One subtle takeaway from the "Les is more" podcast re: Gundy

at one point Gundy was talking about setting the edge and how that's still important to him (iirc, as a testament to Les's influence). he then mentioned how now his OL coach (former LSU coach Josh Henson) has convinced him that when the "5" crashes outside, instead of thinking you have to have a TE outside of your OT to help set that edge, the OT can be left on an island and when that crash outside occurs, the OT just lets him go and rides him outside and away from the play

Gundy said it "made no sense" to him but he let Henson explain it and implement it to show him that it worked

i think this small examples shows why Gundy is leading teams to elite records, Les struggled, and O is a disaster

Gundy has a philosophy but will listen to adaptations and advancements in strategy and philosophy and let his coaches implement these changes. even if these changes violate his core ethos/strategy, he is open to adaptation to either stay with changes in the game or establish new concepts that other teams have not seen

Les had a philosophy and would not listen to adaptations. however, his philosophy was still generally positive so even though it wasn't the most efficient strategy available to him, it was still positive in terms of its impact for his team. now, obviously, this allowed him to be countered and left leaks in his game, but generally a sound strategy with the proper personnel and coaching will win much more often than it loses. you just may not be elite consistently

O, on the other hand, simply lacks the mental ability to even have an advanced philosophy. if his subordinates have a new or advanced technique, he simply lacks the ability to comprehend it outright. if this system doesn't blow the doors off opponents, O is going to revert to his limitations and demand his coordinators simplify everything so that he can understand what is going on. that way, if there are issues, he can feel like he can address them. this is an absolute disaster, because not only are you easily exploitable on the field (due to simplicity), but you also (1) create tension with your coaching staff who has to implement the real changes to make your team more efficient and (2) neuter those coaches so that they are outside of their comfort zone, where instead of calling their game, they're guessing at what simplistic strategy O will understand and support