This is after the CMA hire; lasts about 37 minutes:
- Day 9 of not shaving; will take care of before tomorrow’s basketball game
- Last Periscope had 4K views and 1,500 viewers when it was in progress
- Tony Levine was a special teams guy; not the same
- Wild, wild last 6 1/2 hours
- Houston promoted Major Applewhite as the 14th head coach in school history
- Announcement came out shortly after 9 AM
- 5 Year deal for Major Applewhite
- Will pay slightly more than what Tom Herman made his 1st contract - $1.35M (don’t have exact details yet)
- Incentives and Escalators built in - could end up being $2M
- Buy-out is what remains on the contract at the time another school hires him
- If Houston does well, probably add another year; buy-out would restart
- Tilman said that no offer was made to Kiffin and no contract details were ever discussed with him. Did interview once in New York this past week.
- Contract was offered to CMA after Thursday night big-wig meeting
- Tilman fully expects CTO to leave and go to UT
- Tilman very complimentary of CTO, respects that he isn’t going to run off and leave before the bowl game; standing offer for him to stay
- Run down of staff: Coach Pope could stay or retire; Darrell Wyatt could stay - It’s Applewhite’s staff to hire
- Mack Brown very complimentary of hire - “It’s his time”
- Mack Brown says that CMA has a fiery attitude; won’t show publicly, but it’s there
- Coach Naivar will go to UT
- A lot of Texas High School Coaches called Houston big-wigs in support of Major
- Tilman said you can expect Major to be here a long time, but he better win 9, 10, 11 games. Remember, we fired a guy that won 8 games
- Value of using search firms is to vet and do backgrounds of candidates; even in-house folks
- Coach Naivar could stick around as DC, it’s up to him; but JD doesn’t expect him to stay
- Bryson Smith and Daniel Young both confirmed that they are sticking with commitment after CMA hire
- Kyle Allen voiced support over twitter; CMA very instrumental, along with Herman, in bringing in Allen
- Allen does have 2 years; Sells did have big offers, have to see what happens with him
- Monday 1 pm Press Conference; JD will stream - 1st opportunity to talk to CMA since hiring
- USA Today report about hiring Kiffin was extremely premature; might have come from agent or from coaches around Alabama; hard to tell
- CMA and CTO get along really well
- Dead Period begins Monday; CMA has been recruiting all week. Press Conference is Monday because they want him to stay on the road and recruit
- CTO was the interim coach because he spends the games on the field while CMA is in the press box; didn’t want to disrupt things for the bowl game - CMA and CTO will be on the field for the bowl game
- CMA has a lot, a lot, of support from players in the locker room
- It will be interesting to see who CMA hires as the High School relations guy (HS coach)
- CMA will probably be the OC/playcaller for the bowl game
- Team leaves Tuesday for the game; JD will have Periscopes from there all week
- CMA is the head coach for the bowl game
- CMA may turn playcalling duties over next year; unknown at this point though
- CTO won’t be out on the recruiting trail; he won’t try to steal recruits while at Houston - stand up guy
- Players geared up for the Bowl game; don’t think they are taking it lightly
- Ed Oliver said this week that he doesn’t care how many yards that Pumphrey gets as long as they have less points at the end of the game
- Players looked excited last night when they filled out forms for what gifts they’ll get
- JD has an A1 story (Front page) to write
- JD likes doing the Periscopes; likes to talk
- They do Texas Sports Nations on Sunday night, did his first last Sunday night. Will get to do makeup for a photo shoot next week
- Was on Finebaum show yesterday; son saw him on TV even though he was next to him in person
- JD isn’t a millionaire yet, but is still young
- Devin Davis is a game-time decision vs. Rhode Island on Saturday
- Didn’t get update on Davis as to whether it is a tendon issue
- Was a Rocket back-up beat writer for 2 weeks about 2 years ago
- Not friends with UH folks, but very appreciative that they help him do his job
- Yurachek talked today, but emphasis on Tilman because he’s the BOR
- Scene when Herman drove off: JD saw him walking out of building so JD hauled ass to catch him; Herman said “he can’t”. Eyes were red and it was obvious he had been crying; Texas wouldn’t let him talk and make statement.
- Relays story from Khan and Berman about Sumlin leaving and said it was similar; Sumlin cried and couldn’t talk
- JD doesn’t have a problem with hire; Houston made it known that they would try to hire a sitting P5 coach, but CMA wowed them
- Herman did not reply directly to JD today about CMA hire; sent out twitter note
- CMA has lived in Texas almost his whole life; Louisiana boy - give him a chance
- Non Conference schedule is pretty much set - one more on the table; G5 school that’s familiar that will probably be announced soon once details are ironed out
- Herman’s legacy - forced UH’s hand to get facilities
- CMA will inherit great situation with facilities; everything’s in place for CMA to succeed
- Talent coming back; cupboard is not bare - Should be top G5, or in the running team every year
- No info on conference realignment
- If Houston ran the table this year, they would have been in the playoffs - definitely in the Cotton Bowl; SMU game was the back,breaker
- RB: Catalon, Car, Birden, Daniel Young, Josh Burrell
- Weird situation with Kevrin Justice, need to find out about that. Got a lot of touches early, but wasn’t really heard from again
- Basketball: Non-con games at TSU, Conference Games at Toyota Center
- WR: Allen graduates, everyone else is returning; hopefully Corbin and Lark step up
- Secondary: Everyone back except Brandon Wilson
- LB: Lose Taylor and Bowser
- DL: Lose Malveaux and Singleton
- Bowser is the most draftable Cougar from what JD’s heard from scouts
- Samples is itching to get back out there. No more symptoms. Let him get back out there at the start of the Spring and see what happens. Appreciates all the support; really pumped to get back out there.
- JD hopes that he gave out credible information during this process; wanted to make sure he got the most accurate info out there
- Same thing for Mark Berman; don’t tell him this, but he’s a great guy. Has plenty of Mark Berman stories and might do a periscope on them
- JD is the most followed beat writer in the AAC on twitter
- Will take readers and followers as far into Vegas (and as clean into Vegas) as possible