It is the culture and Urban Myer blueprint that was the foundation for our success the past 2 seasons.
I know we were burned by the Tony Levine “continuity” non-sense, but I can’t possibly see why we would wan’t to toss out the blueprint and the culture that brought us so much success in such a short time.
Also, it was our defense that was a huge part of the success.
You keep Orlando, you keep the culture and blueprint. A much easier transition.
Bringing in someone else and we run the risk of the return of the red-carpet defense, undisciplined players and never winning big games. If we go back to 6-6, 7-5, we return to 15,000 crowds and irrelevancy.
Keep the blueprint, keep the culture. My educated opinion.
You might have a point there. I might have a hard time buying into Orlando, if the sense was he’s just building his resume. Still though, our defense was a huge part of our success. If we go back to a standard defense like we had under other coaches, we will not beat top 5 teams.
I will agree with you, but I have concerns about Major as OC. Part of the problem is the offensive line, I realize. But our offense was bailed out by our defense too many times to count. It made Herman look better than he probably was.
I am not necessarily saying keep Applewhite, we could run a different kind of offense and keep the defense we have.
I am talking about the methodology/culture of toughness. The Urban Meyer blueprint works. Just like the Air raid worked for us, and Levine came in and trashed what worked. Why do that again?
I blame the losses this season on the circus of distraction and the kick in the nads by the Big12. The players knew as soon as that happened, Herman was measuring curtains for his Austin house.
We’re on the same page. We wanted to keep the culture when Sumlin left. That didn’t work. I think with Orlando we have someone who is ready to become a HC. This will help in so many ways, not the least of which is holding on to current players and keeping recruits.
However, if we take this path there is a lot of work to do on the O-line. We also need an OC who can run up points like a pinball machine. That is a MUST or we will be back to drawing 20k each game. So, yes, IF…
Not sure why everyone thinks Opie was the offensive issue. He was oc in title, but I can assure you it was th’s offense. Several times tom was say Opie and I got our signals crossed. Don’t confuse poor execution with poor play calling. There were several good plays yesterday that did not work because of poor execution.
There’s a discussion on another thread about the importance of being able to recruit the Houston area. Other than the last 2 years, does Orlando have any experience recruiting the Houston area?
Everybody remembers Levine’s famous promise of “If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.” But he “fixed” it almost from his first day on the job. Both Applewhite and Orlando have experienced the culture Herman brought. The problem - and I’ve seen this play out countless times - is that new HCs just don’t seem to be able to help themselves. They have some obsessive need to put “their” spin on things and in doing so pretty soon the whole deal is changed. Do you think Sumlin is really running Briles’ offense? Not from Day 1. At least he tried to run the Air Raid and he had Keenum and some good OC help. And, at least Orlando and Applewhite know the way things “should” work. Either can hire OCs to make sure they in fact run that way. If they will. As for Applewhite, the closest he has been to being able to call his own plays was at Rice and he lit the place up.
As for Jason Phillips, hadn’t given him any thought. I guess it depends on what he’s been doing. He’s at Kansas now coaching wide receivers. He doesn’t seem to have moved up any in his career. Just different versions of what he has always done. I don’t know him personally so that’s about all I can offer.
Good post 79. You’re right on point. Agree with Portland’s basic premise (remain hard-nosed, play good defense and run the ball some, and recruit like crazy locally), though I think Applewhite would be better at carrying that out. People get attached to favorite candidates and kind of like politics don’t much listen to information that conflicts with their preferences, but Orlando has no connections to the state and pretty much only recruits on campus. Few coaches in the state have more connections and are more known than Applewhite, an ace recruiter.
I maintain it’s the defensive scheme and coaching is why we won big games. Few G5’s play defense like we do. My biggest fear is we go back to trying to pinball outscore everyone and play red carpet defense like we did for most of 20 plus years. Did we have some lapses this year defensively, yeah we did, but we jammed up two top 5 teams with our defenses. It really is true that defense wins championships.
I like Applewhite. Be cool if those two would stay somehow. Applewhite can’t go back to UT. Orlando most certainly will if he does not get the HC gig.
Been thinking about this all day. I agree that our first priority should be shut down defense. Few of us will ever forget absolutely stuffing teams like Louisville, OU and FSU. Throw in Navy last year. But, if that’s all we do the stands will be half full by the third game. Whether in football or basketball UH has been an offensive terror during periods of success. No I don’t want to return to the Jenkins and Briles formula of just outscore the other guy. UCF showed Baylor the limitations of that approach.
So what is the answer. Truth is Herman understood the balance of the two. It’s easy for a prospective coach to get all excited and say he gets it. Levine did that with a straight face.
But in the end most don’t have much respect for the other side of the ball. So with Applewhite and Orlando we have a choice between great recruiting or great defense. In both cases we hope if we pick one of them they give more than lip service to the other half of the team. Hunter has a tough choice regardless of the direction he takes.
The two are not mutually exclusive. We need an entertaining, big play offense too. I am just saying you have to have both. The Air Raid is so much fun, yet rarely wins championships. I love the power spread we’ve been running. But the defense is just a notch more important.
The only culture truly necessary is keeping the focus on local recruiting. Whether its HtownTakeover or BandofBrothers, it’s the players and the recruits that make it successful.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if there is a temporary backlash from high school coaches for Tom Herman. These high school coaches watch these kids grow from children to young men and a vast majority of them don’t want to see their kids lied to or mistreated.
As long as the new coach embraces Houston high school recruits, I don’t care what he calls it or labels it at all.
Defense has been a major part of our success, but there’s also been a lot of talent on that side of the ball these last two years–Elandon Roberts, William Jackson, Steve Taylor, Ed Oliver, Tre Stewart, Tyus Bowser, Cam Malveaux, Adrian McDonald, Brandon Wilson, Bryan Singleton, Tomme Mark, etc. Only special offensive players I can think of are Ward, Ayers, Catalon, and Bonner. And yet in both '15 and '16, we ranked higher nationally in scoring offense than scoring defense. Applewhite understands the game and knows good defense is integral to winning.
No current Big 12 teams play defense like we do. If Orlando follows Herman to Austin, UT is going to wreck shop there. If any Big 12 teams had played a lick of defense this year, that team would have run away with the Big 12 championship. The LAST thing I want to see is Herman succeeding at UT. I can’t say Orlando is my top choice to be the HC here, but my hope is that he will be a HC somewhere rather than a DC at UT next year.
SMU and Memphis exposed Orlando’s defense a bit this year. Those quick-hitters to the outside ate us up. They also found holes with the draws up the middle. Then they got the deep ball when the corners finally moved up.
Maybe it was talent level of the secondary, but they did find a weakness (Cincy did it last year too). Offenses in the Big 12 are good and they’ll exploit that weakness time and again.
