This is his only head coaching job and he’s under .500 against conference opponents and right at .500 overall or maybe a game under against all power conference opponents. That’s elite? I didn’t realize he gets credit for the wins that he was part of as a DC. So by that theory, Grinch was a great coach when he was here because the program won double digit games and made the playoff more often that not? There are hundreds of examples of coaches at the pro and college level in every sport who were great as assistants but clearly not up to the challenge of being a head coach. The jobs are completely different. You have one specific job as an assistant, even as a coordinator. The head coach makes a million decisions every day that coordinators don’t have to make.
I bet if you polled every coach in college football anonymously about Brent and they have honest answers, there wouldn’t be a single one who would label him a good game day coach. They’d absolutely praise his defense, but his game management? His decision making? His feel for the flow of a game? Even his absolute biggest supporters in the OU media point out the uncanny ability his teams have to shoot themselves in the foot in close games, and how sloppy and undisciplined they are.