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Hiring Dana Holgorsen 'the smartest coaching move' Mike Gundy has made
Current West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen was only with Oklahoma State for one season as its offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, but the success the Cowboys had during his short tenure was well worth it for OSU head coach Mike Gundy, who refers to hiring Holgorsen as "the smartest coaching move that I've made."
"For me, it was a big move. We took a big chance," Gundy recalls in an interview with the Tulsa World. "(With Brandon Weeden) at quarterback, it would be nothing like what we'd done in the past. I would think, 'What can we do here? Who could get us going as fast as possible?' That's where I came up with Dana."
Holgorsen immediately boosted OSU's struggling offense while in Stillwater and was a crucial component to the Cowboys winning the Big 12 and achieving an 11-2 record in 2011, Gundy's best as a head coach at Oklahoma State.
Although he sings Holgorsen's praises, Gundy admits that they butted heads while on the same coaching staff, and thinks it's for the best that he was nabbed by West Virginia to take over its head coaching post.
"I think Dana would have been a short-timer (as a coordinator) at any school," he said. "He had a goal of becoming a head coach. He was going to live in a hotel until he got to that goal. Dana and I clashed a little bit. I'm structured and organized. ... Dana is intelligent and has a way of doing things. He was a headstrong person, but I was the head coach. I don't know if he could have lasted here three years.
"It worked out great for him. He went out (to West Virginia) and got a $10-million contract. It worked out great for us. I respect Dana, and I think he respects me and our organization. Being a head coach now, he would probably see things like I do."
(h/t Tulsa World)
Photo credit: Jackson Laizure/Getty Images
