Yeah, I think he was set up to fail.
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By the time he left, he had A LOT more assistant budget than his predecessors.
Levine got fired for hitching his wagon to Travis Bush his last year. You make an “I’m smarter than you” kinda hire like that, you better be right. He knew exactly what he had and still promoted him, again.
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His coaching budget was non existent. They upped it when Herman arrived.
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It was much bigger than Sumlin’s (~50%). They upped it for Levine after year 1 and then again for Herman.
Look who sumlin had on staff and they all left before or with him / that’s hard to replace and also being a first time head coach to add?
Sumlin had to build a staff as a first time HC when he got here too.
I thought Jamie Bryant was every bit as bad as Bush. Some of the position coaches—Zac Spavital, Jamie Christian, Ricky Logo, Glen Elarbee—were pretty good, and many have gone on to other FBS jobs. Actually Meacham and Gibbs were solid hires. But I remember driving home with a friend after the Tulane home loss in 2014 and both of us were saying he really had to go. Great guy, excellent ST coordinator, and strong recruiter, but he wasn’t cut out to be a head coach.
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Oh, he was. Very similar to Bush in that he knew what he was getting too. His first two coordinator hires were as bad as they get.
Agree that he did really well in round two with Meach and Gibbs. He should have stuck to that model. Going back Bush was inexcusable. For whatever reason, Levine thought very highly of him.
Yes he was but look at who he hired and how they turned out - Levine didn’t have the same success in that area
For sure, that’s my point.
For every 5 
Arch Manning out there, the is a 2 Case Keenum type that makes it. Recruiting stars aren’t the be all, end all, but the likeilhood is that higher stars will be ready to play at a high level sooner than lower stars. Too many variables to predict with certainty.
I think Meachum left to TCU on his own after the 2013 season when the offense was good with O’Korn, Farrow, Ayers, Greenberry, Ward etc.
He was probably the most creative OC under Levine as Bush was a dud.
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He did leave on his own. Levine didn’t have to promote Bush again though. He should have gone back to looking outside the program.
Agree, Meach was really solid here.
IIRC, the budget was cut back after Sumlin left. Regardless of whether he had a bigger budget than predecessors, his budget was not keeping pace with the escalating salaries in FBS division football. You can’t buy Dom Perignon for Blatz beer prices.
When Herman got here he was given a much larger budget than Levine had. Again after he left and they hired Applewhite, the budget was again lowered. I think the assumption was, these coaches didn’t have the same weight as Sumlin or Herman, so they shouldn’t be paid as much.
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The budget wasn’t cut back after Sumlin left. Levine got about 10% more assistant budget in 2012 vs Sumlin in 2011.
I’m not saying Levine had a great assistant budget. But he did less with more than his predecessors. By the time he left, he had significantly more than Sumlin ever had. We invested more and got less in return.
Nobody wanted…THE GOAT
Brady was drafted in the sixth round because the Patriots needed more training camp bodies.
Joe Montana, my GOAT was never in the first round nfl radar. He too was late to get drafted.
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Bottom line is after Levine’s recruits matriculated thru, we have sucked ever since.
Dude could recruit. No doubt about that.
Dude could identify talent.