Pendergast is an ass most of the time, but he’s a good writer and spot on here:
#HTownTakeOVER: Herman Accepts Texas Head Coaching Position
For any UH fan or alum that is lamenting the notion that your program has become some sort of Power Five feeder system for head coaches (Art Briles to Baylor, Kevin Sumlin to A&M, now Herman), know this — if your program is churning out head coaches that are being poached by top programs every two to three years, you probably have one of the winningest programs in all of college football. In other words, as much as today hurts, having your coach thieved every two to three years is not a bad thing to aspire to. It’s reality for not just the Group of Five schools, but for about all except maybe 20 or 25 schools that don’t qualify as “destination schools.” And while being in the Big XII might improve Houston’s chances of keeping a Tom Herman-like head coach, the likelihood is that Herman would’ve left for Texas even if the Cougars were admitted into the Big XII, so don’t lose sleep over that. Hopefully, in two or three years, some blue blood wants your next head coach, because that probably means you averaged 10 or 11 wins per season the next few years.
This is not directed at you Patrick.
So what? We are right back where we started when Briles knew he could have great success here.
What Pendergast should write about is why we keep losing Coaches to the P5’s. We lose them BECAUSE we are not in a P5. These types of comments really tick me off. At the end of the day finishing with 10 or 11 wins means absolutely NOTHING. Instead we will keep feeding Coaches to the P5’s.
Our only goal is to get back into a P5. I have no clue how Pendergast expressed his personal feelings about us being SNUBBED AGAIN. That is where he should "dig into"
Thank you for posting.
Actually, no offense, but having the same coach year after year means nothing. Double digit wins year after year means everything. They don’t play the games so that they have the same coach. They play the games to win. If we’re winning, nothing else matters. Additionally if we have a new coach each year and we still win it clearly mama out program is phenomenal and so is our leadership. In the end you want a good coach to stay so you can keep winning, if you can do that with different coaches, who cares… Additionally i go to every home game no matter who we play (yes I’d love to see higher ranked opponents obviously). And let me tell you, I’d rather be Boise in a G5 than vanderbilt in the SEC…winning is everything.
P5 and UH would become a Top 5 job no doubt about it. No one can change my mind on that. Recruiting would go up a couple of notches and the schedule would look a lot better. Better teams would come to Houston to play us. UH out of conference schedule would look probably better, kind of like this year’s which was an abnormality. With new facilities already in place and the new ones coming soon, it would be a hard job not named the NFL to leave. Money would also be greater than even right now with Tillman Fertitta leading the way. TDECU would go to 60k plus. No more NRG games unless it was an opening game like the one against Oklahoma.
BTW, not hating, but I’ve visited Austin the city and Houston is a much better place. In Houston, I can actually live here for 4 to 5 years in school, but in Texas, it gets old real quick. That’s why I compare going to Texas AM and Texas like going camping it’s fun for a few days, but afterwards, it gets old.
Folks, we are in a P5 again and I am convinced we can win the National Championship within 3 to 5 years. I will go further we can win it on a regular basis like Alabama does. We have that good of a recruiting area. The best in the entire country. Winning 10 or 11 games is great but it means zero if we are not in a P5. We will never get to the CFP while in a G5. Unless the CFP expand to at least 8 teams it will never happen.
It could have happened this year if our coach want more interested in a new job. But i dont disagree. Anyone can point out the obvious of how is much easier to get there in a P5. In fact if you’re in the ACC or B10, it’s even easier… but we clearly cannot control that…what we can control is how many wins a year we get, and how much fun the fan has at the game, and the excitement around town that getting double digit wins every year creates, etc. You really think that our leadership isn’t lobbying constantly to get into a P5? They used all the political power they had and got us at the top of the list for the B12… Short of kidnapping all their families and demanding as ransom that they let UH in, what do you suggest our leadership do that they aren’t already?
I am 100% confident that our School is doing everything that it can to get us in a P5. Pendergast comments are not genuine. The core/root of the problem here is that we are not in a P5.
P5 Schools steal our five stars recruits at will because they can.
