Name the best assistant coach in OU football history...

[K2C Sooner]

Again, another subjective post. I know most will say Switzer and you're right. That's not what I'm looking for here.

Name some others.....(Plaino and Senior?)

I'm going with Larry Lacewell......Who you got?

 

[veritas59]

Gary Gibbs.

 

[sooner_mike]

Gary Gibbs.

Without a doubt.

 

[Soonersincefitty]

Got to go with the wild man, Bobby Proctor. DB coach from '73 to '93.
Dude was a freak.
He'd run down the sideline berating a player for a bonehead move...then run down the sideline promising to name his next born after that player.

Really colorful guy.
In fact, when I bought a ticket, that was one thing I'd look forward to. The antics of BP.
Legendary to me.
Bobby Proctor.

 

[Medic007]

Cale Gundy. In these days of parity, for him to haul in star RB after star RB is amazing. Two of his backs have led the NFL in rushing. And he's got more in the stable. RB hasn't been a question mark since he arrived. Not once.

 

[Senior Sooner]

fitty beat me to naming Bobby Proctor...My Unsung Hero...He put 110% into it, and left it ALL on the field...Bobby CARED about his boys...

Of course 'The Little Round Man', Gomer Jones, Bud's Second Banana was memorable, too, but I don't remember such a 'Fire in the Belly' Mentality that the one Bobby had...

 

[Soonersincefitty]

fitty beat me to naming Bobby Proctor...My Unsung Hero...He put 110% into it, and left it ALL on the field...Bobby CARED about his boys...

Well, as per usual...you have exquisite taste.

 

[K2C Sooner]

fitty beat me to naming Bobby Proctor...My Unsung Hero...He put 110% into it, and left it ALL on the field...Bobby CARED about his boys...

Of course 'The Little Round Man', Gomer Jones, Bud's Second Banana was memorable, too, but I don't remember such a 'Fire in the Belly' Mentality that the one Bobby had...

I was hoping you mentioned Gomer. I would love to hear some stories on the guy. I was pretty young when he took over for Bud. He was a longtime asst. as I remember.

Plaino?

 

[CTOkie]

Gomer Jones during Wilkinson's time.

 

[Oklabama]

Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer (tie)

 

[CTOkie]

Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer (tie)

You nailed the best answer, Oklabama. By far.

 

[veritas59]

You nailed the best answer, Oklabama. By far.

I wasn't aware that Bud was ever an assistant at OU

 

[Oklabama]

I wasn't aware that Bud was ever an assistant at OU

Jim Tatum hired Bud and Bud became head coach when Tatum left the next year for Maryland. Bud was 31 and began rewriting OU football history.

 

[Senior Sooner]

I wasn't aware that Bud was ever an assistant at OU

Yep...Bud was Assistant for one year...It didn't work out...
Coaching career
Wilkinson briefly worked for his father's mortgage company, then became an assistant coach at Syracuse University and later back at his alma mater, Minnesota. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he was an assistant to Don Faurot with the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team and served as a hangar deck officer on the USS Enterprise. Following World War II, Jim Tatum, the new head coach at the University of Oklahoma, persuaded Wilkinson to join his staff in 1946. After one season in Norman, Tatum left the Sooners for the University of Maryland. The 31-year-old Wilkinson was named head football coach and athletic director of the Sooners.

 

[BillyRay]

Jim Tatum hired Bud and Bud became head coach when Tatum left the next year for Maryland. Bud was 31 and began rewriting OU football history.

Wow I wasn't aware of that either. Clearly I need to brush up on my OU football history.

 

[ecbearcat]

Again, another subjective post. I know most will say Switzer and you're right. That's not what I'm looking for here.

Name some others.....(Plaino and Senior?)

I'm going with Larry Lacewell......Who you got?

Outside of Barry, not even close. It's Bud Wilkinson

 

[Senior Sooner]

Wow I wasn't aware of that either. Clearly I need to brush up on my OU football history.

Something to be said for Seniors...Our Short-Term Memory SUCKS, but when it comes to Long-Term, we still 'got it'...

Personally, some of the things that I forget amaze me, but so do some of the things that I remember...Everything's a Trade-Off...

 

[CTOkie]

It's kinda sad that Gomer Jones and Gary Gibbs were unsuccessful in maintaining the legacies of the two HOF coaches they followed.
But without Jones' failure, there's no Jim MacKenzie....which means no Chuck Faibanks followed by Switzer.
Without Gibbs' failure, there's no Schnellenberger/Blake debacle....which led to the hiring of Stoops after the 1988 season.
I will always wonder how Gibbs would have done without the weight of probation and the felonious deeds of a few players hanging over his program. I am not sure any other coach could have flourished at OU in the 4-5 years following Switzer's forced resignation. Gibbs inherited a very "dirty diaper".

 

[veritas59]

Learn something new every day.

