Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/two-ways-mike-gundy-said-the-cowboys-can-be-better-in-2025/
More from Gundy at Big 12 Media Days.
Completely agree with Gundy’s assessment that the passing game was the issue on offense. Couldn’t exploit people looking to stop Gordon.
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“ So, those two things, you can fix,” Gundy said. “One way is the head coach not asking the coordinator to do something that maybe he’s not capable of.”
Maybe the head coach should hire some proven D1 coordinator that’s shown he is capable of making adjustments when needed?
Two things to improve on
1)offense
2)defense
These are in no certain order.
No questions will be taken at this time.
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So special teams is on point?
Heychamp didn’t follow the last line of the post and is now in the penalty box.
Anybody wanna join him?
But we know the penalty isn’t kickoff out-of-bounds, right?
Choice of QB1 was a large problem w/ last season’s offense…
Ouch.
Bring it.
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I guess you didn’t realize I was taking about Dunn and Nardo 
.
QB2 got hurt. QB3 got hurt. QB4 didn’t win anything either. When there’s only one choice, your choice can’t be wrong.
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The person responsible for choosing QB1 is a bigger problem.
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I see you got excuses. QB1 was a disaster. Gumby should’ve told Bowman to take a hike after 2023 and developed the younger guys. True freshman Smith, i.e. QB4 outplayed Bowman.
He really is weak w/ selecting QB1 and should let others do it. Alex Cate? 
Bobby Reid? 
Reid wasn’t ready.
This is 100% hindsight fanboying. Let’s take hindsight out of this and let’s review the scenario:
- You were conference runners-up and lost to a juggernaut, resurgent Texas that you had little chance to beat.
- You won the final Bedlam and your super senior QB had his best game on that stage.
- You are running back almost an identical team laden with upper classmen.
You’re telling me that Bowman wants to come back and you think Gundy should’ve said “nope, move along, skip”. I 100% agree that Bowman probably played above his head in 2023. I agree that we would’ve had a better record without him. I agree he was probably the biggest problem with last year’s team. None of that matters.
No one is making that call because we don’t have the hindsight you’re working from. Being conference runner-up, bringing almost the whole squad back, and the team that beat you is gone? It’s one thing to have the collapse we did, and that was bad. Really bad. It’s another to jettison QB1 and then fail, and we would’ve failed. He was the biggest problem, but he was not the only problem. There was only one successful outcome last season. Let’s say we go 6-6 with Rangel, Flores, whoever (no reason to think they would’ve been healthy, but let’s say). How would that have been received? No better than 0-9. Look how badly Venables got flagellated in the media for letting Gabriel go from a disappointing OU team for a highly-touted young QB. You let your QB go in OSU’s scenario, and it would’ve been maybe a worse dumpster fire than it already was, plus, it would’ve been predictable as you would expect regression after losing your starting QB. There’s no hindsight to look at to say, “well, we would’ve been 0-9 if he’d stayed,” it’s just “Gundy let a conference title slip away, all he had to do was keep the team together,” and then someone like me saying, “eh, I doubt we would’ve won with Bowman either,” getting called a Gundy fanboy because I can’t admit he made the wrong decision. Every bad play a young QB makes all season would’ve been magnified.
It wouldn’t have been a better outcome. Tell me where I’m wrong.
Champster - I will be passionately cheering this football team to succeed and I do expect they will exceed all expectations. We wil have a better team not due to Gundy but despite of Gundy. Let’s get something straight - This was one of several mandates for Gundy to keep his job. Revamp your entire coaching staff - this was not Gundy’s idea. Secondly he was told not to interfere with the Coordinator’s decisions to hire their assistant coaches. I don’t know how much fans realize how close Gundy was to losing his job to Zach Robinson. The Regents made a list of demands, in addition to cutting his salary, that neutralized his authority.
This new coaching staff is making a significant difference in recruiting and I believe you will see superior results of their coaching displayed on the field this year.
After going to Extreme Camp for many years and attending many practices as well what I saw and what Gundy saw were sometimes on two opposite ends of the spectrum. Take for example the QB battle - Flores always stood out (not drastically) and was our best bet for success but he decided to go with experience and go with Bowman who was definitely the worst in practice. You could readily see he had very limited to no mobility whatsoever and the accuracy of his passes were in question as well as his arm strength. Ollie made Bowman look great that first year. I wish Gundy would have extrapolated more on our poor offensive line play and WHY they were being constantly pushed back off the line of scrimmage into our own back field. I have a lot of thoughts on why that was happening for another post. Gundy was right to say we couldn’t run the football and this exposed our inability to throw down field. Then why Bowman? Flores was injured but should have gone to Rangel which we did but then he suffered injury. Gundy as usual couldn’t quite say he made a bad hire in Nardo. And I get it that it would look bad if Gundy excoriated Nardo. So Gundy did the right thing. But a Division 3 coordinator to run, what Gundy wanted, a 3-3-5 defensive scheme. So who’s at fault in Nardo’s hiring and installing his massively unsuccessful defensive scheme and for Gundy to say we didn’t have the personnel to run the 3-3-5. That just makes Gundy look worse. Coach that’s your fault and admit it. Then Gundy goes on to say - I asked something of Nardo he wasn’t capable of doing. Wow! It was to much to ask that your Defensive Coordinator make an adjustment to four down lineman. Then why in the heck did you hire this guy! Good DC’s are flexible and make changes scheme wise at half time but it took us an entire season. This team will be better and believe they will exceed all expectations not because of Gundy but despite Gundy.
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Hey champ,
What are you even responding to in this ranting, meandering mess?
I will say, I don’t know why everyone assumes Zac would take the job. I’m all for it if he does down the line, but I don’t think that’s a foregone conclusion.
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Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing
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With some of the stuff you claim to know as facts here you should get a job as a sports writer. You have more insider info than all of the current ones put together. You’d make a killing uncovering what is really going on inside OSU.