Most of our fan base first year of supporting the program came after the 2015 season.
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Easily.
Iāll use the coaches since Iāve been a fan of UH as my argument.
Sumlin- he won 8 games year 1 here taking over Art Briles team that won 8 games. In Sumlinās first season he knocked off 2 ranked teams and won his bowl game. I knew he would put UH over the map.
Levine- Took over a team that went to the CUSA title game that was one win away from a bcs bowl. I know he lost Case Keneum and several other stars but his opening loss to texas st and the fact he fired his oc after 1 game told me we going to be in trouble with Levine as HC.
Herman- no need to explain what he did for our program year 1
Applewhite- the fact we have talent on this team from the 9 win team Herman coached before he left is all the evidence we need. Applewhite has made our offense worse and its the lowest scoring team we have had in a LONG time.
Applewhite isnāt getting fired if he wins 8 games next year. Itās possible at 7 but I still think heād get another year. Iād say coin flip if he wins 6 and makes a bowl. Less than that and heās likely gone. I just think heās getting 3 years unless next year is really bad. JMO
That said, I think his seat is warm at less than 9 next year.
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If we were a rebuilding team I would agree. I should have said that in my last post. We clearly are not. We have no time to wait for Applewhite to make this team legit. Itās about continuity and building on the foundation Herman set for us before P5 conferences start up expansion talks again. He really do not have an excuse either to not make the conference title game next season. The talent is here to constantly be in the aac title game.
We clearly were.
Iām saying what I think will happen and not what I want.
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Nope you cant use that argument that we lost those players. Iām talking about record wise. If Applewhiteās situation was like the one Chad Morris inherited at SMU after June Jones or the one Frost inherited at UCF after OāLeary then yeah I would give him the benefit of the doubt but it isnāt.
Next year is pretty simple, it boils down to the offensive strategy. I think the record is pretty accurate score on CMA. A bit above complete mediocrity. Now I think we all agree that is nowhere near good enough. Lots of things have already been posted so Iāll try not to rehash too much.
The Dv will once again be good enough for the most part, albeit looking like crap because of the prevent zone . Though I suspect we will have a huge step back post Ed Oliver because the man just covers up a ton of weaknesses. But thatās 2019 not 2018.
Major in game as mentioned has been fine in terms of clock management and decisions. Besides not going for it against Memphis I havenāt pulled my hair out about those. His in game adjustments are what needs work. Iād also like to see a big drop in penalties.
The bar for me is 9+ wins and at minimum an appearance at the title game along with a sizeable statistical improvement in the offense. I think that is reasonable because it shows good improvement and he made the right OC hire. If he falls short Iām good with ratcheting the heat on his seat up to a 85% or higher of getting canned. He deserves a chance to improve but not enough of a chance to let apathy set in to the program.
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I donāt think you know what a rebuilding year means.
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So, I keep coming back to the four plays, unrelated to coaching and 100% related to player execution, that are the difference between 7-5 and 11-1.
- McDowellās fumbled (stripped) punt vs TTU
- Postmaās late fumble vs Memphis
- T. Williams not tackling Encalade vs Tulane
- Kingās pick six vs Fresno (this oneās hard as it was a great defensive play, but DK did force the throw)
Not saying CMA doesnāt need to improve, just saying that even with all of the bad play calling, we were only four plays away, imo.
Frost took UCF from 0-12 to 13-0 in two yearsā¦not implying CMA has to go 13-0 but if heās a good HC heāll get to top of the AAC. Why should UH accept mediocrity, and that is what 7-5 or 8-4 is at UH. The days of accepting mediocrity are in the rear view mirror. Have to win big and win NOW, we all know how fans in Houston are front-runners. To not do so is taking huge risk of getting left out again when next round of realignment happens IMO. There are no excuses to not be at the top of the AAC every year. Sure youāll have that year from time to time where injuries just decimate the team. UH IS the top G5 program in the most fertile recruiting ground in US. Facilitiesācheck, locationācheck.
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Thatās assuming Tech and Fresno donāt change their defensive strategy when we scored our last touchdowns. Of course they wanted to stop us but the clock was also their friend. They didnāt want us to score fast enough to get the ball back. Things would have changed had they not been 2 score games inside of two minutes.
Also, I can come up with two plays that would have put us at 5-6. The Arizona QB missed a wide open short touchdown pass and we converted a 4th and forever against USF. We werenāt unlucky this year. We finished 3-4 in games decided by a score. Two of the losses would have required an onside kick which rarely happens. No one goes 7-0 in games decided by one score without a lot of luck.
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I clearly know what rebuilding is.
Good coaches have good seasons regardless of who they lie year over year.
Briles lost RG3. The next year they were better. Then they lost more people and were better.
You never hear great coaches talk about last yearās players. Peterson at Boise was consistently great. Since he arrived at Washington they have been going upward.
And when great coaches arrive at mediocre programs all of a sudden their players look great.
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The first part of this is severely flawed, the latter is absolutely correct.
In no way is Applewhiteās first year here remotely similar to Levine. At no point this year was there a loss as bad as Texas St at home in 2012. Not one even close. Additionally, the loss to SMU in 2016 was as bad as the Tulsa loss this year.
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A very reasonable response.
Itās kind of funny - on the one hand at 10+ wins CMA will be aggressively pursued by P5 programs offering him ~$4+ million/year (and likely agree to pay his buy-out) while at 7-8 wins, some UH fans want to see him fired.
So I guess that means that according to some weāll have to see UH win precisely 9 games next year to see him stick around.
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Applewhite isnāt getting fired at 7-8 wins and isnāt getting $4M+ at 10 wins.
FACT: The last two highly successful AAC Coaches (10+ wins & a Peach Bowl Invite) got $5+ million/year plus their buy-outs paid from a P5 program.
Tom Herman in 2016, and Scott Frost in 2017. It seems pretty easy to see an emerging pattern here. .
ā¦and what was Frostās record after his first year (not necessarily directed at you Bulto, but to the board as a whole)? The point is that any new head coach has a learning curve. Even Frost needed it.
Iām not saying that Applewhite will go 13ā0 next year either, or that he is as good of a coach as Frost is. However, UCF had the talent on the roster even at 0-12 to accomplish what they did and more. I think Applewhite is in the same situation; he has the talent, but he just needs to get the execution correct.
We werenāt eliminated from the West division title until the Tulane loss folks. Judging by the comments on here, you would think we finished in the bottom half of the conference.