I am sure in few years the revisionist will be saying that Major was pretty good HC but his OC/DC cost him his job same as Tony…malarky, both where fine gents but Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time HC’s that had absolutely no business starting out at program such as UH. If had cut their teeth at a TxSt/UNT type job I’d bet the results would have been much different
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I enjoy your comments, but I will hold on to that.
Those of you who wanted Orlando should keep in mind that D’Onofrio would have been his DC as well, and Orlando’s recommendation, in fact, is why Applewhite hired him. Turned out to be a bad decision, but it’s not as if D’Onofrio never fielded a good defense. Temple was 16th in scoring and total defense in ‘10, Miami was 14th in total defense in ‘14, and discipline was likely more of an issue at Miami as scheme. But he had some poor defenses as well. In retrospect it would have been wiser to get someone like Cauthen, a guy at a Sun Belt school with a track record of success. I agree that Applewhite was not ready from the first game, but that’s not atypical for a first-year head coach. I said we should fire Applewhite, and I am thrilled we got Holgorsen. But I don’t think he was the “disaster” some of you believe. We were #17 last year when things started falling apart due primarily to injury. We lost King and half our defensive starters over the next few games. I consider him a little average beginning head coach who may or may not have grown into a good one as Yeoman did. Average or mediocre isn’t good enough for the head football coach at UH.
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I had forgotten that we had the hurricane his first. Applewhite did have some big set backs that would have been hard for most coaches to overcome.
Herman seemed pretty ready from the first game.
Dialed in Herman and staff. Were the best group we’ve had in decades. And he’s aturd for how he handled his business dealings, but doesn’t take away from when he was good here, he was really bloody good.
Tennessee Tech? We gave up 24 points to them. They scored less against Tennessee-Martin, Eastern Illinois, SE Missouri St, Eastern Kentucky, and Wofford. He also made some dumb decisions that season, but we were so talented that more than half the starting lineup was drafted, made an NFL roster, or was named first-team all conference.
But, yes, Herman was the better coach here. I believe I said that Applewhite was “a bit below average” or words to that effect.
That happened after the games were played.
Bowl game
Orlando would have been a terrible choice; there’s a reason that he hasn’t gotten a head coaching job anywhere else. His main issue is that he couldn’t recruit and was purposely kept off the road during his time here for that reason. If Orlando had been hired, we would be in worse shape now with less talent on the roster.
If we’re looking back, we should have dropped the buy-out requirement and actually held a proper coaching search to hire the best qualified candidate. We also shouldn’t have allowed Yurachek to influence the results.
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