Mailbag Friday: WR Stock, ADs In Waiting and Mike Boynton’s First Month

It’s Friday, and we haven’t done a mailbag in a while. Let’s hop right in.

“Coach-in-waiting” never seems to work out well. Will “AD-in-waiting” work better? If so, why? -@jeffreyc_h

Part of the reason a coach in waiting doesn’t work out is because the head coach either stays on too long or the assistant-in-waiting feels pulled in another direction because of public pressure to coach at whatever other school is throwing a lot of money at him. In administration circles, you often don’t have that pressure. As long as Mike Holder has a good exit strategy, I think the Chad Weiberg hire has a chance to be a home run. If Holder stays on for five more years and the Gundy situation goes (even more) south, that’s when you could see it start to get a little messy.

Is our deep WR group going to hurt Washington’s draft stock? Or all WRs draft stock for that matter. @jrengel629

Good question, but I don’t think so. Players who go as high as James Washington is going to go get graded as much on measurables (tremendous upside!) as they do on-field production. NFL front offices will be aware of the fact that receiver has a bad QB or other good receivers that swipe production — the smart ones will anyway. What’s going to hurt (or help) Washington is not what he does on the field — he’s already shown enough there — but what he does with his 40 time and in the weight room during the NFL Combine. That, more than catching 70 or 50 or 90 passes from Mason Rudolph, will determine his future.

What time should I open my first Modelo today? @ChasSchoolcraft

Trick question. You shouldn’t. Open a COOP instead. #spon

This goes into the vault. Kidding. We're drinking it. Join us as the Saturday Siren sounds at Uptown 23rd locations for the first toast. pic.twitter.com/2iG6VJmesT

— COOPAleWorks (@COOPAleWorks) May 5, 2017

Is there any chance that the Big 12 Championship game doesn’t knock the Big 12 out of the playoff? @ColinDJohnston

Zero percent. Here’s how it’s going to go. Oklahoma State goes 12-0 with a 37-27 beating of OU in Stillwater in November before getting absolutely torched in the Big 12 title game in December. Either OU get in or no Big 12 team goes, and Gundy is left to condition his mullet all December and think about what could have been.

But at least the conference will have an additional $30 million!

Are we encouraged by early activity from the new hoops staff? @Brett_Moore

Yes! Mike Boynton hasn’t gotten enough credit for snagging Michael Weathers and Kendall Smith in the transfer market.

“What Kendall (Smith) will bring is an experienced backcourt player,” Weathers told Tom Dirato recently. “A kid who can play multiple positions, who’s been around the block so to speak. And I think with losing Jawun, at this point, we felt like we needed a little bit more experience there. I love our young guys, and I think they’ll all be really good, but having a guy who’s been there, who knows what it’s like to feel those pressure moments at the highest level will be something that’s invaluable for us.”

He’s also been beating down doors on the crootin trail and seems like he knows what he’s doing between the months of March and November, anyway. I have no idea if Boynton will ultimately be a success — Travis Ford looked like Roy Williams in the offseason at times — but he should at least credit for doing work up until this point. He’s also getting easier and easier to root for.