach and Tuberville is so dramatic that a rough transition should be expected. Tuberville has shown that he is a good coach in the past so it will be interesting to see how his tenure proceeds at TT. The Lost to Iowa State was bad.

 

[BuffaloChuck]

I'd put Mike Sherman of tamu as the very worst of the lot, considering what he has, what he adds to the team each year in recruits, and I think has digressed every player at every position. I think that's correct - no player is doing better in any subsequent year than they did the year before. Now THAT takes a LOT of effort from coaching staffs.

I might rate Tommy Tuberville as #11 because he's had great offensive stretches then castrates play-calling and insists that running the ball up the middle with 125-lb RBs is smart for 2-3 quarter stretches. He's seen QBs have 15-of-16 passing stretches, scoring 3 straight possessions, then insist he wants to "establish the run" and loses games. Incredible. He's not only never seen good spread offenses like his own CAN do, but even when he sees it, he refuses to allow them to continue.

With THAT mentality, he should get #12 spot!

I'd rate Rhoades higher. I'd put Mack Brown way down because his perenial weakness - no blocking, no tackling - is still the hallmark of his teams. And he's added incredibly dumb special teams plays. I think they've had four fumbles of punts. Not muffs. But jukin' and jivin' ball-carriers that drop the ball on a punt. Stupid is as stupid is coached.

I give Art Briles a bit of a break. Baylor's been the total loser in the league for so long and I don't think even 10 years will remove that stench from his program's upper lip. They'll smell "Loser" for a long, long time. Teams that let Baylor win are teams that want to lose more - Baylor still doesn't know how to win without other teams helping them pull up their diapers.

Gundy, Stoops, Snyder, Turner Gill, Bo Pelini. Pelini lost a big chunk last weekend when he removed his QB, believing bench-time will teach him better under-pressure decision making. Pelini's blown up in the past, and he shows he's still a headcase waiting to explode. I'm hoping he'll headbutt one of the players in anger and knock himself out. I think that'd help his team. Sort of like basketball coaches getting tossed. Because I think there are portions of Nebraska games that "no coach" would be better than "Bo Coach". Knock yerself out, Coach - do the team a favor.

Stoops still signed 3 out of 4 blue-chippers he wanted for the 9th consecutive season. He's also the only coach in the Big 12 that's delivering on so many promises to get his players ready for the NFL. I don't like him or OU, but he makes promises when recruiting and he's the only coach that delivers on those so well.

Turner Gill. Well, Kansas' veneer of success was incredibly thin. One good season, really. Then when defenses realized what the little QB couldn't do, they stacked up against that and crushed his senior season. Turner's got a lot to do and I'm not sure he's "Kansan" enough to do it. We'll see.

Snyder's the situation I feel sorriest for. A program that can't go anywhere without him. I hope CU doesn't follow in his footsteps and recognize McCartney as their only savior. I hate seeing programs lazily revert to "the only living good coach" as their last hope. It seems so desperate. So needy. How about finding a good coach instead? Doing some REAL investigation instead of letting Brent Mushburger insist on his ideas of good and bad.