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Is it me, or does Gundy REALLY not want to talk about anything of ANY substance? When pressed, he actually gets a touch cranky, or just clams up.
Here are a couple of my favorite Gundy comments courtesy of John Helsley, and my response to one of them, via twitter...
@jjhelsley This is just comical. I guess we have two QB's, and that means we have none. Does Daxx at least know he's third string?
— Robert Whetsell (@RobertW_CRFF) October 21, 2013
Gundy says there is no disadvantage for Iowa State in not knowing who the QB is. So... why not say? Guess the staff doesn't know. okstate
— John Helsley (@jjhelsley) October 21, 2013
I've never been paid the millions Coach Gundy is taking in, but I've coached a bit in my day.
And a LOT of this didn't make ANY sense.
I've never dealt with football, but I have been involved with quite a bit playing, coaching, and officiating basketball.
Success was always about chemistry, and chemistry was about practice and repetition.
The starters got at least 70-80% of the reps, and the starting point guard got 80-90%. That was the person running our team on the floor, so he needed to know how everything worked, how everything flowed, no matter who was on the floor. He was critical to the proper function of our team. On one particular team we had a backup PG who was almost as good as the starter, but I held to that same formula. If you don't commit the full resources of the team to making sure the "floor general" has every tool at his disposal to help the team be successful, then the TEAM fails.
And if things went bad, we stuck with him. Players can go through rough patches. Only once did it get so bad with a star player that we decided to make a switch. We sat the kid down and had a very frank chat. Fortunately for us we had a kid who was a team player, because that switch involved giving the backup all those practice reps.
Turns out the Cowboys are splitting reps with two point guards.
In an offense where timing is everything, where not just knowing the play call is crucial, but knowing based on where the defense lines up what routes will be run, what receivers tendencies are in those routes, what the QB's tendencies are with hitting certain routes, and what happens when the play breaks down...it would seem paramount that the coach on the field get the vast majority of reps.
Going into the spring Gundy was very clear about who would be getting most of the work with the "1's."
Now Gundy tells us that is not happening, that Walsh and Chelf have been splitting reps all along, even after Walsh apparently "won" the job with his performance in fall camp and against Mississippi State.
If that's the case, then I think OSU is getting exactly what it has cultivated...an inconsistent, often out of sync offensive display that regularly looks like not everyone is on the same page. I understand that injuries can play a key role in disrupting the offensive flow, but neither QB is injured, the RB's seem fairly healthy, and the main group of receivers is in tact.
While Coach insisted that the mistakes being made now are not the same as in the beginning of the season, I would argue that we are seeing the same TYPES of mistakes...mistakes of timing and chemistry, mistakes of checks and reads.
Mistakes that are only cleared up by practice and repetition for the person in charge of running show on the field.
Nobody is going to argue the job Gundy has done establishing a consistent winning program in Stillwater, but if there's one question that lingers it's his "handling" of the quarterback position, and it feels to me like we are definitely in another of those "moments."
Rumors are already persistent that Chelf will start Saturday in Ames. Everyone knows my feeling on who should be the starting QB, but that is not the point. Whether it's Walsh or Chelf, one of them should be getting the lion's share of the practice time.
Because right now, with both of them getting half of the reps, OSU is putting on half of the show.
GO POKES!!!