In 2000, we played 2 teams that finished ranked UT and LSU. USM dropped down to the end of RV.
In 2001, we played 2 teams that finished ranked.
In 2002, we played 2 teams.
In 2019, we played 5 teams that finished ranked
In 2020, we played 2 teams, but only played 8 games.
Are you really trying to compare “formidable” CUSA vs recent AAC?
In 2000, CUSA had 0 teams that finished ranked
2001, Louisville finished 17th
2002, TCU finished 23rd
2019, AAC had 17, 20, 21, and 24
2020, only 1 but UC was #6
Better than me. When he does something that ticks me off, I call Holgorsen “Dana Dimelson”. He has been earning it the last two years.
Traditionally, only coaches that leave UH get nicknames, coaches that are fired are called by their real name… Dimel, Benedict, Scumlin, Levine, Judas, Applewhite.
You make a good point. You might have good to very good recruiters that are bad HC. We do not that all too well. The two are 100% different from one another.
With Dimel, I’ve always thought that was overrated.
In Briles’ second season, for example, still with mostly Dimel’s recruits, he only went 3-8.
By Briles’ fourth year, as I mentioned, he had mostly HIS OWN recruits, NOT Dimel’s, and the most important and impactful of those was Kevin Kolb, who ditched Okie State for us PURELY because Briles came to coach here.
It was only THEN that Briles won a conference title. That’s why I reject the “Dimel’s recruiting made Briles successful” bogus argument.
Dimel deserves LITTLE credit for Briles’ success, given the facts that I pointed out.
Dime’s recruiting was overrated, and his coaching performance here SUCKED.
He was the worst UH football coach during my lifetime (i.e., Yeoman and beyond).
Helton is a close second. The only reason he doesn’t finish #1 is because a) unlike Dimel, Helton won a conference title, b) unlike Dimel, Helton did have more than one winning season, and c) unlike Dimel, Helton did have a high profile win over LSU; one that got Gerry Dinardo fired.
Don’t forget that Dimel wasn’t even Chet the Jet’s first choice to replace Helton. He had to sign Dimel to save face after Pruitt backed out and decided to stay at Marshall.
Congrats on making a mountain out of a molehill. I just simply said that Dimel brought in SOME very good recruits that payed off dividends for Briles. That’s all.
A large number of 2001 recruits were redshirted.
Check 2002 Houston Football Commits: 247sports.com and the 2001 class as well. You might recognize a few names. Meanwhile get some fresh air.
Roy Swan
Kade Lane
Willie Gaston
Jackie Battle
Will Gulley
Stanford Routt
… just to name a few, and I recognize other names from both of those classes that contributed certainly by their junior and senior years. Those players would be juniors and seniors 2005-2007, depending on redshirt schedules.
Bussey is correct about Dimel’s recruits…The year Briles won 10 games and the CUSA championship, Will Gulley was all conference safety and CUSA defensive player of the year. Marquay Love was all conference DL…The Gaston brothers, Levi and Willie, were all conference DBs…Jackie Battle was star FB.and Roy Swan was a fine OL…All Dimel recruits and we dont win that championship without them…Dimel also recruited a great QB named Barrick Nealy, who transferred after Dimel was fired and took the Southland conference school he played for to the national championship game in 1-AA…Dimel may have had problems as a coach, but he was a fine recruiter and far superior to Helton…Helton won 4 games his first 3 years…FOUR… How he wasnt fired is biggest mystery of all…Dimel inherited a terrible situation from him…TERRIBLE…
I think it’s more accurate to say that without KOLB, we don’t win the championship, and he wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for Briles.
The big problem we had in transition was that BOTH Nealy AND Nick Eddy departed at the same time. Had Briles not brought in Kolb, we’d have been awful. Thankfully, that scenario didn’t play out.
As for Helton, he had some pretty big-time NFL caliber recruits as well. Antowain Smith and Billy Milner were high NFL draft picks, and Wilbert Brown and Marcus Springs both played as OLs in the NFL. All four were Helton recruits.
