The few weeks he has been the head football coach at the University of Houston have been a whirlwind for Major Applewhite, but he took some time out of his busy schedule to “Bring it to Jerome” on a variety of topics, including his recruiting philosophy, the hiring of assistant coaches and his response to the critics of one particular hire, defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio.
27 minute interview with CMA; goes into a lot of subjects and is very detailed about what his plans are and why he’s doing things.
Mentions he won’t negatively recruit against other Universities. Says there’s no point and doesn’t believe that it’s productive
Believes in high morale and that it’s key to being productive.
Had a strong relationship with Clay Jennings.
Met with Brian Johnson last year when he attended camp last spring and got to talk to him about how he handled Dak Prescott as well as talk to him about different offensive schemes. Basically did the interview then.
Didn’t know Mark D’Onofrio before hiring, but Orlando said that he was going to hire him if he got the head job. CMA laid out what his requirements were and felt comfortable with what D’Onofrio said and liked that he had experience/success with the triple option.
Met Hiller and have a lot of respect for him and the type of person he is. Feels that he’ll fit in easily on the staff.
Knew Blum from recruiting Westfield. Had a ton of respect for him while he was there. Called him a technician and a motivator.
Jerome asked him about the criticism about D’Onofrio at Miami; CMA thinks there’s too much group think now. Situation was bleak when Golden went to Miami with the sanctions and he and the staff had to pay the price for the previous staff. Last year, won their side of the ACC, and they were all fired. Loves Coach Richt, but he had success last year with Golden and that staff’s players; same that they had after Levine. CMA laughed too because a lot of the stuff said about D’Onofrio is the same stuff they said about CMA when he was hired at UH.
Jerome says he can’t say anything about CMA because he’s known him for 20 years, basically since he was a kid.
Talks about the Bowl game, says it was a bizarre, difficult situation because they were coaching with GAs, people were doing things they weren’t used to, etc. Says it was a difficult situation with Herman leaving, the coaching search, and then a bowl game two weeks later.
Says that he told the players after the game that there will be a clean slate and that training and practices will mainly stay the same under the new staff. Players are ready to begin training/practice again in January.
Says that a few of the Baylor coaches showed interest and they interviewed a few of them, but he wanted guys that were fired up to be at UH. Felt the 9 guys he hired fit that criteria.
There’s more in there, a lot dealing with CMA’s coaching philosophies; recommend the listen if you have the time. Jerome is pretty tame in this as you can tell he and CMA are fairly close.
That interview demonstrates why I supported Applewhite. We still need to see how things go, but what I have wanted for UH since we started bleeding head coaches every couple of years (CMA is #5 in 10 years, #8 in 10 years if you include interims) is to find a winning formula and then have competent coordinators keep the train rolling if and when the head coach moves on. For the most part, it’s what Boise has been doing since 2001 when OC Dan Hawkins was promoted followed by OC Chris Petersen being promoted and then (recent) OC Bryan Harsin being promoted. The program now has an identity and culture, and it just didn’t make any sense to me to take a chance on someone like Kiffin or to start all over again with a guy from the Sun Belt or C-USA. I would have been fine with Orlando. despite some concerns about recruiting.
What is he talking about with Miami winning their side of the ACC last year? In 2015, Miami was 3rd in the Coastal Division behind UNC and Pitt. If he’s talking 2016, Miami tied for 2nd
He laughed at fans getting their news and opinions from google, but if he thinks he got the DC from the ACC division winner, he might want to check his coaches’ credentials on google if he thought miami won their division at any time coach d was there. Miaki hasnt won their division or conference since 2003 in the BE
Yep, I didn’t go back and check the records, but I thought that was strange as I doubt Golden and crew would have been fired if they finished 1st in their division. No idea why he made that comment in the interview or if he meant to say something stat-based and it came out that way.