People complaining about hiring Applewhite

Who would’ve been a better hire? Kiffin? Miles? When we hired Herman it was perfect timing…last year there wasn’t a huge pool of candidates to choose from. Just because hiring internally failed one time before doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it another chance based on the situation. Many internal hires end up being successful not having the great first year.

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Gary Patterson’s first year at TCU (2001) he went 6-6 and 4-3 in CUSA

What does that mean for Major Applewhite? Who knows, last night was very disappointing.

You misfire on one coordinator hire… fine, but you misfire on both…

I posted after SMU that I had concerns about containment D. It leads to poor tackling and loss of aggressiveness. I said I wasn’t sure how I felt about it then. Well, I know how I feel about it now.

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Except:

  1. Patterson’s side of the ball (defense) played well most of the time in 2001. They allowed less than 24 points per game for the season. Compare our offense. It has not played well most of the time.

  2. Patterson’s 2001 played its best ball in November, beating 10-1 Louisville at home and 6-4 Southern Miss on the road. We’ll see how Major finishes up.

Briles, Sumlin and Herman were hungry P5 Coordinators ready to go to the next level.

This should be our blueprint moving forward until we are in a P5.

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The CTH comparison is Lincoln Riley. Good thing we didn’t hire him or else he would’ve potentially left us before ever starting. Didn’t Sumlin hire really good assistants? I’m mainly concerned about why we’re losing the second half. S&C? Not smart enough to make adjustments?

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Except Levine was not the first failed attempt at an internal hire. Jenkins was the first.
Also, maybe we should have increased the list of candidates.
Failing that, I would have hired Orlando or miles over applewhite. I generally think a mediocre at best coordinator doesn’t tend to make a great head coach. Orlando was a great coordinator who seemed to think outside the box. I don’t think he was as “polished” as Applewhite in the interview and that cost him. Miles has issues but he’s a great recruiter who always had great defenses and running games. He also had much more wide open offenses when he was at Oklahoma state

I had never heard Hermans name before he was a candidate for us. Bama, Clemson, tOSU, and all the other successful programs have O and D coordinators. I’m sure at least some of them have Texas ties. Go interview them.

Herman, like Riley, was the Broyles Award winner as the top assistant of the year.

I’ve said before, and will do it again here.

If your final four candidates are Miles/Kiffin/Major/Orlando, one of two things is true.

Either you irretrievably screwed up the coaching search, or you knew your guy was all along and the search was a sham.

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Is it wrong that I completely believe both

Truth.

We had a sham process and put an onerous provision in the contract so real coaches wouldn’t be interested. We did our dog and pony show but hired the guy we were always going to hire.

Our fanbase was hellbent on getting a lifer. They got their wish.

I thought they wanted a splash hire and made a run at Holgorsen. Barring that, I guess they went with the safety pick. Orlando wasn’t any more of a sure thing.

Should’ve done a swap.

Alexogar
It is completely unfair to even mention John Jenkins in this discussion. Here are the facts.
Jenkins took over in 1990
The ncaa imposed draconian sanctions/probation in 1988-89 that lasted past 1992.
1990 10-1…10-1 Alexgoar that is with a strapped squad
1991 4-7 - Limited scholarships
1992 4-7 - Limited scholarships
John Jenkins had very little to work with. A lot less than what we have today. That’s what happened when the ncaa wants to kill a program. They did to us. They almost succeeded.
This morning nccheats is moving around freely, free of any sanctions like nothing happened.

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Lane Kiffin’s FAU team is 3-3. FAU had 9 total wins since 2013. Kiffin’s problem was his personality though no one seemed to mind Herman’s all that much.

Honestly, there was a pretty clear dearth of head coaching candidates last year. Maybe Neal Brown or Doug Meacham? But Neal Brown put up 8 points in a loss to South Alabama and Meach got shut out last week by Iowa Freakin’ State, so who knows.

I can’t recall Orlando interviewing anywhere but here, and I think that’s probably for a reason. Applewhite was the hotter commodity of the two, and I think there’s a little bit of wisdom of the crowd there.

I think the mistake was less hiring applewhite, and more going all forlorn lover with the “nobody will ever leave us again!” buyout.

FWIW, I totally buy the “we threw everything at Holgo and got played” conspiracy theory.

lincoln riley was available till be said large buyout…he is doing pretty well at oklahoma

people complained about his age and that he would leave…but has oklahoma top 10
he fit the mold of what has worked here, top offensive coordinator from an elite offensive team…he was my #1

I think the biggest issue here is the nut shot Tillman and company to their pride between the Big 12 charade and then Herman’s deception and double cross. We then chased and got played by Holgorson. Another blow, so we declared we aren’t going to be a stepping stone with an onerous buyout that most up and comers weren’t going to like.

Instead of setting aside our pride and getting the best. We settled and got the rest.

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Kiffin would have been a disaster and would have left this program in terrible shape, possibly under investigation.

Sonny Dykes was trying to interview everywhere to get away from Cal (and would later be fired because of it). Don’t think we interviewed him this time around.

OK State OC, Mike Yurcich, was mentioned on some preseason lists as someone to watch this year.

We interviewed the HC at Troy, Neal Brown who also coached at Tech, but he wasn’t a finalist for some reason.

Ruffin McNeil, the former ECU head guy who coached at Tech and is now at OU, was out there. Lot of folks think he was screwed by ECU; of course, he wouldn’t have Lincoln Riley to be OC…

Couldn’t get Holgo, but his OC, Zac Spavital, probably could have been had. He recruited well at A&M and Cal.

You know it was a sham. It was Major all along. You hire a firm to conduct the search, get all these big names in here to get the fanbase excited and you just go down the hall? It has never worked here and it isn’t working now. I think that after the Big 12 fiasco it became about saving some $$$ so they went with Major. How is his exciting persona and stellar record going to sell tickets next season?