MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Whether it proves to be retirement or merely a sabbatical, Bob Stoops’ exit from Oklahoma leaves only four active FBS coaches with national championships.
You know their names: Saban, Meyer, Fisher and Swinney.
Obviously, none of those gentlemen have Big 12 home addresses, so which, if any, of the league’s current coaches will become the first to win a crown. We floated this in a Twitter poll including Tom Herman of Texas, Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State, and the Sooners’ new boss, Lincoln Riley. We also included a fourth combo-option that lumped together TCU’s Gary Patterson, West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen and Baylor’s Matt Rhule.
No doubt there’s some home cooking afoot from Mountaineer Nation, considering the Holgorsen collective is the poll’s runaway leader. Personally, I would’ve guess Gundy and my rationale is two-fold:
- This upcoming season’s team could be better than the 2011 version that missed playing for the national title by a whisker.
- Gundy’s multiple flirtations with other jobs makes him a candidate to land at a more prestigious program someday, where better recruiting and more national exposure could make the difference.
Holgorsen’s faces long odds if only because West Virginia has never won a national championship. Yet being in the hunt four times in the past 29 years (1988, 1993, 2005 and 2007) proved the Mountaineers occasionally produce their springboard moments. And now that they’re part of the Big 12, great seasons are more easily validated.