Great break down by Adam and Mitch in the Tape Doesn’t Lie podcast, episode 22.
They paid to go to the OState Experience, apparently $2,000 ea, & had a LOT of access otherwise not avail. Good talk about every position, not just QBs.
This is one of the best OSU pods out there.
Episode 23 - Defense dropped a couple days ago as well. Haven’t listened but I’m sure it’s solid like the offensive assessment.
I’ve heard that camp is AMAZING
From the athletic for those w/o a sub
Known quantities: The prolific numbers that have given Oklahoma State’s Sean Gleeson such a strong reputation
By Stewart Mandel Aug 16, 2019
STILLWATER, Okla. — A hamburger joint near Oklahoma State’s campus might seem like an unlikely location for some Ivy League trash talk. While sitting at a lunch table at The Garage, new Cowboys offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson, a recent arrival from Princeton, is told that defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, a Cornell alum, mocked Princeton for being “snooty” during an interview that morning.
“Tell Coach Knowles I’d rather be snooty and win 66-0,” Gleeson said. “That’s how we beat Cornell last year.”
That Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy hired his newest offensive coordinator straight from the Ivy League has garnered quite a bit of curiosity around the Big 12 this offseason. Especially since Gundy has a history of seeking out under-the-radar OCs; in 2013, he plucked Gleeson’s predecessor, Mike Yurcich, from Division II Shippensburg (Pa.). Yurcich left in January for Ohio State, prompting another search.
But Gundy says the parallels between the two hires aren’t as close as people assume.
Whereas he fully admits to having never heard of Yurcich prior to his own Internet search, Gleeson, 34, had already developed a reputation in the coaching community. Princeton’s innovative offense averaged an FCS-high 47.0 points per game en route to a 10-0 season last year. At the time Gundy first contacted him, he said, Gleeson was meeting with newly hired Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury.
“Sean wasn’t as big a secret as what people thought,” Gundy said. “I have access to everything on (video) now. I can go on there, pull every game up from Princeton.”
What Gundy saw was an offense that played at a high tempo, was explosive in both the run and the pass games and always seemed a step ahead of opposing defenses. Most importantly to Gundy, Gleeson, who is also the Cowboys’ QBs coach, helped put two Princeton quarterbacks into the NFL. Chad Kanoff (Cardinals) and John Lovett (now a tight end for the Chiefs) both won the Bushnell Cup given to the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year.
“I’m into more of a young youthful guy that can develop quarterbacks and be very engaging during recruiting,” Gundy said. “If we have a good quarterback, if we recruit good quarterbacks, we win games. If we don’t, we’re average.
“Same thing with the Patriots, right?”
Gundy’s New England analogy may be a coincidence, but his new OC spent the first 34 years of his life in the Northeast. He’s a native of Northern New Jersey, with the accent and the street cred to prove it. “The final Sopranos episode was shot a mile from where I grew up (in Glen Ridge),” he said.
After playing quarterback at Division III Williams College in Massachusetts, Gleeson spent four years at Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., both teaching and coaching not just football but baseball and bowling. In 2011, he got his first college job as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Fairleigh Dickinson.
He arrived at Princeton in 2013 to be the running backs coach under head coach Bob Surace and then-OC James Perry, a longtime mentor who originally recruited Gleeson to Williams a decade earlier. The two had remained close ever since. Gleeson moved up to OC when Perry, now the head coach at Brown, left in 2017.
Princeton averaged 34.6 points the season before Gleeson became play-caller. The Tigers improved to 38.2 the next year and an Ivy League-record 47.0 in 2018.
“Within a year of hiring him to be the running backs coach at Princeton, I thought, this guy’s going to be the head coach at Notre Dame,” Perry said. “And I still think that. I was not surprised at all to see him shattering records.”
Even before ascending to OC, Gleeson was always the one looking for new ideas anywhere he could find them. The Princeton coaches frequently visited with then-head coach Joe Moorhead’s staff at Fordham, which was considered ahead of the curve in its use of RPOs. He would study everything from Navy’s triple-option to the Patriots’ passing game with Tom Brady.
“It’s like you’re putting together a car,” Gleeson said. “You kind of take a part from one thing here and another part from there. And if it suits your needs, it works well. It’s not always from the same people that you’ve talked to for 10, 15 years over your coaching career, it might be, let’s get some tape of the Rams this year. Or whoever.”
Princeton’s offense under Perry and then Gleeson made waves on for some of its more unorthodox elements, most notably plays with two, or even three quarterbacks on the field at the same time.
Princeton running a jet motion pop pass.
QB and WR really sell this one!
36 people are talking about this
One more from Princeton:
Stretch read, boot, throwback in the red zone!
29 people are talking about this
“A lot of guys who aren’t as smart as Sean aren’t open to new ideas. Because what you’re doing works,” Perry said. “Sean’s a smart guy who doesn’t think he has all the answers.”
And so it makes sense that when the opportunity came for Gleeson to move up to FBS, it came from a head coach who’s synonymous with high-powered, cutting-edge offenses. Gundy, who’s led Oklahoma State to six 10-plus win seasons since 2010 and produced a top-five national scoring offense four times, makes it clear he did not hire Gleeson to install the Princeton offense.