I’ve come around significantly on this coaching change in the last couple of days. Maybe it’s my brain frantically looking for the bright side, but here it is.
Tom Herman’s performance fell off significantly in year 2 as compared to year 1. There are a number of potential reasons (distractions, injuries, etc), but one thing no one else has mentioned is that conference teams had a full year of game film on him this year. Yes our offensive line was terrible this year, but it was just as much a mish-mash last year. This year, teams had a much better idea how to keep Greg Ward bottled up. Thankfully he was a much better passer this year so he was still able to hurt people. But his rushing game was pretty well dormant most of the year. It took AAC teams a matter of 1 year to figure out the Xs and Os of Tom Herman’s offense, so maybe bringing in a new coach with a new scheme will throw the other conference teams off again.
I have a renewed passion for hating Texas. I mean, the hatred has been there for well over a decade for me now, but sometimes hatred just needs a shot in the arm. I will be passionately rooting for Texas to lose every week and lose big. I will be rooting for the entitled boosters at UT to make CTH’s life absolutely miserable. I will be rooting for CTH and Michelle to get in weekly fights with UT media. But, more to point 1 above, I give him a year of winning until the entire Big 12 figures out his offense, then back to mediocre at best. At least in conference.
Whoever our new coach is will be stepping into a really good situation. CTH brought in some great recruits and the #Ban17ofBrothers thing on Twitter has been really encouraging to see. Facilities are getting better and the fan base is larger and more excited than it has been in a long, long time. We have proven we are willing to pay for the best coaches so I have no doubt we’ll be able to find a great replacement. I would expect the winning ways to continue immediately with no grace period.
All that said, I’ve had a weekend to vent about CTH and now I’m done with him. Other than rooting passionately for his failure at UT, he’s dead to me. Onward and upward now. Go Coogs!
If the new coach and staff can keep most of the class of 2017 and add their final touches to it with the ships available, they can win big next season. Chaisson would be a huge pick up. He loves UH and Houston. Dude has gotten bigger.
There is no way you can even compare the state of the program to back when Art Briles left. It is complete night and day. We were pumped to be in the Texas Bowl back then.
The season may not have played out completely like we had wanted but there was serious talk UH was a playoff contender from the national media. UH’s stock has increased exponentially around the country. If we had handled business against Memphis and SMU we are back in a New Year’s bowl and ranked in the Top 10.
Building a program in a G5 conference is gradual. It doesn’t happen in 5 or 10 years. It’s incremental advancement. UH proved this year that we aren’t a bottom feeder like everyone else assumes. We’re marching are way to becoming the next Miami. Winning 9 or 10 games, taking advantage of winning big games against highly ranked teams makes us more attractive for a P5 invite in the future. They can’t base all of our successes on one man.
I can’t tell anyone what to write or how to think, but I think 2002 Coog said it best. It’s time to move on. I don’t care about, nor care to follow our last coach. I can’t wait to see what the future holds, and I’m excited to welcome a new regime. My time will be devoted to the guys who want to be here. Also, just because we have been treated like a stepping stone job in the past, does not mean the future will be the same. You just never know. I know people always refer to Chris Peterson at Boise, but it can happen here too. I also believe that we will be p5 very soon. We are fortunate to have an excellent president that is committed to winning. I also love having Tilman in our corner. A student of mine just told me we have a 15 game home winning streak and it’s the longest in the country. Not sure if it’s true, but I know we have won a bunch of ballgames at home. There are plenty of great coaches just waiting to take over at Houston. The future is bright.
You miss my point Grant. Sorry if I was not clear. Here are the facts.
We got back to the top or National relevance with three Coaches.
Briles
Scumlin
th
Remember, if we had won our game against USM? I like everyone else I still have not stomached that one.
We would have gone to the BCS. So to say th has reach new heights that is not correct. Furthermore Case was in the running for the Heisman. What he did that was better was that he SOLD our program better than scumlin or Briles. I will give him that. He is a master snake oil salesman. I will go further that the three losses that we had this year and maybe even last year’s were directly connected for him to “cheat” behind our back. Again, going after the South Carolina job in the midst of an undefeated season is less than classless. Just like this year he knew what was at stake.
