Give him the title "assistant head coach" and a big pay increase. If we can't keep Tom from leaving, we can try to keep his #1 lieutenant.
Yup that's what Foster got to stay so we'll see. Texas mod from Scout who is pretty dialed in said that the Texas OC/DC is a done deal, won't say who or when but could be a hint of who it's not if UH has really not made a decision.
Why would Orlando stay? Didn't Kiff already screw over Chavis? I suppose every situation is different, but I'd be weary of him if I was Orlando.
I'm biased but unless Orlando gets a crazy lucrative HC job, he should stay for another year. All the P5 jobs are taken and there will surely be some new openings next year. Plus he's familiar with these kids and Ed Oliver will continue to help him look like a genius.
So it looks like the wife is an upgrade too. Maybe a +2 or +3 over Herman. I hadn't really paid attention until now. But worth paying attention to her!
I doubt Orlando would be able to move from DC of UH to HC of a P5 job. I think if he has head coach aspirations, he'll probably want to move to DC at a P5 school. So far, UH is the highest profile job he's had in his career.
Saban would much rather have Kiffin land a head coaching job like UH than to have him him go be OC at LSU for his good buddy Orgeron. Saban knows Kiffin would bring all of his Bama knowledge to Baton Rouge and would be somewhat of a thorn in his side. This keeps Kiffin away from LSU/SEC and Saban can just promote Sarkisian to OC. And Lincoln Riley was the closest thing to Herman/Sumlin and I thought they might go his direction but, like Nook said, he's only 33 and supposedly wasn't a fan of the large buyout. He would've bolted just as quickly as Herman if he had been successful. Les Miles? He has an impressive resume but what would the offense look like?
Orlando is currently the highest paid assistant in the G5. He could absolutely land a HC gig at a lower end P5 school next year.
Les Miles refuses to change his offense. That is the reason he is not in the running for the Purdue job, which he was the leading candidate when it open. You cannot when with his offensive style in college anymore. Even Alabama has updated their pro-style offense...with great results.
Lane Kiffin was not a safe hire, never close to being hired "Lane Kiffin did not show me anything that Major Applewhite did not show me," Fertitta said. "Sure, he's been a head coach and he's been an OK head coach. But I can tell you this: [Kiffin] was not a safe hire." Asked whether Kiffin was ever close to becoming Houston's coach, Fertitta said: "Never. He was no closer than anybody else. Those [stories about him being close] are all put out by his agents, because that's the way they play the game." In response to reports that Kiffin was put off by Houston's desire to put a steep buyout clause in the next coach's contract to make it difficult for the coach to leave after two seasons -- as former coach Tom Herman did in order to accept the head position at Texas -- Fertitta said that wasn't the case and that Kiffin had assured him he would stay at Houston for an extended period if hired. "He said 'Write the contract the way you want it,'" said Fertitta, who also is a prominent booster for the school's athletic program. "Lane Kiffin looked me in the eye and he knew when he sat down at that table that he was going to go with the contract that I put in front of him with the buyout that I wanted in front of him. And we never even got there." Fertitta also expressed concern with Kiffin's potential offensive and defensive coordinator choices and lack of ties to the Houston area. Applewhite's familiarity and relationships with Texas high school football coaches and the continuity his hire would provide were major factors in the decision to choose him over Kiffin, Fertitta said. "The Texas high school football coaches bombarded our athletic director [Hunter Yurachek] and said: We want our kids to play for Major Applewhite," Fertitta said. "Here's a guy that's been on the big stage, he was the quarterback at the University of Texas, he has a great relationship with the coaches and high school football in Texas. Lane does not. That was an 'X' against Lane compared to Major. "Continuity in the program, the kids, the recruits today playing wanted Major Applewhite. They let it be known. It was just one thing after another that had steamrolled to Major." Fertitta said he interviewed Kiffin twice and admitted that when Houston's coaching search started, he did not originally intend to hire either of the two internal candidates: Applewhite or defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, who was named interim head coach when Herman left. Applewhite, Kiffin, Orlando, former LSU coach Les Miles and current Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley all interviewed for the job. "I'll be 100 percent honest with you. When this started, I thought that we needed to go out and get a name-brand coach, because, to me, it's all about brands," Fertitta said. "Nobody understands that better than me. And I wanted the University of Houston to stay relevant, OK? I think Les Miles is a fine coach and he's going to be a great coach for somebody, and I think the same thing of Lane Kiffin. I was very impressed. But when I looked at the whole picture and totality, I truly think in my heart -- and so did everybody else on the committee think -- that Major Applewhite was the right fit."
I didn't realize Fertitta was the one actually doing interviews. That's weird, man. Have fun with that. Lulz.
TJF's comments make me think they never had any intention of hiring Kiffin or Miles. I don't buy the HS coach explanation. Miles doesn't have any trouble recruiting Texas or the Houston area.
Yeah, is that normal? Seems odd. I know boosters have influence obviously, but I didn't think they conducted the interviews.
