You really think he ran off the DC who got a huge raise to go to a different school?
Has an otherwise successful HC ever presided over the demise of a program to this degree?
- Thread starter Newpoke
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You really think he ran off the DC who got a huge raise to go to a different school?
A different school that was a National Championship contender to boot.
Okiemike31
New member
Couldn’t it be possible that Knowles was going to leave no matter what school offered?
If I were to guess he would have been ok staying but the Ohio State money was too much to turn down.
Assuming he gave us a chance to get closer and we realized that any counter on our part would just create a bidding war then no one really did anything wrong there. No one is calling him a snake like underworld so Im guessing it was somewhat fair on all sides.
What makes you think he ran off Knowles? Knowles had bigger aspirations that Holder couldn’t meet.
Okiemike31
New member
That is a guess, based on what? Giving the benefit of the doubt to Gundy who not only fell asleep at the wheel but drove our football program straight into the ground, and then insulted our fans for calling him out on it? We all got sold on cowboy culture from Gundy but if it was a real thing, where did it go?
What makes you think Knowles was gonna leave no matter what?
Stargazer
New member
This is a quote I remember Jim saying after being hired at OSU:
Reporter: “Why did you choose Oklahoma State?”
Jim: “This stop is solely based on wondering if my defense would work in the Big 12.”
In other words, he wanted a challenge — to see if he could stop the air raid and spread offenses. And he did exactly that. There’s no way he would’ve stayed at OSU. Evidence: he was hired away, lol. Pretty easy to figure out.
1. He was hired away by Ohio State. If more prestige/money/chance at a natty (which he got) was his goal, there wasn't much we could do about it.
2. The money-he got paid more than we were offering. I don't remember the specifics of his contract but the dollar amount was big enough that I didn't fault him one bit for leaving. I enjoy my job but if someone offered to bump my pay 50% to do the same thing and my current employer couldn't touch it then Im almost certainly taking the paycheck and 99% of the people on this board would do the same.
3. If the challenge was what he was after (as was quoted by you) then that's understandable. I used money as my previous example but for most of us 1.5 mil/yr vs 2 mil/yr is just monopoly money at that point. He might have been the same.
I feel like those are pretty reasonable justifications for him leaving and none of them involve his relationship with Gundy. And remember when he left he was replaced by Derek Mason. You can question his HC credentials but as a DC that was a really good replacement. The guy after him, yeah Nardo sucked something awful but Knowles immediate replacement was one of the times Gundy went out and got a dude.