He wasn't already there? What's with Applewhite? I keep hearing his name come up over and over and over in Texas circles. Is he that spectacular? Maybe I'm just insane, but I swear he was Bama's OC at one point. And had a decent role with Rice once. What the hell happened to those gigs? Now he's resigned to QB coach for Muschamp in a make or break year? Must not be very good.
I don't want to pile on Case, but it's tough to judge Major with such a limited QB. You can't even blame him for the depth chart as he wasn't in charge of QB recruiting/coaching until this season.
I don't know whether he's any good or not, if the problems were on his end, if he was handcuffed by Mack, etc. But NO ONE associated with the current program should retain their jobs, good or bad. The whole program needs a fresh start - coaches included. Major should go somewhere that he has no history and can be judged on his own merits, nothing more or less. The new head coach should bring in a whole new staff of his own choosing.
Yeah, I agree with this. Hard to say how good Major Applewhite is really. I know A LOT of UT alums who dream of Applewhite being the coach one day, but that day is certainly not going to be anytime soon. He needs to go forge his own path away from the program, and if he earns the right to come home one day and coach the Longhorns, then it will be one heck of a Triumph.
Agreed, with the exception of Searles and Wyatt. Searles has really turned around a putrid O-Line situation, and I think both the recruiting and play of the wideouts has been pretty good -- not much they can do when they have a quarterback who can't physically get them the ball.
You can definitely blame him for smashing Ash into the line again and again in a lost cause vs. BYU, however. The extent the offense was successful this year was because the O-line (and that TE) were able to execute the base running plays that were part of the Harsin-Boise power offense. The spread-hurry up principles that major tried to instill didn't do anything.
To me, it doesn't matter how good a particular coach is/was. These guys coached under Mack and have been influenced by his style/attitude/approach/etc. Everything needs to be burned down and looked at with a fresh set of eyes. The program needs a whole new culture, and that means everything has to go - baby and bathwater.
I was always worried that Major just knew too much of Greg Davis' offense. If I never see that f***ing bubble screen again, it will be a good thing.
Kinda surprising there has been no news considering all the well connected inside "sources" of the last couple months.
while i agree with Major that everyone has to go just because, well, they have to go, i will say the o-line has been very impressive in recent years. relative to the talent, i would say it was better than at any time in mack's entire tenure. the only reason cedric benson ever got going at UT was because vince young came along. before that, we never gave him crap for blocking. and if jamaal charles wasn't maybe the best "2 guys had a shot at him behind the line of scrimmage but he somehow made them miss while maintaining forward momentum and miraculously got 3 yards" runner i've just about ever seen he wouldn't have done crap either. now with our worst qb situation under mack and o-linemen who i don't believe were nearly the touted recruits a lot of the 2000's recruits were, we've actually run the ball pretty well, even when teams knew it was coming. i would love to have seen that level of coaching on the 2000's teams, especially the simms/applewhite years when our qb's couldn't scramble like crazy to save the o-line.
the bubble screen actually seems like a good play. plenty of people run it successfully against us. we just seem to either have no idea how to set up the blocking (constantly have the WR almost running into a blocker or the blocker not getting to the defender and the WR getting blown up right when he catches it) or no idea when it should be run and we just run it into defenses meant to defend it whereas other teams actually identify a good D alignment to run it against and then choose to call that play.
It really is impressive. We used to have a first round lineman drafted every year for a while there. I believe we now haven't had a lineman drafted ANYWHERE in the NFL draft since 2008. I don't know if any of the current guys are projected NFL guys, but to do what they've done after such a drought is pretty cool.
Good points on the O line guys. Searles really has done a good job considering what he was working with. It will also be sad to see Akina leave (again). That guy is one of the best position coaches of any position working in college. He can't be a d coordinator apparently, but man can he develop some DB's.
My client, who is an ASU alum, swears it's going to be Todd Graham. I'm actually surprised he hasn't been mentioned much. Edit: never mind. Just read where Patterson is contractually prevented from hiring Graham.
Patterson can't hire anyone from ASU for 5 years. That's the condition that has been floating around since he left ASU for Texas.