“Why would I change what we’re doing on offense? We’re going to be top five or top 10 in the country every year,” Gundy said.
“When you come in here, you have to run our system and run our plays. … Rich Rodriguez, I’m not saying he would have come, but you can’t bring him in here. He’s not going to run your plays, it’s going to be his plays. So that’s why in most cases, it’s going to be a young guy that’s somewhat up-and-coming.”
Gleeson insists he’s fine with that arrangement. He was eager to learn someone else’s successful system and perhaps add some of his own strategic elements.
“He’s going to be one step ahead; he’s just that kind of guy,” Perry said. “I’m sure he’s already mapped out the whole 12 weeks and what will keep Oklahoma State one step ahead of those other terrific teams.”
Most of all, Gleeson is excited to work with the caliber of quarterbacks (Brandon Weeden, Mason Rudolph), receivers (Justin Blackmon, James Washington) and running backs (Kendall Hunter, Justice Hill) who regularly come through Stillwater.
Oklahoma State, looking to bounce back from an uncharacteristic 7-6 season, has yet to announce its starting quarterback, be it fifth-year senior and former Hawaii starter Dru Brown or redshirt freshman Spencer Sanders. But the Cowboys, which open Aug. 30 at Oregon State, currently boast a returning Biletnikoff finalist in Tylan Wallace, while sophomore running back Chuba Hubbard is poised for a breakout year after rushing for more than 100 yards in three of his last four games last season.
“I’m excited because you get a few more chess pieces at your disposal, when you got a bunch of scholarship athletes running around at wide receiver, offensive line, whatever it is,” Gleeson said.“Whereas (at Princeton), we had one of those guys. If he got hurt, you were kind of worried.”
Gleeson says moving from the Ivy League to the Big 12 isn’t as much of an adjustment as many assume. Coaching is coaching. The much more jarring change for the native Northeasterner was moving himself, his wife Lauren and sons Eamon and Patrick from New Jersey to northern Oklahoma.
“I’m not surprised a few tornadoes come through here. It’s pretty flat,” he said. “But the culture shock was quickly alleviated or discarded because everyone’s so friendly. No one in New Jersey is this friendly.”
The reception could grow even warmer if Gleeson gets Oklahoma State back to scoring 45 points a game and helps turns Brown and/or Sanders into the Cowboys’ next great quarterback. Maybe he’ll even put them both on the field on the same play.
For two grand it ought to be.
Bundage is back so that’s good.
Bundage is back, but he’s not starting. Biggest surprises are Malcolm at LB (I’ve heard Peel has been working a little there too) and Bryce Bray as starter.
No Jonathan Shepherd on the two deep is disappointing.
No Kyle Junior on the Two Deep?
Yeah I thought that was odd @jaron. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad sign. Like, Kyle Boone pointed this out and I think it’s true, Israel Antwine not starting is a great sign. We already know he’s good. We already know what he can do. So to have him as a backup means the guys ahead of him are likely really good. Maybe same thing with KJ?
Any news from the walk on tryouts earlier in the week?
Uhhhhh does Vegas know something we don’t? Why in the world is gundy on this list. Keep in mind it’s first to be fired, not just fired in general.
I just saw that and thought the exact same thing. +1600? What? Those are odds of a man entering the season on the hot seat.
They must read the comments sections on OSU articles. Only our fans would expect that.
No Way!
I don’t know that ‘first fired’ is going to happen, nor should it.
That being said, let’s consider the worst case scenario, just as a thought exercise. Say we win the first three, but drop the first three conference games to Texas/K-State/Tech (which is not an impossible thing - Texas is mean and K-State is always tough, while Tech whipped us last year). At that point, you’d have to think that change would be an option, especially since the only guaranteed (or close to it) win for the rest of the season would be Kansas, with Baylor/Iowa State/TCU/WVU/OU all being tough outs (especially ISU/TCU/OU).
But let’s say we manage to beat Baylor, Kansas, and WVU in that scenario. That would still end our season 1) bowl-less and 2) at 6-6. That would make two consecutive bad seasons, this time without a bowl, and with our recruiting likely to end up as mediocre again and the contract providing another raise…is it outside the realm of possibility that we move on?
Note that I’m not advocating it. I’m just providing a scenario that isn’t COMPLETELY insane (e.g. losing all 10 Big 12 games) in which ‘first fired’ wouldn’t happen, but only that ‘first’ part.
Doesn’t the contract also provide for a 17 million buyout we’d have to come up with in addition to 3ish million a year for a new coach? Where is that coming from?
You don’t think we have rich boosters that are sick of losing to OU every year and no real end in sight? I’m not saying it’ll happen, even if we hit that point. I’m not even saying it would be likely. I’m saying that, all things considered, his seat is not even just pleasantly cool - it’s warm until he proves that it should be otherwise.
1,2, or even 3 QBs… I’m just excited that it’s officially Game Week! Can’t wait for Friday night… Uniform predictions anyone?
I think I’d rather they spend that money to get their name on the new wrestling facility than entering the lottery of finding a coach who will consistently beat OU.
