He can recruit Texas. He can run an offense. Can he be Tom Herman 2.0 (i.e. the CEO)? Can he put together a defense? Two big questions.
Miles has won. Kiffin is the best offensive coordinator in college football and an exceptional recruiter. He failed as a young coach. I don't doubt Kiffin's ability to coach at all. The concern with him is that he is a prick and has had off the field issues. Applewhite is a good offensive coordinator and that is about it. He has intangibles that may translate, he was running the offense for several major programs at a young age, he was the starting QB for an elite program and he was knocked on his ass 4-5 years ago and recovered very well. So there is a lot of uncertainty with Applewhite. He has his strengths and we will see how it plays out. I know a lot of people in college football believe that Applewhite has taken several steps forward as a man and possibly as a coach.
I hope Tilman gives Orlando a ridiculous, borderline HC raise, just to keep Orlando from going to UT. We need him, and sticking a needle in Tom's eye would be icing on the cake.
It's always a concern when a school just promotes one of the assistants. They can hire anyone in the entire country and they have concluded that the very best coach available just happens to already be at UH. I'm not saying Applewhite is a bad hire, I would probably pick him over Kiffin. I'm just wondering if Applewhite is the very best they could do. However, picking Applewhite probably makes the current players happy, and will probably be popular with players in the upcoming recruiting class. So, there are certainly advantages of hiring someone from within the program.
It's certainly cheaper to promote a coordinator and keep your assistants that don't leave to UT instead of buying them all out and hiring a new staff. Not nearly as bad but seems like the same posturing that Boren did with big 12 expansion. Again, not nearly as bad but feels similar. Anyway, I think it's a good hire and I'm very happy for Major. I'm obviously bias though.
It's really interesting how UH's tentacles are all over the 40 acres now, and vice versa. Could be the birth of a new age in the relationship between the two schools.
Terrific hire. Really feel like we hit a homerun here. I prefer him over Kiffin and it isn't close. 38 years old and has served as OC under Saban, Mack and Herman. Playcalling isn't great but the work he did with Ward was awesome. He needs to hire a great playcaller as OC. Seems like a smart guy with very strong recruiting ties in the state (former star QB at UT who has coached at Rice, Texas and Houston).
Before anyone slams the hire why don't you wait to see who his coordinators will be along with the rest of his staff.
Disappointing step backwards for the program in terms of credibility and visibility. But hope floats. Applewhite isn't a total bum. He's just not G5. The drawbacks are the media won't be talking about applewhite and the program each week, there is less name recognition when recruiting, the committee certainly won't give us any free eye test credit like they would have with Miles and Kiffin at the helm. But I reckon we get 4 years assuming the buyout is substantial. That's not big on my list. But If the kids like him, they'll stick around. I do think it's a better hire than Orlando though as traditionally we've been able to recruit the athletes to outscore opponents, and that will be the focus. Think we are still the best team in Texas so I'm optimistic this team will get it done.
I imagine that Orlando was named interim HC to buy some time and avoid losing him immediately to Texas. I hope he sticks around for another year, but I wouldn't blame him for wanting to move on. As for Major, I can't say I was pulling for the guy. I'll defer to the administration's judgement as they obviously know what they're doing. The most important thing for me was to keep the kids happy and hold onto the recruits. Having them walk would be seriously damaging.
In order for that to happen UT would have to win six games, and that seems to be a BIG problem for them as of late.
