Mike Gundy Wins Eddie Robinson Award: Is He a Better Coach Than Les Miles?

Picking the best head coach of the year is a very difficult thing to do.

There are so many coaches out there that have done such a great job this season, all for different reasons.

But when Mike Gundy won the Eddie Robinson Award, which goes to the top collegiate coach of the year, some may have been shocked. Many believe Les Miles should have won the award because all his team's accomplishments this season.

Now the question is—did the writers get it right?

Let's find out.

Mike Gundy

Mike Gundy had a fantastic season, as his Cowboys finished 11-1 and earned a spot in the BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Their only loss of the year was an upset to Iowa State, and that was the week of the tragedy that involved Oklahoma State's women's basketball team.

They, of course, still should have won that game but you can understand why their minds may have been off football a bit.

He had one of the top offenses in the country, one that averaged nearly 50 points a contest and 386 passing yards. There was not one game this season where they scored fewer than 30 points, and they topped 50 points six times.

The defense wasn't exactly great, but who needs defense when your offense scores that many points? And the defense still forced 42 turnovers, which was the most in the country.

Overall, Gundy has done a fantastic job with this program and the Cowboys have now won double-digit games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1987 and 1988

Les Miles

What Les Miles has done with his team has been nothing short of remarkable. The Tigers are undefeated and are in the national championship.

After several key injuries and losing their starting quarterback just a week before the season started, LSU ended up defeating eight ranked teams.

Three of those were on the road, and a couple of them were on neutral sites.Only one win this entire season has been by less than double-digits.

Miles's defense has been absolutely ridiculous, as it's ranked in the top 10 of nearly every major statistical category. 

LSU has also pulled this off without a passing game at all. This team relies mainly on special teams, defense and running the football.

The passing game is ranked 105th in the country out of 120 teams.

Overall, this is Miles's second trip to the national championship in four years and possibly the Tigers' first undefeated season since 1958.

Who Deserved the Award?

If it was up to me, Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder would have won the award.

Nobody had the Wildcats winning 10 games this season, and they ended up finishing in the top 10 of the BCS Rankings. He did more with less, and that's why I would have picked him.

But since it's between Les Miles and Mike Gundy, you have to go with the Cowboys coach.

Sure, Miles did a superb job at keeping his team focused every week, despite all the distractions.

But his team is loaded on both sides of the ball. Nearly every defensive player on this team will be playing on Sundays, and they have a two-headed monster at running back.

I'm not taking anything away from the Mad Hatter, but with all that talent, you're expected to win games.

Gundy had a talented team as well but not nearly as deep as the Tigers. There are a few NFL players in there but not many.

You could make an argument for either coach, but I believe the voters got it right this year.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]