Don’t be so sure about that. Riley is from the Leach coaching tree, and those guys are all over the state and country. Of what we would consider the “finalists” (Miles, Kiffin, Riley, Orlando, Applewhite), I’d say Riley and Applewhite are probably the most connected ones in the state of Texas. Putting together a coaching staff might be the least of his problems.
I agree. Regarding the losses, we lost because we played bad and the oppsing team was good enough to take advantage. We used the down players on defense as an excuse, but we lost the TO margin and did not manage the game very well. The game at Memphis and Navy reminded me of TTu /madden. Score fast ignore the clock. SMU was a loss upfront with lots of TO’s. We were playing not to lose and lost. Was the focus off? Sure, but come game time you are locked in. Add a little CFB chaos and you have a loss. The leadership was clearly lacking, let’s be honest. Erob last year held the ship together, thus we played great. We talk a lot about the coaches, but the players lead each other.
We also had no idea how Herman or Sumlin would put together a staff, since neither had done so before. I had never even heard of Todd Orlando until Herman hired him. I’m sure there are plenty of up and coming coordinators with ties to Texas.
Not sure about anything regarding what he can do, but he’s had limited exposure in Texas for 6 years. I’d say the jury is out on whether the “Leach coaching tree” is an indicator of success as a head coach.
I wouldn’t call his 2 years of time at OU “limited exposure” to Texas. OU does a lot of their recruiting here.
Call it what you want, but he’s gotten 6 Texas commits in his entire career, 2 of those coming while he’s been at OU. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t know ANYONE in Texas, but Applewhite is much more connected in Texas.
I’m not saying he would be a failure - just that this is a question mark for both recruiting and coaching hires.
If Riley does get hired (or anyone for that matter) one guy I’d like to see brought back is Jason Phillips, if he wants to come back. A lot of older players were pushing for him to be considered for the head job and now are pushing for him as an assistant under the new staff.
He knows east Texas and Louisiana and would be a huge help for a young coach (or older coach).
Edit to add: Researching Riley a bit and ran accross that’s his brother is currently an offensive analyst at Kansas (they coached together at ECU). Kansas also wanted to hire him a OC before he decided on OU. So there are ties to Jason Phillips there.
One other name to think about for DC if Riley is hired is Vance Bedford. If Charlie Strong decides to sit out a year, Bedford may be willing to take on the DC role at Houston. He’s from Beaumont, was a great player for UT and has been a good DC at Louisville and Texas until this past year. In fact, if I’m a new coach, I look at a lot of the Texas coaches that were just let go by our former coach.
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Much more likely name as DC though would be Riley’s former head coach, Ruffin McNeil. The two have been together for quite a few years going back to their Tech days. Ruffin is currently a position coach at Virginia.
Love that fat dude. I’d take him for DC any day.
Potential OC under Riley would be Dave Nichol, the man who replaced Riley at ECU. He was a coach under Riley and McNeil at ECU and Has also coached in Texas at Baylor. His one year as OC kind of fell apart, mainly due to the starting QB getting hurt before the season. When McNeil was let go, he was let go as well and ended up in Pullman, WA a small an outside receivers coach for Mike Leach. Riley will probably call the plays anyway.
I just want a decision soon. Possibly by tomorrow. I get a feeling that the interview process just started on Sunday.
Riley is perfect for UH. He has been coaching for over 10 years and knows a lot of coaches.
Don’t worry about a staff, he has the contacts.
He is young and can relate to recruits and runs a great offense. He is a better choice over Kiffin and definitely over Miles.
Just ask yourself if you were a recruit, who would you rather have as your coach.
Get it done Hunter and don’t worry about a buy out. If he likes it here and wins, that great for all of us. If a better job comes available in the future, worry about it then.
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Hunter?? you must be joking…We have a 1 man search committee, and his name is Tilman Fertitta…
and if we are stuck hiring a coordinator, Major makes more sense and is a better candidate than Riley.
Your opinion but definitely not mine.
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Let’s run it up the middle on 1st and 2nd down. That’s a brilliant offensive mind.
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As opposed to, let’s run it up the middle on 2nd and 2 and 3rd and 2 in a spread formation?
With our OL, nobody should be running up the middle, regardless of formation. That’s what scares me about Miles. He installed a 1970s running offense. We know what Applewhite does. I want someone who puts in a passing game.
I’m really excited to see what the new crop of WRs will be able to do, assuming we keep a spread offense at a minimum. Case had so much success here because he had WRs who could not only fly, but had great hands. The last couple of years, we lost a lot of speed in favor of size (Dunbar, Bonner, Allen) and hands weren’t as sure as they used to be. Stevenson, Corbin and Lark are all speedy and I’m really hoping they can contribute next year in a big way. Isaiah Johnson has the speed and size, but needs to work on his hands. Dunbar and Bonner are coming back and we know what they’re capable of. We are locked and loaded at WR, but we lost nearly all of our big play ability when Ayers left. I’m looking to get that back. Having legitimate deep ball threats does wonders for opening up the running game. This is where I think either Riley or Applewhite would excel.
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That is how i play in madden
By now we all know Riley is gone. He didn’t want to be tied down by our buyout. In other words, he wanted a fat paycheck while he- through his agent - searched for his “dream job”. One thing about having Tillman on board. He said it and he meant it. No more 2 and done coaches. Now if we could get Herman to refund the money we gave him while he wasn’t on the job but was looking for his “dream job”, then justice will have been served.
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