Monken, Dunn, or Wildcard for Gundy's Next OC

It sure looks like it is set up well for Mike Gundy to hire a trusted assistant in Kasey Dunn or a long-time friend and success in college and the NFL in Todd Monken for offensive coordinator.

STILLWATER -- Okay, what will it be? Will Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy annoint a long-time, highly valued assistant coach that he and athletic director Mike Holder just rescued for a second time from losing to another school? Will Gundy go back to an old friend that called the plays the last time the Cowboys were loaded offensively and went all the way to the Big 12 Championship and threatened playing for a national championship? Then as Monty Hall would say back in the day, there is door number three, which as we've learned with the Cowboys head coach, he is willing to research other levels of football to find the next hot candidate in offensive football. 

Just about any young coach or, in many cases, veteran coach would love to call plays at Oklahoma State and collect the spoils that often come along with it. Here is a list of the Oklahoma State offensive coordinators for Gundy and where it took their careers. Remember that Mike Gundy was his own offensive coordinator from 2008-09. 

Offensive Coordinator 	Years at Oklahoma State 	Next Job after Oklahoma State	Current Position
Larry Fedora	2005-07	Head Coach at Southern Mississippi	Off. Analyst at Texas
Dana Holgorsen	2010	Head Coach at West Virginia	Head Coach at Houston
Todd Monken	2002-04 and 2011-12	Head Coach at Southern Mississippi	OC at Cleveland Browns
Mike Yurcich	2013-2018	Pass Game Coordinator and QB Coach at Ohio State	OC and QB Coach at Texas
Sean Gleeson	2019	Offensive Coordinator and QB Coach at Rutgers	OC and QB Coach at Rutgers

The offensive coordinator job at Oklahoma State has been a career launcher or career rejuvenator depending on where the coach occupying the position was in his career. 

Fedora went to Southern Miss and after success there became head coach at North Carolina. He had success there as well, but was felled by some of the issues that came up in Chapel Hill and was at Texas this past fall continuing to get paid out on his contract by North Carolina. 

Holgorsen went to West Virginia as head coach and left after the 2018 season to get back to his old stomping grounds in Houston as head coach at the University of Houston I can tell you from just being there that he is more than happy.

Monken, who is now a candidate to return, has been in the NFL at Tampa Bay and Cleveland since leaving Southern Miss. A year ago, he was being interviewed by some teams for head coaching jobs in the NFL and he is well thought of. 

Monken was awesome in his time calling plays and coaching quarterbacks for Gundy. In his first stint at Oklahoma State under Les Miles, Monken coached the wide receivers and was the coach that groomed Rashawn Woods. 

In his two seasons as offensive coordinator, he had lots of weapons and produced a very explosive offense. The Cowboys averaged scoring 48.69 points and and total offense of 545.85-yards per game. The rushing/passing split was 158.62-yards rushing and 387.23-yards passing a game. Quarterback Brandon Weeden and receiver Justin Blackmon were both NFL Draft first-round selections. The Cowboys won the Big 12, beat Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, and finished ranked third in the nation. 

Monken is a strong choice if Gundy can get him.

Monken is also a mentor for Kasey Dunn having Dunn on his staff at Southern Miss. Dunn has been at Oklahoma State nine years and produced so many talented All-American receivers from Blackmon in 2011, James Washington in 2017, and Tylan Wallace in 2018. There are so many others like Josh Cooper, Josh Stewart, Marcell Ateman, Chris Lacy, and Dillon Stoner to name some. 

Dunn is a 27-year veteran coach that has coached on both sides of the football. He has coached college and NFL serving as the running backs coach for the Seattle Seahawks in 2008-09. The Idaho graduate that was a standout wide receiver and played in the CFL and NFL before starting his coaching career tight ends, wide receivers, and running backs on offense at various college stops and with the Seahawks. He has coached cornerbacks at Idaho and New Mexico. He served as a special teams coordinator at Washington State from 1998-02 and then again at Baylor in 2007. 

He has seen the game and coached it from a lot of sides. 

Door number three is Gundy going back to his computer and dialing up stats and and analytics pointing him to the next prodigee that would walk through the door and likely end up walking out with a bigger opportunity that this job has created for every person that has held it except for the most recent. Offensive coordinator at Rutgers is a step down in the eyes of anybody in college football, but it does represent going home for Gleeson and his family.

Gundy has proven that he can find good candidates and he has proven he can surprise us all with the person he picks and where he finds them. 

I'm certain Gundy won't ask my opinion, but with a team that sets the table for a potential special season. I would go with the candidates known over those unknown.