None of these have been linked to Houston officially, but I thought these were some names that might be associated with the DC job. Tried to find guys with ties to Texas, with previous DC experience, and/or had a strong run defense to help with continuity:
I may keep looking each night to find more names, especially those on staffs of bowl playing teams. The above is just an initial list of names I’ve heard and a quick scan:
Thoughts
Bedford will probably end up with Strong at USF as he’s followed him throughout his career. Bedford may have also been the reason behind a lot of the problems at UT and was demoted in-season by Charlie Strong. He’s a UT alum and has Texas ties, but it would be risky hiring him and we could already have him so he’s probably not coming.
Stewart’s Nebraska team plays Friday against Tennessee. Stewart’s defense would look similar to Orlando’s attacking defense, but more like Wade Phillip’s defenses. He had success in his 2 years at UH (2010-2011) and is a very good recruiter.
Holt doesn’t have any Texas ties, but is a long-time DC in college football at USC, Washington and most recently, he’s been the DC at Western Kentucky since 2013 and was serving as the interim head coach for the bowl game where they beat Memphis 51-31. Holt is a fiery guy that believes in hitting…a lot…and stopping the run. If Applewhite is looking for an Orlando-type hire, this may be the guy.
Koennig is another guy that doesn’t have any Texas ties, but he’s been a DC at Wyoming, Troy, Clemson, Kansas State, Illinois, North Carolina, and Troy again. He was also a head coach at Wyoming for a few years. Koennig runs a 4-2-5 scheme so the continuity wouldn’t be there, but his scheme attacks and tries to limit the run. Troy completed their season this past Friday.
Bennett has a ton of Texas ties as he graduated from A&M, was DC at a number of Texas schools, was head coach at SMU, and has been DC for Briles at Baylor. Bennett normally ran a 4-2-5 defense until the last 2 years when Baylor had a lack of quality Defensive linemen. Baylor also hasn’t been known for its defense as the overriding concept has been to get the offense back on the field as quickly as possible; no matter what the outcome. Bennett does run a very aggressive defense that relies on pressuring the QB and leaving DBs on their own in coverage.
Everyone knows about Gibbs and he would be a great fit in Houston again.
I put McNeill on here because he’s got Texas ties, is well respected, and is currently not a DC. Problem is that Virginia didn’t play a bowl game so if we wanted him, he’d probably already be here. McNeill does use the 3-4 and believes in a strong center of the defense which would mesh well with the strength of the Cougars current personnel.
This is the guy I think may be Major’s first choice. He has a Co-DC title at Bama, but has reached his ceiling without defensive play-calling experience. He may take a step down for a sole DC role and play-calling. He is pretty widely considered the best recruiter in the country, and would be a major coup.
Based on our hires to date, I’d eliminate any lateral hire moves from Power 5 schools. I think once we hired Applewhite for the $1.5 million a year, we set the cap lower on the other positions than was originally expected. I think the unwritten rule for coaching staffs is the entire staff of assistants are paid in total around the same amount as the head coach give or take 20%.
So all of the assistants combined will probably add up to less than $2 million which is huge compared to what we were paying just 5 years ago but small compared to majority of P5 programs.
Lupoi would be a grand slam hire, but I can’t see him coming here. Very good chance an SEC program will go after him as D.C. in another year or so. And he might eventually be in line for a G5 head coaching job.
I think we can pay more for our assistant coaching staff than last year. Our HC costs less which leaves more bucks for staff, plus the CTH buyout would pay almost all of it. It would almost be like getting the staff for free for this year.
For the record, I would love to get Toshi from Bama and think we could improve on his $550K salary to get him.
I would expect either a DC at another G5 school or a position coach from a P5. There won’t be any guys going down unless they are co-dc and they don’t call the defenses where they are at.
Looking at the schools playing today, there doesn’t look to be many fits for the DC position for the Coogs.
Two names to potentially watch, both from A&M: DL Coach Terry Price and DT Coach David Turner
Price is an A&M grad and has coached DL at Western Kentucky, Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech, and A&M. He’s one of the top recruiters in the nation. I doubt he leaves the Aggies though and he’s never been the DC anywhere.
Turner is currently the Run Game Coordinator and DT coach at A&M and is in his first season there. He’s been around the SEC as a DL coach at Vandy, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi State and now A&M as well as Minnesota, Virginia, and NC State before that. He’s had a long career and is considered one of the top DL coaches in the nation. Like Price, we’d be taking a chance on him since he’s never been a DC.
I doubt either is a serious possibility as I believe Major will look for play-calling experience on that side of the ball, but you never know.
Going ahead and looking at coaches from tomorrow’s bowl games and there are 4 names that could bear watching:
John Jancek USF Safeties coach: Jancek spent this year coaching safeties at USF after 3 years as the Tennessee DC. There was a falling out between Jancek and Butch Jones that caused his firing even though his defense allowed only 20.0 PPG his final season. Jancek also has been DC at Cincinnati and Central Michigan as well as Co-DC at Georgia. He ran a 4-3 attacking 1-gap defense at Tennessee, but has no ties to the state of Texas. Jancek will more than likely be unemployed after the bowl game with Charlie Strong coming in.
Vernon Hargreaves Arkansas LB Coach: Hargreaves was the LB coach at UH under Gibbs in 2013-2014 and currently serves in the same position at Arkansas. He’s never been a DC anywhere, but he’s got a good pedigree and might return if Gibbs also comes back.
Brian Mitchell Virginia Tech CB Coach: Mitchell is a Ruffin McNeill protege who was McNeill’s DC at East Carolina from 2010-2012 after following him from Texas Tech. He’s also been the cornerbacks coach at BYU, West Virginia, and is in his first year at Virginia Tech under Justin Fuente. He’s originally from Waco, TX.
Joe Tumpkin Colorado Safeties Coach: Tumpkin once coached under Phil Bennett at SMU for 3 years and was the Central Michigan DC from 2010-2014. His defenses at Central Michigan were known to create turnovers and rush the QB and the defense was 29th nationally in 2014. There could be a shakeup for the Buffs after Jim Leavitt left for Oregon so Tumpkin may be out of a job.
Unless it’s a name out of the blue, I expect Gibbs, Stewart, or Bennett to be here in the next few days. My order of preference on those three is
Gibbs
Bennett
Stewart
Would love to see Gibbs back.From about 1990-2012, I’d used opponents’ possessions to take a leak or get a beer. When Gibbs got here, watching defense was fun again. I think Bennett would be a great hire if not for the Baylor mess. I hear he wants the job, and I’m pretty confident MA and very possibly Dr. Khator would make sure he’s got a clean bill of scandal avoidance before hiring him. Stewart had a good defense here in 2011, and he had pretty fair ones at Maryland in '12 and '13. He was fired after fielding a poor one in '14, but much of that was due to key defensive injuries, moving to a Big 10 schedule, and Edsall wanting to protect his own job. Still, I’d definitely take Gibbs or Bennett (provided he’s not tainted by the BU scandal) before him.
Pretty impressive where we are given the lack of P5 television revenue. We’re ahead of Rutgers, Iowa State, and Kansas and within 300k total (33k per assistant) of West Virginia, Cal, North Carolina, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Purdue, and Texas Tech.
