What would a Dana Holgorsen-UH staff look like?

Football
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It appears as though Dana Holgorsen will be the next head football coach at the University of Houston. If that happens, what would the staff that he ultimately puts together look like?

Offensive Coordinator
A couple candidates here, including Dana himself. He may choose to not have an OC, or one in name only, and return to calling plays. Should he do that, he may bring current WVU OL Joe Wickline in as OC/OL. Dana and Wickline have a relationship back to Oklahoma State in 2010. Another candidate, should Dana not want to begin calling plays again, could be current North Texas OC Graham Harrell, who played QB for Dana back at Texas Tech and is one of the hot up-and-coming names in college football.

Defensive Coordinator
One candidate already mentioned by Sellers is former UH and TTU defensive coordinator David Gibbs. Gibbs has long been rumored to be making a return to Cullen Blvd. Although they have not coached together previously, there is a considerable amount of overlap between Holgorsen and Gibss coaching network. Another possible name to watch would be current Oklahoma interim DC and DL coach Ruffin McNeil. Holgorsen and McNeil served on staff together at Texas Tech under Mike Leach.

Wide Receivers
Only one name here. Bring Tyron Carrier home.

Running Backs
One name to consider here could be former Houston Cougar and most recently WR coach at the University of Kansas Justin Johnson. Johnson played for Holgorsen at Houston and has strong recruiting ties to Texas.

Defensive Backs/Special Teams
We will see if Dana decides to reunite with former running buddy Joe DeForest. Dana and DeForest coached together at Oklahoma State under Gundy, and Dana brought DeForest to WVU to be DC early in his tenure. DeForest was once considered the most feared recruiter in the country when it came to the greater Houston area. He served this past year as a defensive analyst at USC.

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Joe Deforest was a candidate for our HC job at one point. I think it was when we hired Levine.

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He was also a strong candidate when Briles left. He went on radio and strongly lobbied for the job. Looked kinda silly lol

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So I guess I missed that DeForest has been elevated by Clay Helton to OLB coach at USC. Would be hard for Dana to bring him in without a DC title, which we certainly would not do.

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Whatever it is it’ll look better than anything Applewhite had.

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I’m sure whoever is the new HC will likely add high school HC from the area. I’m saying John Kay from north shore will be a good one!

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I have mentioned his name before, totally agree. If Gibbs is indeed the DC and coaches DBs like he has in the past, it would make a ton of sense to bring in John Kay to coach LBs and try to cultivate a pipeline to North Shore.

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I’m OK with Kay. Love to get some of those Northshore players.

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These Holgorsen rumors make me wonder if Applewhite was gone regardless of the bowl game outcome. This is a no-brainer hire to me.

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Could Dana possibly talk Levine back into a special teams/recruiting role? They both were here at the same time under Sumlin. I believe that we are all starting to realize Levine’s talents may have lacked at the head coach position but he had a great eye for linebacker recruiting/special team prep.

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Woudnt be a bad idea…but it looks like Levine is fully invested in his chick-fila endeavor.

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An article I read a while ago on Levine made it sound like he was quite happy in his new career. I guess anything’s possible though.

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I’m on board with CTL returning in some capacity. Solid guy, solid recruiter.

Chicken gets old after awhile.

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Ya that would actually be pretty cool. Id be all for it!

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I’d be shocked. Levine got out of coaching to spend more time with the family.

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Possibly not for a head coach position but for a position he enjoyed at a pay bump… stranger things have happened… Also to have a do over to show what his true talent is and leave with a positive mark this time might entice him back. Recruiting once like he did, folks could always say he got lucky, but to come back again and recruit well he could leave this time on a high note. Win - win for Levine and UH.

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Someone posted on here a while back that ChicFilA franchise owners are expected to be involved full-time in running a franchise, and that he couldn’t accept another job even if he wanted to.

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Yea. Chik-fil-A are like the merchant marines. Start messing around and they come to your house and kick your ###.

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Makes sense obviously he would have to be willing to sell the franchise, which makes it a mich longer shot of him coming back.

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I would like to have Levine involved again with the program of life after football. I feel like he really helped a lot of guys both with character and career. Definitely a great father figure to a lot of the guys.

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