Helton also signed future CFLers Belli and Regimbald, and Ketric Sanford, who was a BIG blue chipper his Sr year in high school and became our school’s all-time leading rusher.
Hey listen. Neither Helton nor Dimel had overall winning records, and both produced among our worst teams ever. Both should be considered bad coaches for that reason.
But Dimel will go down as ever so slightly worse, since, unlike Helton, he never had a winning season and never won a conference title.
The problem with Dimel’s recruiting wasn’t the ones that actually played for us, it was that so many of his recruits either didn’t make it in or didn’t make it academically once they got here.
In judging the “Who Was The Worst Ever UH Football Coach Contest”, I beseech you to consider the following.
Yes, Dimel lost, but part of his losing (i.e., 0-11 in 2001) was semi-intentional because he did so much red-shirting. His vision was the “restart” the UH football program with a bunch of semi-seasoned new players and then win later on. Of course, he wasn’t still here when “later on” finally occurred.
Helton, by contrast, had a vision to “restart” the UH football program by changing the offense to an SEC-style grind it out on the ground rushing regime. Indeed, he disliked the Run ‘N Shoot wide open offense that his predecessor, Jugular John Jenkins, had unleashed on college football. Soon after Helton was named as UH’s new coach, I attended a donor luncheon at the Houston Club downtown at which Helton was the featured speaker. He ended his remarks with an explicit promise that the University of Houston would never again run up the score on any opponent! (The context of this is that Jenkins’ 1990 Cougars had won 10 games and in doing so had scored more than 50 points in half of them, which caused the losers and their bereft supporters to cry and wail that UH was an unsportsman-like bully and to also begin searching for some way to get UH placed on probation again by the NCAA and thereby get rid of Jenkins, which they eventually succeeded in doing.) -Well Helton was utterly true to his promise. While he was UH’s coach, we never ran up the score on any opponent. However, we also got our butts kicked so badly and repeatedly that after his first three seasons at UH his aggregate record was 4-28-1.
BTW, in order to determine just how good of a head coach Dimel is/was; just what is his HC record since leaving UH? He was 8-26 here and 5-27 at UTEP. Just saying.
Mr. John Jenkins should have never been fired in the first place. Our then administration could care less about our football/sports program then. The anti Run N Shoot hire symbolized it. Did some people wanted our demise inside our administration? I am 100% convinced of it. We not only fought the uta/atm ncaa directed probations/sanctions but we also had to fight within our own school.
Running up the score on other teams was the lousiest excuse ever created. The fact is that we had an offense that was almost unstoppable. It was almost unstoppable and at the same time we were on probation. I wrote it earlier. Nobody knows how dominant the U of H Run N Shoot offense could have been?
We were 9-2 in 1989
We were 10-1 in 1990
Andre wins the Heisman
We were on probation. John Jenkins was left with very little but still managed to go 4-7 twice. This is what ORCHASTRATED probation do to a program that was on the verge of becoming nationally dominant. Instead of continuing a Run N Shoot offense the administration went the opposite way. How idiotic is this? Was this done on purpose? Who knows. All I know is that we never recovered from it and ended up in c-usa. Could have Mr. Jenkins turned around the program? I have no doubt he would have been to. Remember that 10-1 season. This would have not happened without him.
Helton was given three years in the SWC. We were no longer in probation and he produced nothing.
He was given another four years in c-usa and produced his own best 7-5. Was this the best way to shoot ourselves in the foot? I have no doubt about it.
I am editing my comment and add the following: DO YOU ALL REALIZE WHAT THIS DID TO OUR FAN BASE?
Think what our admin decision to fire Jenkins do to our program, fan base and national interest.
How damaging was it? We all know the answer. The ones that went along with this have to look at themselves in the mirror.
IMO our Jenkins 1992 decision to fire him sealed our fate that we were not committed to football.
When I say uncomfortable in the stands, I’m referencing pissed off fans, not empty stands. When the hometown team starts booing the coaches, things get really uncomfortable really fast.