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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Letter from AFM- Home on the Range

by: John Gallup
Editor and Publisher
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This year, over 20% of FBS schools will enter the 2012 season with new head coaches. That’s nothing new. Every year, more and more coaches find themselves on the coaching carousel as the pressure to win, win often and win consistently becomes more relentless. 

Sometimes, a change at the top is just what a program needs to get on track. Witness Brady Hoke, who led a Michigan team that had underachieved for years to 11 wins, including a victory over Ohio State for the first time in eight years and a BCS win over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. Or Louisiana University, led by first-year coach Mark Hudspeth. The Ragin’ Cajuns improved from 3-9 to 9-4 and captured the first FBS bowl win in the school’s history.

More often, however, it is coaching stability that leads to success on the field. That was certainly the case in 2011 for Oklahoma State. The Cowboys, led by 7th year Head Coach Mike Gundy, had what most consider to be the best season in the program’s 112-year history with 12-1 record, a convincing 44-10 victory over Oklahoma in the Bedlam Series, their first Big 12 Championship, a BCS bowl win over Stanford and a final national ranking of #3.

We are proud to recognize Mike Gundy as AFM’s 2011 FBS Coach of the Year. Five other college coaches and six high school coaches join him as recipients of our annual coaching awards.

With Gundy at the helm for the past seven seasons, Oklahoma State has steadily improved. If not for a November 18 loss at Iowa State the day after a plane crash claimed the lives of OSU women’s basketball head coach Kurt Budke, assistant coach Miranda Serna and two others, the Cowboys would have certainly earned a date in the BCS National Championship game. To Gundy’s credit, he led the program past that unexpected loss and the tragedy that affected the entire OSU community to the monumental win over the Sooners and the Fiesta Bowl victory on January 2nd.

There are only a handful of coaches in America that are more closely associated with their programs than Mike Gundy. He had a record-setting career as OSU quarterback from 1986-89 and immediately joined the coaching staff after graduation as an assistant coach for the next six years, engineering the potent passing attacks that would become the team’s trademark. Gundy’s short ride on the coaching carousel included one season at Baylor and three at Maryland before returning to Oklahoma State in 2001 as offensive coordinator under Les Miles.

With Miles’ departure to LSU in 2005, Gundy was, at age 37, named OSU head coach. In his seven seasons at the helm, the Cowboys have a record of 59-30, with only three of those losses coming in the last two seasons. In the ultra-competitive Big 12, he has positioned his program as one of the annual favorites.

To this day, Mike Gundy is still the youngest coach in the Big 12. Next season will be his 21st overall at Oklahoma State as a player or a coach – close to half of his life. Will Mike Gundy be the next coach to devote his entire career to a single program? Time will tell, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see him in Stillwater for the next 21 years.

On behalf of everyone at AFM, congratulations to Mike Gundy and all of our Coach of the Year award winners on your outstanding accomplishments. Staring on page 20, you can read about them and, we hope, learn from their success.
                           
                            John Gallup
                            Editor & Publisher







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