I don't know if he's a good coach or not but he is a really nice guy. I did an event for UH boosters last year and he set it all up. We hung out a few times to plan the event and he has the respect of the entire staff, he actually seemed to me to be more of an administrator than Sumlin based on our meetings. I have a pic somewhere, I'll post it if I can find it.
Like what I'm hearing so far... http://blog.chron.com/cougars/2011/12/quick-hits-from-new-uh-coach-tony-levines-introduction-news-conference/
I'd take it with a grain of salt. Read my earlier post. We don't know who will be running the offense. Hard to say the offense won't miss a beat if there won't be any coaching continuity on the offensive side of the ball.
I wonder what his contract looks like? It seems for a guy like this who didn't have head coaching opportunities just sitting there for him, UH could put some pretty aggressive buyout clauses in there to prevent him from leaving anytime soon.
You want to hire good people first who are good coaches second. Levine and Dickey fall into this category. I don't think Levine was a left field hire. Spend 5 minutes with the guy. There was no external candidate that blew the committee out of the water. All else equal the decision was continuity. Levine was Sumlin's second in command for four years, he knows and recruited many of the players by being ST coordinator, and lastly he wants to be here. There will not be a drastic offensive shift...Levine is going to employ a spread. Defensively it appeared he is going to add a touch of himself...hit the QB. Anyone who says UH cheaped out, I call BS. This was the right guy at the right time.
Oh sorry - I was thinking more in terms of buyouts or clauses that prevent him from leaving. The advantage of taking someone like this is you can be more aggressive as a school in terms of locking him in. It seems one of UH's biggest problems is that if their coach is good, they bolt at the first opportunity, so this is a potential chance for them to solve that problem.
The talk around town is that part of what appealed to Rhodes about Levine is that he is less likely to view UH as a stepping stone... then again, it seems that virtually all of the college coaches play leap frog.
Levine is a high character guy. He won't use UH as a stepping stone. This is a BCS job now. His wife and kids have found a home. He is tired of being nomadic to advance his career. He is not in it for the money. The only job I could see Levine pursuing is University of Minnesota. He will not throw in to Arizona State, UCLA, etc. for leverage. JP is high character too. It's sad one didn't get the job.
Does it stay a BCS job though? Looking at the future Big East, it's 6 former C-USA teams, 2 former MWC teams, Rutgers, and a UConn team that's been in FBS for 5 years. I hope they keep their AQ status (actually, I hope the BCS implodes), but it's possible they don't.
I went to UH for awhile but later transferred to Texas State and graduated there. So I root for UH and watch them on TV but am not as invested in them as I am with other teams. When I saw the leaked candidates, I was surprised. It seemed like that had conducted a much more thorough search when they lost Briles to Baylor. From an semi-outsider, it looks like the team got better and became a better job, but that they set the bar lower in their coaching search. For where Texas State is at as a program, an above average (not great) FCS team with sporadic success who's transitioning to FBS, I thought their coaching search last year presented multiple worthy candidates (even though I disagreed with the final hire). For where UH is at, their potential coaches were underwhelming. Mack Rhoades called the UH job one of the best jobs in the country and that there were many quality coaches who were interested but their coaching search didn't reflect that. I think I might have a higher opinion of UH than Rhoades does. Anyway, I figured the UH fans would be pretty upset and I went to some UH fan boards to see their reaction. To my surprise, it seemed like nobody had an issue with the lack of "exciting" candidates. And the vast majority are thrilled with the promotion of Levine. Personally, it seems like a strange hire. The UH faithful were saying to just listen to the guy speak and you'd be sold in 5 minutes. I watched the press conference and listened to some of his radio interviews and didn't get it. Because I'm not as invested as them, I just heard a lot of coach speak where they heard things that sold him as being a good hire. It struck me that because he seems like a guy genuinely committed to Houston and UH that won't leave for greener pastures (take it with a grain of salt though; coach speak), that UH fans that are still hurt by Briles and Sumlin using UH as a stepping stone are giving a higher priority to a coach that will stay than one who'll win. It could end up as a really good hire because if he is able to be successful, he very may well be the guy to stick around for 10, 15, 20 years. But if he's unsuccessful, nobody will care about how loyal he is. I guess that's the risk UH was willing to take. I'm not writing off Levine. I'm just skeptical. I'm not going to be enthusiastic about the hire either and will take a wait and see approach. We'll see what happens in the bowl game, which assistants leave, which ones Levine replaces them with, and how they do the next few years.
I read the article and he seems like a stand up guy...I will admit when I first heard about the hire, I was disappointed, and was wanting someone that had a name, but days later, willing to give him a chance...Briles then Sumlin now Levine, I expect the winning to continue I tend to agree with continuity and as long as we improve the recruiting on Defense and keep the same offensive scheme, we have a chance to build upon the great 2011 season... Go Coogs!
Well we'll find out in a week if it was a good decision. I can stomach a loss, but not a piss poor effort like against USM. Let's see how prepared he has the players.
Serious question -- would Tony Levine have been considered for ANY OTHER D-1 opening in the country? More specifically, any other "BCS AQ Conference" head coaching vacancy? the answer is hell no
Different AD, Dave Maggard made those hires. As far as I know, Mack Rhoades had never hired a football coach until Levine. The jury is out on the 3 hires he's made at UH (baseball, men's and women's basketball). We'll see how it pans out but you can't give him any credit for Briles and Sumlin. I don't think you make any assumptions, win or lose. Half the staff may split after the game and that's going to be huge for a guy who doesn't plan on calling any plays. So if they win, it may be a nearly completely different staff by the time the next season starts. On the flip side, Gary Patterson at TCU was in a similar situation, being promoted to head coach after Franchione split for Alabama. Patterson and a 10-1 TCU team lost the Mobile, AL Bowl to 7-4 Southern Miss. The Patterson era has turned out pretty well though despite that first loss. UH fan would tell you that the same could've been said about Art Briles in 2003, though I would agree that he seems more like the exception than the rule. UH fan would also tell you that John Harbaugh was a ST coach before taking over the Ravens and like Levine, Urban Meyer coached Special Teams and receivers at Notre Dame before getting his first collegiate head coaching job.
[rQUOTEr]UH hires Mike Nesbitt, off. coor./Stephen F. Austin to be Cougars OC. UH also hires Jamie Christian as Special Teams Coor. from Arizona St.[/rQUOTEr]
