Finally, Some Well Deserved Recognition for Gundy
STILLWATER – It is list season again, at least as far as college football goes and one that I look at each season is the Power Five College Football Coaches Rankings from the staff at CBS Sports. My old Big Eight Skywriters friend Dennis Dodd is there in fact, he is the flagship guy. CBSsports.com has all of their college football staff vote on these rankings. Almost every year I’ve been disappointed because I felt that Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy was too low.
This year is the highest that Gundy has ever been, and I feel a little better. Gundy is No. 10 and I think he should be another one or two higher. Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh is No. 9 and yes, he has a Super Bowl but that was in the NFL. Also, I would take Gundy every day of the week and twice on Sunday over Notre Dame departer and current LSU head coach Brian Kelly.
Tom Fornelli wrote the story to go along with the voting and here is what it looked like and said on Gundy.
10 Okla. St.
Mike Gundy: Just ahead of Aranda is the man who came a yard shy of beating him in the Big 12 Championship Game. This year, Gundy climbs five spots to reach the top 10, and it's a deserved bump. Gundy's accomplishments at Oklahoma State are forgotten a little too easily, but getting the Cowboys to 12-2 was a friendly reminder of what he's been able to do in Stillwater. He's one win shy of 150 at the school, and his 11 bowl victories are more than every other Oklahoma State coach in history combined. 2021 rank: 15 (+5)
We’re not going to steal all the thunder from CBS as you can go to the link above or here to see both stories (Top 25 and 65 through 26).
Nick Saban of Alabama was tops and should be. Kirby Smart of Georgia was second and that may be too high to fast. My number two was CBS number three in Dabo Swinney of Clemson. Lincoln Riley of USC was four and Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M was fifth.
Now, here is where they had the entire Big 12. Remember, the new Big 12 schools did not have their coaches ranked as they are still in the Group of Five.
| Rank | Coach | School | Comment |
| 10. | Mike Gundy | Oklahoma State | This year, Gundy climbs five spots to reach the top 10, and it's a deserved bump. |
| 11. | Dave Aranda | Baylor | Aranda was ranked 62nd last year and climbed an astounding 51 places after winning the Big 12. |
| 12. | Matt Campbell | Iowa State | Campbell is starting to deal with the repercussions of expectations. |
| 31. | Chris Klieman | Kansas State | At Kansas State for three seasons, and his worst campaign was the pandemic year in 2020. In two "normal" seasons, he's gone 16-10. |
| 35. | Sonny Dykes | TCU | I was interested in seeing where Dykes would debut, and I'm slightly surprised he starts this high. |
| 39. | Steve Sarkisian | Texas | This is one of the more confusing results of our rankings this season. After the Longhorns went 5-7, losing six of the last seven games (including to Kansas) and missing a bowl game for the first time since 2016, Sark rises seven spots in our rankings. |
| 42. | Lance Leipold | Kansas | His reward is dropping seven spots. I don't know how much more our voters expected him to accomplish in his first year in Lawrence. |
| 45. | Brent Venables | Oklahoma | I believe this is the highest a debuting head coach has ever appeared in our coach rankings. |
| 52. | Neal Brown | West Virginia | His three seasons at West Virginia have been consistent. The problem is the consistency isn't enough, as the Mountaineers have never won more than six games in a season. |
| 62. | Joey McGuire | Texas Tech | Texas Tech fans are excited about the hire of McGuire, as they're hoping his connections in the Texas high school football sphere will help lure more talent to Lubbock. |