I am now convinced without a doubt that we knew then that it would be impossible to keep him. He used us as a springboard. How you ask? He looked back at Briles and scumlin and he knew that he could benefit greatly from our recruiting gold mine. That’s what Briles, Scumlin did before jumping ships.
It is highly ironic that th benefited from Levine’s recruit and had a better record last year than this year.
Was he a great Coach for us? How do you explain losses against UConn, Navy, SMU and Memphis?
How do you explain three great wins against FSU, OU and Louisville? A great Coach wins against good, great and middle of the road teams. Did he?
By the way Miami was an independent so we can’t compare to them. Actually we did when we were an independent and then went to the SWC that we dominated. Remember when we played against Miami with Andre Ware? What was our National ranking? That’s right and under a bs probation mind you.
The theory that it takes years to build a G5 program really means squat, nothing unless we are assured to get into a P5.
I am 100% confident that our leaders are doing everything that they can to get us there. th bailing on us (very politely expressed) set’s us back…AGAIN
Pendergast did write an article after the fact lambasting the Big 12 for not adding us. He had written quite a few during it extolling our virtues as to why we should be added. We all kind of got angry with him since he was one of the main reasons Herman cut off 610. Looks like he wasn’t wrong about Herman though. Sean seems to be on our side and thinks we should be in a P5.
Saw that Herman’s wife is back to getting in arguments on twitter with Nick Wright and John Lopez. Got a feeling there will be more of that in the future.
For the record, since the 60’s, my favorite 5 teams on Saturday have been: UH, who ever is playing the Irish, who ever is playing Oklahoma, who ever is playing Penn State and most of all, who ever is playing Texas. UH stays at the top of the list, but TU is now a definite # 2 . . . . .
if your program is churning out head coaches that are being poached by top programs every two to three years, you probably have one of the winningest programs in all of college football. In other words, as much as today hurts, having your coach thieved every two to three years is not a bad thing to aspire to . . . . . Major problem with this is you risk loosing good recruits every two or three years, while schools with consistent coaching have great recruiting classes every year . . . . .
Of course I remember that game against Southern Miss. My point is that we didn’t win that game. You might recall we played in the TicketCity Bowl. That’s a farcry from the Peach Bowl with a huge win against a Top 10 team in front of the entire country. I know the systems are different but that win is what really got most of the country talking about UH.
Go look at who we played those years under Briles and Sumlin. That 2011 year we played a very light schedule except for Southern Miss. We’ve gone 5-0 ranked teams, 3 ranked in the Top 10 in the past two seasons. TH definitely raised the profile of UH higher then where we were when Briles left. Nobody nationally cared when we won a C-USA conference championship. Go look at all the chatter surrounding our coaching hire. There wasn’t any of that after Briles or Sumlin. People nationally are talking about us as one of the best open jobs in the nation.
I don’t know entirely how much the distractions he caused affected the team. He lost two really bad games during his tenure (SMU & UCONN). How many bad games did Sumlin and Briles drop? We’ve Coog’d it plenty of times over the years.
Of course he used us to springboard himself up. That’s what almost every coach in the country is trying to do. He had no ties to the university. He wants to win championships. Unfortunately the system favors the haves to the point where Texas offers him maybe the best chance to do so of any job in the country. We all hate UT but it’s the truth.
This is a definitely a setback. The difference is the University is now making real investments in the program with better facilities. Houston is a very attractive job. We need to be prudent with the hire and not be too scared to be jilted again when we graduate another coach. Look at our legacy: Briles at Baylor (before he was fired), Sumlin at aTm, Herman at Texas, Holgerson at WVU, Kingsbury at Tech. Coaches see they can win and win right away. They’ll want to come here. No one is laughing at us.
Building a program with real staying power takes time. I remember when everyone was so happy to go the Liberty Bowl and the Armed Forces Bowl. Now we’re saying that’s a down year. That’s real progress. We aren’t pleased anymore just to reach Bowl eligibility. The program is definitely in a much better place today then when Briles or Sumlin left.