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Mark Cooper is reporting that Oklahoma State Offensive Line Coach Greg Adkins has been fired.
After a terrible showing from the Oklahoma State offensive line under Adkins in the 2015 season, the group really turned things around in 2016 and gave OSU a much needed ground game. Considering this, it might be safe to say that this firing wasn’t in result of his performance.
A more logical reason for his dismissal may be with the latest group of recruits, and the lack of offensive lineman. Oklahoma State had two longtime verbal commits in Dan Moore Jr. and Derek Kerstetter. Both players ended up signing elsewhere: Moore with Texas A&M and Kerstetter with Texas. These losses were huge, as the 2017 class was left without any four-year eligible offensive lineman.
Gundy wasn’t pleased with this either.
"We were going to take four [offensive linemen]. I don't know what the rules are, but we had a couple committed for a long, long time and we lost them. It's extremely difficult to make up ground in the third week of December at that particular position, especially on a four-year player...I'm not going to sit here and say that we had a couple of guys that were with us a long time and departed didn't affect us because it did. Once they roll out of here, if you think about it more than just two seconds, you're pretty much wasting your time because it's not going to change. You need to start finding a solution to fix it, and that's what we did."
Interesting take by WastedOp:
I don't think Coach Adkins's dismissal was performance based. He was still being paid by Buffalo Bills so #OKState got him cheap.That ended.
— Royal John OSU (@WastedOptimism) February 3, 2017
I believe this was already set in motion before the end of the season & word got out & that's part of why O-line recruits decommitted.
— Royal John OSU (@WastedOptimism) February 3, 2017
Oklahoma State offensive line coaches the past few years:
2013 - Joe Wickline
2014 - Bob Connelly
2015 - Greg Adkins
2016 - Greg Adkins
2017 - ???
Josh Henson name to keep an eye on for next OSU OL coach. Henson was OSU analyst before taking OL job with Ariz St. couple weeks ago.
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) February 3, 2017
The search for a new offensive line coach begins again. Who do you want to see in orange and black?