Our QB coach has more experience coaching than Applewhite.
He got lucky on UT becoming a fan favorite and rode it into job after job. He’s never really proven his offenses to be spectacular.
I agree with Dawg06 on this. No thanks when it comes to Applewhite as a HC.
His handling of the Ed Oliver situation revealed a lot about his leadership abilities. To do that to Oliver in public on national television just about killed his career at Houston. It's easy to see how he lost the team after that game.
He handled the situation the way Woody Hayes or Bo Schembechler might have handled it in 1978. But this is 2018. He could have quietly had an assistant coach speak to Ed at halftime that night and told him it was a bad look for him to wear the coat on the sidelines and that the ESPN cameras were on him constantly. And that it would be a better idea to just layer up. That's the way a good leader would have handled that situation. With any player but especially Ed Oliver. Like it or not he's different if you're Houston's head coach.
Look at the way Jimmy Johnson handled the situation when he cut a player for falling asleep in a meeting. When asked by a reporter what if would have done if it was Troy Aikman that had fallen asleep Johnson said "I would have gently nudged him and quietly whispered to him "Hey Troy wake up." That's the reality of dealing with a star player over small issues. They're just treated differently.
It's no different in the corporate world, which is how I suspect Houston booster Tilman Fertitta views this issue. When a Fortune 500 company has a big producer who walks in 45 minutes late to work once a week and says he was having breakfast with a client nobody says anything. He/She isn't going to be questioned. When the administrative assistant in the audit department does the same thing that person isn't going to be given the same leeway. The fact Major Applewhite apparently didn't know the difference in how to manage his star was a big red flag to Fertitta.
The Dallas Morning News has reported that Klingsbury turned down Tennessee, er Houston's offer to be their next head coach. Word out of Morgantown is they would not try to block Holgorsen from leaving fron Houston, nor would they raise his current salary one cent if he asked to regotiate his current deal. His tenure in Morgantown has been a disappointment, only 20 games above .500 over seven years and only one ranked team. Of course, he took them bowling six of the seven years for all you guys who think that is a good measuring stick of success. This years team was a major disappointment. Seems like those in West Virginia would be happy to lose this coach and take a chance with another hot, young coordinator.
If Houston could lure Brown from Troy that might be the way to go. Not sure he would leave Troy for Houston though. He is loaded at Troy for next season and could use that success for a P5 job after next season. Kiffin might have been a hot candidate last season, but after this season who knows? A losing season in CUSA doesn't seem likely to land you a bigger paycheck.
I'm just surprised that none of our LA Tech fans have commented on the fact that Skippy is NOT on Houston's (or anyone else's) list of coaching candidates. That tells you everything you need to know about our coaching situation. Even Sonny Dykes was good enough to make Houston's (and others) list of candidates previously.
Houston has a billionaire running this coaching search. He seems willing to spend $4-5 million+ to hire a coach. That's $4-5 million a year, not $4-5 million over 6 or 7 years. This search is way above Skip's pay grade.
Plus, and I am sure this is your point. When you fire a coach you want his replacement to be a better hire. Unless you are The University of Tennessee, all bets are off if you are Tennessee. LOL Skip may actually be a better coach than Major, but clearly Houston wants a bigger name. Time will tell if it works out for them.
On a side note, there was a junior high team across the state line in Mississippi looking for a head football coach for the varsity team. Rumor has it Skip was at the top of the list as possible hires for a while. At the last minute a "big booster" stepped in and they decided to hire one of the p.e. teachers instead. So we are safe with Skip and J'Mar for 2019.
He will be able to find more 3,4 and 5 star athletes by just looking out his window in Houston than in all of West Virginia. I am looking forward to see how he does. Plus, his hair style should blend in down there. It the second best haircut in the NCAA football, second to only to Mike Gundy. The Houston metro area has four times the population of West Virginia.
Really Captain Obvious? WVU nor Marshall relies on the state of West Virginia for players. Holgorsen's failure at WVU was his lack of ability to recruit kids from Texas to play Big 12 football at WVU. He had to rely to often on JUCO's or transfers. His recruiting was actually worse than Rodriguez and Stewart. Some of this problem was also losing Doc Holliday to Marshall, he recruited Florida so well for many years for WVU.
Would be interesting to see RichRod leave Ole Miss to try his luck again in Morgantown. Won't happen, but heads would explode if it happen.