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Travis Ford is currently leading a pack of players who all came in with seemingly above average talent to an under preforming 11-10 season with only two conference wins. The conference wins? Last place TCU and 11-time champion Kansas, so no one really knows what to expect from this team other than trying hard, regardless of outcome.
So with what seems like what might be Travis Ford's last year, plenty of people have been looking around at who might be next to replace Mr. Ford, but there are still a lot of questions. First off, Ford may still be here in 2016-17, seeing as he'll have Forte and Evans back. But there is one candidate that makes a lot of sense really.
Doug Gottlieb.
He played at Oklahoma State. It would complete the trifecta of ex-players coming back to coach in Stillwater. The other two (Gundy and Holliday) are doing a pretty good job of it themselves. He knows the atmosphere, the attitude and what the school wants/was at one point.
Note: Trifecta of the "Big Three" sports (Basketball/Baseball/Football). If you count all you couldn't forget Smith with Wrestling.
He played under Eddie Sutton - who was 368-151 in his time here - so he's probably not going to shy away from using one of the best coaches ever as an advice machine and Sutton has probably already put in enough of his own systems into Doug. I mean just look how close they are.
Guess what? Gottlieb's dad was also an assistant coach under coach Sutton at one point. Bob Gottlieb, Doug's father, kept basketball in the family. Gregg, Doug's brother is an assistant at Oregon State, and let's not act like Doug's knowledge of basketball didn't help get him a job with CBS, because they just don't hire every former college player. There has also been rumors spreading that Doug has expressed the want to be the next guy leading the Cowboys.
Again, this is all just speculation that Doug could potentially be a replacement for Ford - but Ford has to at least lose his job first before we can give it away. Then you've also got to wonder if Holder would go this route. He already went with an unproven guy before by originally singing Ford. However, this one may be better as it'll put more fans in the seats than there currently are. This is an outside possibility as it's an outside possibility that Ford even gets let go of considering his massive buyout, but it's definitely something to talk about.