Applewhite hired Johnson. If Johnson was demoted twice from calling plays then why the hell did he get this job? Donoforio’s prevent defense does not impress me
2 of most important factors in head coach success
Only as good as your QB
Only as good as your assistant coaches
2008-2011 Sumlin hired the right OC’s and had Keenum at QB that carried us.
2012-2014 Levine failed by hiring a dissaster at OC to go along with another dissaster at QB. But Levine hired a good DC in Gibbs that laid foundation for future defenses with Jack Boyz!
2015-2016 Herman hit the jackpot on his hires, especially Orlando who took what Gibbs built and made it better. Herman benefited greatly from having Greg Ward Jr. and he made Applewhite look good.
2017- Applewhite hired a just ok DC and a horrible OC, and our feature QB in Allen was a flop.
“There’s two kinds of coaches,” Bum Phillips once said. “Them that’s fired and them that’s gonna be fired.”
I have to agree with you on Johnson. The offense was very disappointing this year. Almost high school level play calling and design. (My opinion of course.) Often questioned during the game the receiver routes, all deep with no safety valve (that I could see.) Did we ever run a post pattern?
Defense, I have to give D’Onofrio a pass. (Note: During the season I would often call him Onofrio because he was missing the “D”). However Manster pointed out some very good points in an earlier email and I agree because I have often questioned the football IQ of some of the players on defense. Trey Stewart and Adrian McDonald were examples of players with limited size and skill who played way better than others because of their football IQ.
So we asked why not bench those players and the reason, again as Manster pointed out, several key backups were injured and in addition, the quality of talent in two key areas was not to the same level as previous years, Linebacker and Corner (NFL talent has left without those levels being replaced).
Again, not saying he was perfect, going soft on Tulane after being aggressive in the 2nd half yielded the quick TD that cost the game. But shutting down Navy the whole 2nd half is another. To me the key going forward is can he evaluate talent. Can he help us bring in those kids that are capable of becoming NFL quality talent. Can he bring in those guys, who while maybe are not of NFL size and caliber, play with the heart and football IQ that allow them to be better than others with NFL ability but lack the IQ.
Levine not only made mistakes at OC he made the same bad decision twice on one of the guys. He was too loyal. And wasn’t the disaster at QB a selection to the Freshman All Conference team [maybe even Freshman POTY]? So they created that disaster in my opinion. I wanted Tony to succeed but the offense was too bad to overcome.
On Herman, Orlando was the home run. The offense was good but the competitive advantage was Ward in my opinion. We saw what this offense is like without Ward or King adding to it with their running and speed.
Sumlin’s first DC was almost as big a disaster as Levine hiring Bush. John Skladany was awful and it wasn’t until Sumlin brought in Brian Stewart that things started to improve on that side of the ball.
Sumlin was lucky that he had Holgorsen/Kingsbury, Case Keenum, and our offensive weapons on the other side of the ball to outscore most teams.
My knock on Johnston is that he doesn’t seem to be playing chess, but checkers. It isn’t fair to compare him to Dana Holgerson, but Dana was great at using both sides of the field and using plays to set up 2-3 plays later in the drive. Just as Herman painfully learned in the Uconn game, you can’t just keep running into the defense for no yards. With King, we definitely had success down the field and had a little more flow on offense to build momentum.
On Defense, I can live with CMD. As the season wore on, your starting MLB Adams was hurt and Garret Davis had a shoulder injury and was not thumping people like last year. Next, we lost Khalil Williams. We were really banged up in the back end or our defense and it showed at Tulsa and Tulane. Notice how Navy’s defense changed when they lost their linebacker to the targeting call and the cornerback? Dunbar took one to the house and they started picking on the CB. Even if we blitzed this year, we just did not have the horses like Bowser and Taylor to get up field and make plays. On the back end, it is hard for our secondary to be physical when depth is an issue. I’m rambling, but we can win a lot of games holding the other teams to 20-25 points and think we will be better next year with the new pieces we are adding on the defensive line. If you don’t like CMD, then you would die with some of the Big 12 DC’s. The OSU guy needs to be fired.
The irony of #2 is that Herman demoted CMA more than once and who has a better record this year? I’m sure the Mensa member isn’t without a stagnant offense up there.
Fact is, play calling wasn’t the only issue this year. Turnovers at the QB position and lack of execution were just as big. People love to complain and nitpick at games we lose, but I can turn on film of all of our wins and find the same mistakes being made. Difference is, we won the game…
He also let poor QB’s look like they were having career days when they played us. They moved the ball at will. I need him to explain Tulsa, and Tulane asap. lol Both coordinators are not chess masters, but with a second year, will improve on just being here in year 2, alone.
Major needs to take over the offense on gameday. Johnson is clearly not ready. Like Kliff & Dana, he needs to be calling the plays with Johnson upstairs spotting. We have to get back to the motion and misdirection Dana implemented his second year.
Herman is nothing without Orlando. They controlled and kept us in games every week. If he leaves UT this year, they are toast. He might end up the highest paid DC at UT.
In regards to Tulsa, all you have to do is look where their drives started. Two interceptions that were returned inside the 10 gave Tulsa 14 points, and a DB falling on his ass gave them a third. Postma fumble for a fourth.
Tulane… I grant you D’Onofrio got out-coached a little bit. However, if I told you before the season we would hold Tulane to 20 points, you would have thought we would win. I know I would have. C’mon man! The offense was horrible. One out of eleven games you can question.
I can explain Tulsa pretty easily. The defense held tulsa to 93 1st half yards and would have been zero points except Postma int got returned to the 1 yard line.
Early 2nd half another Postma int returned to UH 6 yard line…another TD.
Tulsa temperature was 100 on field that day…when Ed went out Fleming came in and so did Turner and they got eaten alive. Neither has played since Carter returned. Chevis is now on bench and wasn’t much better. At the time we played them, Tulsa had worst run defense in country and we scored 17 offensive points and gave Tulsa 21 points…Postma fumble with 30 seconds left returned TD.
and I forgot about Davis not playing to whistle…thinking WR down and letting him go…Kahlil stopped playing too…should be zero gain and 70 yard TD…so 28 points DOnofrio had little control over…1 yard drive, 6 yard drive, Postma fumble ret for TD
In the end, you can’t fire both coordinators in the same year, and my opinion is you don’t need to fire either. I don’t think you even look D’Onofrio’s way other than to say, “keep it up.”
I still don’t think you need to fire Johnson necessarily. Just bring in a co-OC to take over play-calling and allow Johnson to focus on QBs. Then when his contract is up after next year, offer to keep him on as a QBs coach. If he doesn’t want to, say thank you and we wish you good luck.
I thought Johnson had some questionable moments for sure but our QB turnover tendency did us in from beginning of year. Vs Arizona game 1 we couldn’t snap ball and fumbled in red zone. Allen int vs Tech on 1st series right into LB chest , 4 turnovers by offense…Postma turnovers vs memphis…although he made some great and gutsy plays in that game. Postma ints vs Tulsa were game changers. Our inability to run the ball killed us at times. Kings inexperience showed up vs Tulane couple times…end zone int and 4th and 1 end game…threw to wrong slant, had outside guy. these are things he can’t control…play calling he can. need scrap the hurry up short yardage game
If that’s how you feel about the offense. CMA may need to take over defense as well. Look, it’s their first year with our guys. Let them figure out what works and doesn’t. We have enough guys coming back to where they can figure out what works. You don’t want to put play-calling on the head coach; other things will start to fall apart if his attention is focused on a duty that shouldn’t be his. They’ll be back, and they’ll both be better. I know it.