Should Oklahoma Consider Hiring Bennie Wylie?
Posted on: January 18, 2014
Image from ESPN.com
With the recent hiring of coach Charlie Strong at Texas, coach Bennie Wylie quickly found himself out of a job. Coach Wylie’s title at Texas was “Strength and Conditioning Head Coach for Football”. And despite being the head S&C coach, many of the Texas faithful believe coach Wylie was never able to fully institute his philosophy because of the influence of one of Mack Brown’s long time assistants and assistant AD for strength and conditioning, Jeff Madden.
Whether that is true or not doesn’t really matter to me. What did occur to me though, was that coach Wylie, having been in a position where he’s had to work with another influential, entrenched and respected S&C coach might make a good hire at Oklahoma working alongside coach Jerry Schmidt.
I actually talked to a number of people yesterday, including a former Texas coach and some other well respected football folks in the state of Texas, about what they thought of the hypothetical idea. It seemed like I could barely get the question out without people saying “that would be a HUGE hire for OU!” or “he’s a good one!”
I don’t know how the coaching numbers would work in this case but I figured I’d throw the idea out there for y’all to think about anyway. There are obviously a lot of very different opinions about coach Schmidt; some people praise him and some people…not so much. My opinion about him one way or another really isn’t the point of this inquiry. The point is to ask whether coach Wylie could bring a fresh element to the program that would only enhance what Coach Schmidt and other coaches are doing? I think the answer is yes.
I think the new hires last year, including the hiring of Coach Tiffany Byrd, the nutritionist, were huge. The new hires brought new energy to the program, new ideas, a new perspective and they re-invigorated recruiting efforts. Coach Wylie is well-respected in the Texas community and also has ties in SEC territory. You don’t usually think of a strength coach in terms of recruiting but perhaps Wylie’s presence could help in that area as well.
I think if somehow the numbers could work, Wylie could be a great hire.
32 Comments
Isn’t there a limit of coaches that a team can staff?
Yeah, I’m not sure if there is a way they could perhaps create some kind of “quality control” position and get away with it. But really I was interested in finding out what y’all thought of bringing in a guy like Coach Wylie to perhaps add new ideas to our S&C and maybe even bolster our recruiting efforts.
Hey, if OU can pick up great people that will enhanse and move the program to an even higher level, I’m all for it. New blood and a fresh perspective are always good.
IMO, Coach Schmidt’s ego might not be able to handle the addition. Imagine if your wife or girlfriend asks if Ryan Gosling could move in and be a roommate to help save money.
lol nice.
I actually like the dude but very doubtful that he would share the spot with anyone, Shmitty included. The Tx players seemed to like him and he is tough in practice from the few vids I’ve seen
Yeah, I wondered however because from what I gather he really shared the spot with Jeff “Mad dog” Madden. Perhaps he’s used to it. And it can’t be a bad thing to end up on Coach Stoops staff even for only a short while. Coach Stoops has TREMENDOUS respect in the football world.
He could also give us some inside info on Texas 🙂
We haven’t appeared to need any inside info when it comes to busting Texas up (this last year was an anomaly haha) 😉
True that haha
Yeah, this last game still has me scratching my head and wondering, WTH??? Would loved to have TK for that game.
I have been happy with the condition of our players, we always appear to have more gas in the 4th than other teams and the addition of Tiffany was brilliant as cramping seamed to less of a problem. I’m not sure how Bennie would fit in if he’s been the head guy, He may want to have that position somewhere else. If OU wanted him and he was willing to work under or along side Schmidt then I would have no problem with it.
Yeah I think “chemistry” would be the biggest issue. No question he’d be an asset to any program that lands him. If there was a way he could co-exist with Schmitty, I don’t how it would be anything but positive.
You definitely bring him on if you can. Egos get put aside for the betterment of the team. The staff has shown the ability to adapt to change, so I don’t think it would be a problem. Money shouldn’t be a problem either….
I certainly wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea, but I also think there is about a 0.0000000000001% chance of it actually happening.
And that might even be too high.
Ego seems to be the consensus issue here and I would have to agree. It would seem to me however, that at this high level of competition EGO must be recognized as one of the primary obstacles in the way of success. As a man of God, teaching the way of salvation to many, it is very clear to me that EGO is THE primary impedance to the salvation of all men. Many do not realize this, but salvation is NOT merely the pardon of sins but unto the complete restoration and health and functioning of the whole person in their heart and psyche (or soul). Ego is merely a word used to describe the main character flaw of fallen man. In simple terms, it is an inward looking, selfishly ambitious, me before others driving force! Ironically, in it’s self seeking bent, it is also self destructive as it’s vantage point is so narrowly focused upon self that it’s vantage point is severely limited and skewed to prevent objectivity, clear thinking, reasoning and rationale and the broader scope and visions of all things relative to true success and achievement. This applies to sports no less than any other area of life and living in the world, no doubt.