But I'll still stand by Gary Gibbs as the best assistant ever. Not sure how you could say a guy (even the great Bud) was the best assistant ever when he only served in that role for one year. If none of those guys had ever gone on to be head coaches, Gibbs' name might be the only one mentioned. He was a monster defensive coordinator and was coveted around the country-remember the hand wringing when USC was coming after him? His defenses in the mid 80's were phenomenal. Gibbs may be the most under-appreciated coach we've ever had.

JMIO

 

[JConXtsy]

Mike Leach

 

[CTOkie]

Learn something new every day.

But I'll still stand by Gary Gibbs as the best assistant ever. Not sure how you could say a guy (even the great Bud) was the best assistant ever when he only served in that role for one year. If none of those guys had ever gone on to be head coaches, Gibbs' name might be the only one mentioned. He was a monster defensive coordinator and was coveted around the country-remember the hand wringing when USC was coming after him? His defenses in the mid 80's were phenomenal. Gibbs may be the most under-appreciated coach we've ever had.

JMIO

Great post.

 

[owenfieldreams]

leaving out Bud and Barry, in my mind you have to look at the total resume and if that's the standard, Jimmy Johnson is hands down the best assistant to ever coach at OU.

 

[Oklabama]

Learn something new every day.

But I'll still stand by Gary Gibbs as the best assistant ever. Not sure how you could say a guy (even the great Bud) was the best assistant ever when he only served in that role for one year. If none of those guys had ever gone on to be head coaches, Gibbs' name might be the only one mentioned. He was a monster defensive coordinator and was coveted around the country-remember the hand wringing when USC was coming after him? His defenses in the mid 80's were phenomenal. Gibbs may be the most under-appreciated coach we've ever had.

JMIO

My initial post on the subject was just a reminder that two of our greatest coaches were assistants once upon a time, but they had to be pretty damn good assistants to get the team handed to them at their young ages. As Senior's post relates, Bud was not only named head coach but athletic director as well. I didn't know that but that's pretty impressive. For me, Barry was the greatest simply because he had the vision and deep perception to see where triple option football was headed........and he did make sure that Gary Gibbs stayed at OU when the west coast schools came calling. Gibbs was the best pure assistant, hands down. And, he was a very nice guy to boot.

 

[Oklabama]

leaving out Bud and Barry, in my mind you have to look at the total resume and if that's the standard, Jimmy Johnson is hands down the best assistant to ever coach at OU.

I don't remember what Jimmy accomplished for OU, but maybe that's not the question. I just read it that way.

 

[owenfieldreams]

If you narrow the focus in terms of duties there are a lot who were very good at what theit prime responsibility was. Jerry Pettibone was named the top recruiter in the country when he was here. Warren Harper was a heck of a LB coach. Gene Hochevar a great O-line coach. Proctor has already been named. There's Rex Norris and Buck Nystrom. Going way back wasn't Pete Elliot on our staff?

 

[K2C Sooner]

If you narrow the focus in terms of duties there are a lot who were very good at what theit prime responsibility was. Jerry Pettibone was named the top recruiter in the country when he was here. Warren Harper was a heck of a LB coach. Gene Hochevar a great O-line coach. Proctor has already been named. There's Rex Norris and Buck Nystrom. Going way back wasn't Pete Elliot on our staff?

I'm surprised I haven't heard these names.....Merv Johnson and Galen Hall.

 

[CTOkie]

Switzer's role in OU installing the wishbone offense two weeks prior to the 1970 Texas game was perhaps the most significant contribution (and gamble) by any OU assistant coach....ever...and he recommended it after watching films of the 1968 and 1969 Texas teams and believing that OU's personnel could run the wishbone even better due to the superior speed of OU's backs. All that decision did was save Fairbanks' and his staff's jobs and made possible OU's second great dynasty.

 

[Soonersincefitty]

Switzer's role in OU installing the wishbone offense two weeks prior to the 1970 Texas game was perhaps the most significant contribution (and gamble) by any OU assistant coach....ever...and he recommended it after watching films of the 1968 and 1969 Texas teams and believing that OU's personnel could run the wishbone even better due to the superior speed of OU's backs. All that decision did was save Fairbanks' and his staff's jobs and made possible OU's second great dynasty.

Yep, and if I've heard it right, the King really had to put the hard sell on Fairbanks of the virtues of the triple option. Fairbanks had to be convinced.
That and a few thousand 'Chuck Chuck' bumpers stickers around Norman helped to close the deal.

 

[Soonerboy 1]

Ou played Texas in 67 was the game I remember. We stopped Texas late and made them punt. With abou 6 minutes left we took over at our 27.First play Owens breaks though a huge hole and goes 50 yards.
Had a 10 yard head start and was brought down on texas 25. Vachon missed a chip shot field goal and Ou lost. 9-7. If Ron Shotts had been in he would have scored with that big of a Headstart. Cost us a natty.

