Coaching Spotlight: Mike Gundy, OK State

Michael Ray Gundy was born August 12, 1967 in Midwest City, Oklahoma.

Mike Gundy started receiving attention in the football world early, when he was named Oklahoma High School Player of the Year in 1986 while he was playing Quarterback for Midwest City High School. Although the Oklahoma Sooners strongly recruited Mike Gundy, he decided to play for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Mike Gundy was the all-time leading passer in Oklahoma State Cowboy and Big 8 history.

After graduating, Mike Gundy was hired at Oklahoma State Univeristy to be an assistant coach. He spent one season at Baylor University as the Quarterbacks coach and then went to the University of Maryland to coach the wide receivers.

In 2001, Mike Gundy returned to the University of Oklahoma as the offensive coordinator. In 2005 Mike Gundy was named the Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach. Although he got off to a rough start with the expulsion of 11 players in his first season, by season 2 Mike Gundy had started to turn the OSU Cowboys football program around.

Coaching Spotlight: Paul Rhoads, ISU Cyclones

Paul Rhoads is the head coach for the Iowa State Cyclones. Joining the Cyclones football program at the end 2008 season, taking over the program from Gene Chizik. Rhoads joins the Iowa State football roster with plenty of experience and fans are hopeful that this experience will translate into wins for the ISU Cyclones.

Before he pulled on Iowa State cardinal and gold, Paul Rhoads was the defensive coordinator for the Auburn Tigers for a season. Under Rhoads’ leadership the Tigers were ranked in multiple defensive categories after only 6 weeks. Prior to Auburn, Coach Rhoads was the defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Panthers. Rhoads led the Panthers to the best defense they had had in decades and helped achieve national ranking before he left. At the end of his career as defensive coordinator for the Panthers, Rhoads record book included 38 Quarterback sacks and a top 30 ranking.

Paul Rhoads will now join the Iowa State Cyclones again, after a stint as an assistant coach for Iowa State in the 90’s. His contract is for 5 years and is reported to be $5.75 million. Regardless of the details, Cyclones fans are eager to see what this experienced defensive thinking coach will do!

Longhorns Football Hype

The saying goes Everything is Bigger in Texas, and it could not hold more true for hype around Texas Longhorns football and Longhorns Football.

The Texas Longhorns Football team is one of the most competitive teams in the NCAA Division-I Big 12 Conference. The Longhorns Football program dates back to 1893 and since its start it has been a powerhouse for college football.

The Texas Longhorns Football Roster has had 50 consensus All-American players and 2 Heisman Trophy winners. As a team the Texas Longhorns have won 4 National Championship Titles and 32 Conference Championship Titles. The University of Texas at Austin is the home of the Texas Longhorns football team, the Darrell K.

Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is where all of the Texas Longhorns games take place. With a capacity of 100,119, DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium is currently the 7th largest non-racing stadium in the world and the 4th largest on-campus stadium in the United States.

New Big 12ers

Here are some of the top newcomers in Big 12 college football. Keep an eye out for these guys:

LB Will Smith

Texas Tech

QB Dayne Crist

Kansas

DT Brandon Moore

Texas

WR Trey Metoyer

Oklahoma

RB Lache Seastrunk

Baylor