A wise divorce judge once said, In the thousands of divorces cases he tried, 100% were due to ego or self centeredness on behalf of one or both parties!
Not trying to turn this into a religious forum but merely trying to establish validity to the issue at hand which is the ego of men. It is an issue we all face, to be sure. When people lose their ego’s they are freed to healthy function in their own souls and life is much, much better and much more efficient all the way around! : )
okay…
Yeah I don’t understand the point of that rant either lol.
I grew up with Bennie and ego is something I have never known him to have. He was raised by wonderful Christian parents. And he is an awesome coach with an impressive résumé. I believe he would be a great asset to any team he works for.
If it ain’t broke……..
Simple but good point Blaster. But I wonder how it could help recruiting…if you aint getting better youre gettin worse kind of thing. I think Oklahoma lost a step the past few years because we weren’t pro-active. Maybe now that we’ve got momentum we try to keep building…keep advancing…take this momentum to the mountain top. Not sure if Bennie is the right guy but something to consider.
But is it broke, not insinuating but it has seemed like a slight injury prone team for sometime now. Could just be bad luck. I’m just a spectator speculating.
I know nothing about the guy but I know we have small guys on our team.
Only if they promise not to put a yellow line on our practice field.
If Wylie has the ability to recruit top Texas talent, I’m all for it. Schmitty might not like the idea though. But hey it worked out well when Mike came back and OU lost coach V.
what is mr. broyles take on it?
I would be very interested in hearing what Mr. Broyles has to say on this subject as he is one who has been through Coach Schmidts program.
Depends on what he knows. Does he know the research that shows what better relates to higher levels of performance, strength, speed, power, and so on?
Many have criticized Schmidt for ruining many players knees because he overtrains them. I’m not sure how an outside fan would know that a certain player is overtrained, and that a knee injury was due to being overtrained. Moreover, there seems to be a bit of a mystery regarding what Schmidt actually has them do. Those two things lead me to be a bit resistant to thinking players are legitimately and measurably overtrained. Overtraining is quite hard to do to trained football players (or any trained athlete or ordinary person).
OU players don’t seem to be lighting up the combine bench press “competition.” However, in a vacuum, an outrageous bench press does not make you a good football player; power lifter, maybe. A heavy bench press can be one of many variables that, taken together, will increase one’s probability of being a successful football player.
Because I am not sure what Schmidt has the football players do, I wonder if Schmidt has them do a lot of Olympic weightlifting. In my opinion, he should. He could also have them push Stoops’ BMW, perhaps filled with 4 people, 50 meters at a time. That will make a man out of you, after you throw up.
If Mr. Wylie can increase the strength, speed, power, agility, mobility, and so on, beyond what Schmidt is doing or could do, then he should be hired.
Don’t we already have a full strength and conditioning staff? Where are you going to get the money to hire him?
Schmidt doesn’t count towards the coaches limit, does he? That’s why he can work with the players out of season in the weight room.
Each coaching staff is allowed 10 full time coaches and 2 GAs.
OU has:
BJW, Mike, Bob, Jay, Josh, Bedenbaugh, Boulware, Kish, Montgomery and Gundy. Those are the 10.
GAs: Viney and….can’t think of the other one.
Schmidt is NOT a coach that can recruit and does not count towards the 10. Wylie wouldn’t either. It’s just whether or not OU could make it work.
You have to assume our S&C staff is full (I mean, why wouldn’t it
be?). So do you get rid of someone like S&C assistant Corey Callens
to make room for a new guy? Cory was a player through the rough times
with coach Blake but then won a NC his sr. year at OU in 2000. He lost
his house in the Moore tornado in 2013.
I would say the general
consensus is that we overachieved this year (10-2 with the QB shuffle
and injuries is amazing) and then Sugar Bowl was the big cherry on top.
We must be doing something right with our current staff. Wylie may be a
nice shiny new penny on the ground but maybe already have a pocketful
of shiny pennies. The whole staff, not just the new coaches, helped us
achieve an excellent season.
If we do have a spot and it can work then sure, why not (coming full circle to your original hypothetical Super K, ha). Otherwise I’d stick with what we have. I’m sure Coach Wylie will get picked up somewhere.
I feel like the OU coaching staff has done a good job at physically developing players. While I understand that sometimes injuries are just going to happen, I would love to see a decline in the amount of injuries. I don’t know if I am just living in a Sooner bubble but it seems like we have just had more playtime robbing and season ending injuries since the mid 2000’s than other programs. Looking back it’s insane to think of what could have been without those injuries. Aside from the obvious skill player injuries like AP, Sammy B, and the Ryan Broyles that were greatly missed, the offensive line has been injury prone since 2008 I think. It’s been remarkable to me how the coaching staff has been able to continually shift the OL and continually develop talent to keep the OL alive. As any Sooner fan I would like to see no names on the injury reports.