 

[owenfieldreams]

We were already running the triple-option but Mildren was not a good enough passer to make the Houston Veer work.

 

[Oklabama]

Ou played Texas in 67 was the game I remember. We stopped Texas late and made them punt. With abou 6 minutes left we took over at our 27.First play Owens breaks though a huge hole and goes 50 yards.
Had a 10 yard head start and was brought down on texas 25. Vachon missed a chip shot field goal and Ou lost. 9-7. If Ron Shotts had been in he would have scored with that big of a Headstart. Cost us a natty.

No doubt the loss to Texas was a stinger, but winning the Orange Bowl against a "claimed" national championship team, Tennesee Vols, was sweet given the way we lost there in 1963. 1967 is one of my favorite non-championship years.

 

[owenfieldreams]

That '67 game should have been over at halftime.OU squandered at least 3 opportunities inside the Horns RZ. This was the game that illicited DKR's famous 1/2 time quote..."boys, there's a hell of a fight going on out there. Don't you think it's time we got in it"

 

[CTOkie]

Ou played Texas in 67 was the game I remember. We stopped Texas late and made them punt. With abou 6 minutes left we took over at our 27.First play Owens breaks though a huge hole and goes 50 yards.
Had a 10 yard head start and was brought down on texas 25. Vachon missed a chip shot field goal and Ou lost. 9-7. If Ron Shotts had been in he would have scored with that big of a Headstart. Cost us a natty.

Vachon missed four field goals in that game, after hitting on four the year before (1966) which won the game for OU 18-9.

 

[Senior Sooner]

If you narrow the focus in terms of duties there are a lot who were very good at what theit prime responsibility was. Jerry Pettibone was named the top recruiter in the country when he was here. Warren Harper was a heck of a LB coach. Gene Hochevar a great O-line coach. Proctor has already been named. There's Rex Norris and Buck Nystrom. Going way back wasn't Pete Elliot on our staff?

Pete Elliot WAS an assistant for Bud, but moved Up in the fast lane...

After working as an assistant under Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma, Pete Elliott was the coach at Nebraska in 1956. (At 29, he was the youngest Head Coach in US.)

He coached at California for the next three seasons and took a team led by quarterback Joe Kapp to the 1959 Rose Bowl, which California lost, 38-12, to Iowa.

He went on to coach an Illinois team featuring linebacker Dick Butkus, the future Chicago Bears star, to a 17-7 victory over Washington in the 1964 Rose Bowl.

After seven seasons at Illinois, Elliott resigned in 1967, together with the head basketball coach, Harry Combes, and his assistant, Howard Braun, following revelations that some football and basketball players had received small but illegal payments from a fund put together by alumni boosters.

 

[sybarite43]

If I remember, they interviewed Tatum and Wilkinson before hiring Tatum who was already a successful coach. Bud impressed them so much that some wanted to hire him instead of Tatum, and they were more committed to retaining Bud than Tatum. This is probably why Tatum lasted one year. Bud was the image that they wanted.

I think our three best assistants were offensive coordinators: Bud, Barry, and Leach. They were the ones who changed things to make OU superior, at least for a time. I think Merv Johnson has to be considered because he built those powerful lines. I don't know that we have had a defensive coach that was a difference-maker on his own. Gibbs and Proctor were good, butt a notch below what we have had on offense.

 

[ecbearcat]

Kittle

 

[veritas59]

Kittle

haha

 

[glmays11]

Switzer's role in OU installing the wishbone offense two weeks prior to the 1970 Texas game was perhaps the most significant contribution (and gamble) by any OU assistant coach....ever...and he recommended it after watching films of the 1968 and 1969 Texas teams and believing that OU's personnel could run the wishbone even better due to the superior speed of OU's backs. All that decision did was save Fairbanks' and his staff's jobs and made possible OU's second great dynasty.

Barry's embrace of the black atheletes and speed are his greatest achievements. His wishbone attack just ran by everybody. Texas may have invented the bone, bit Barry put speed into the equation like no one else. Bear Bryant copied him. Greg Pruitt's pure speed changed thinking. From then on, Speed was the first consideration.

 

[Soonersincefitty]

That was the mindset for a long time. "We'll trade size for speed every time"
Nowadays, you can have both.
Depree, a bunch of others have eclipsed 210, 220 lbs. and still run a solid 4.4 time. Awesome.

A good time to be a CFB fan.

 

[K2C Sooner]

Barry's embrace of the black atheletes and speed are his greatest achievements. His wishbone attack just ran by everybody. Texas may have invented the bone, bit Barry put speed into the equation like no one else. Bear Bryant copied him. Greg Pruitt's pure speed changed thinking. From then on, Speed was the first consideration.

Emory Ballard from Texas A&M invented the bone or at least that's what I read.........