HarringtonFishSmeller

Oh, and...everyone still pissed at Rick?

Here's thought: With Baker Mayfield solidly in the driver's seat at OU, Trevor Knight here if Lincoln Riley gets the job? Follow me. Knight is in his fourth year at OU; redshirted in 2012. He could be one of those fifth year transfers, right? Anyone have a problem with that - admittedly far-fetched at this point - scenario? Lincoln Riley - hired. Trevor Knight graduates from OU, follows Riley down here. I'd go for it.

All things being equal, I'd say Thomsen is my #1 choice. He's been at some successful FBS school now. And, he did a pretty good job at ACU. I mean...ACU was having guys drafted when Thomsen was there. And, in multiple years for a while there. So, I'd say Thomsen, given what you have to deal with a D-II schools, seemed pretty adept at looking into every nook and cranny for talent. He's also 1-0 as an FBS coach, leading Texas Tech to a bowl win after Tuberville bolted the high plains for Cincy. After, Thomsen, I'd jump on the Riley wagon. Third, for me, would be a tie between the two who were scapegoated by the alma maters - Applewhite and Heupel. Fifth, Norvell. Sixth, give me the Co-OC at Memphis not named Dickey, Brad Cornelsen Seventh, if it comes down to old retreads, give me Tommy Bowden for his interesting sport coat choices alone.

I honestly don't think they could fill it for that game it they gave the tickets away fo' free.

Totally where I am on that game. Yes, Damarcus fumbled...but, he does that EVERY game. He fumbled into the end zone against WKU, but the play was reversed and he threw a TD a play or two later...WKU was already up by 4 or 5 TDs at that point anyway. His ball security is just plain awful. There's no other way around it. It's not "being a gamer" either. It's just sloppy ball handling. UTSA...they pretty much pissed away the game to us. We IN NO WAY dominated. Neither UNT nor UTSA is capable of dominating anyone this year. And...Canales was standing on the sideline.

My consulting fee is $5,000. Rick, open up the check book.

I Like Mike. But, the reality is...he helped put together the mess we have at quarterback. He's been here six seasons. Only one quarterback has work out "well" in the time span, Derek Thompson. And, in the end, he only delivered one winning season. I Like Mike. But, not as the guy who has anything to do with deciding anything about the quarterback. Next coach keep him on as a co-offensive coordinator? Maybe. Philip Rivers, some people say. Rivers was already at NC State when Canales arrived, okay? Canales didn't recruit Philip Rivers. Let's recap Rivers' college career a little: 2000, Canales NOT his coach: 3,054 yards, 25 TDs, 10 Ints 2001: Canales his coach: 2,586 yards, 16 TDs, 7 Ints 2002: Canales his coach: 3,353 yards, 20 TDs, 10 Ints 2003 Canales NOT his coach: 4,491 yards, 34 TDs, 7 Ints Okay? Philip Rivers was one of those guys who was just a Natural, alright? I mean, as a true freshman the guy was throwing for 3,000 and 25 TDs. True freshman...while Canales was NOT his coach! I mean, it would be like saying Darrell Royal and Fred Akers made Earl Campbell what he was or Bob Stoops made Adrian Peterson what he was. It's total bullsh*t. Some guys are just Naturals. And, they are Naturals in every sense - born with the size, speed, strength AND determination to succeed! I Like Mike. But, there has to come a point where you look at what has happened on offense for six years. You must look at the sheer number of quarterback that never developed. I mean, Mike had to have been part of the recruiting process. Let me tell you what I think Mike's quarterback problem is: he is too soft. Okay, there...I said it. We have had any number of guys here who were pretty good high school quarterbacks, but who were in no way inclined to put in the work off the field! How do you not pick that up in kids year after year after year? I Like Mike. But, I think at some point as a coach, I know sometimes as a coach, you have to get in a players face and say, "You work or you walk. Everyone is dealing with problems, school workload, and whatever is happening back at home. Get your head straight." At some point, you have to believe in the old adage, "it's the stick or the carrot." Well...unfortunately, you have to give some kids the stick to motivate them because the carrot isn't enough. They just want to be given the carrot. It doesn't work that way. We have had way too many quarterbacks sign under Canales and not turn into anything. Too many. I Like Mike. I lobbied for the hiring of Mike in 2010. But, the race has now been run. We have seen the results. Mike is a great guy personally. He is a motivator of kid, yes. But, you are talking about the personality of most coaches at that level who succeed. We are not going to win any other game, except maybe UTEP, and so Mike's head coaching record will, at that point, be either 3-9 or 4-8. Look, I created a post asking if we should keep him if he could go even 4-3. Then, we saw that Smith is no different than McNulty in any way, shape, or form except that he can run against UTSA. His passing is as bad. His reading of defenses is as bad. So, four wins is a pipe dream. And, even getting to two wins will be somewhat miraculous, given that beating injury-depleted UTSA took a defensive touchdown and a blocked and returned two point conversion. I mean, be real here. I Like Mike.

Norm Chow is Exhibit A of how a hot coaching commodity takes a huge fall. When USC was having its run in the early aughts, he was all the rage. Then, he went to the NFL, hired by the Tennessee Titans to try to teach football to Vince Young. After that failure, he piddled around at UCLA, but never really got them going the way USC had. After a one year stint as Utah's OC, he was hired by Hawaii, where he was fired midway through fourth season after compiling a 10-36 record, 4-25 in conference.

At least we'd now have the black unis that Dickey craved. So...that part of the RV vs. Dickey feud would be settled. Anyway, people don't seem to be clamouring for Justin Fuente's coordinators, so it looks like both he and Cornelsen will end up with whomever hires him.

Seems like we're going to have most of the defense return. So, new DC should have experienced players to work with.

Personally, I'm hoping Chico and Tommy Perry will be interviewed by whomever the new coach is. I'd say Kevin Patrick. But, if one of his old teammates is hired by The U, he likely gets a call from them pretty quickly. Mike Grant did a great job as RB coach his first three seasons here. Last two, he's done a good job of getting Carlos Harris to have consistent production...in spite of the QB situation. Maybe Grant as well?

I think it's all talk. Numbers don't lie, so far, same with the results. Four 3-stars last year; four this year. Lower than June Jones was getting there regularly. Both ran spread offenses. First season here, with what should have been a veteran roster of Jones' 3-star guys, and he's 1-7. Dan McCarney went 5-7 his first season here. McCarney's sin was at QB. But, look...you've got his 2013 class which reaped Tee Goree, Willie Ivery, Kishawn McClain, Jeffrey Wilson. Get a QB in here and a decent defensive coordinator, and we've got something. We lose two off the OL, the other three will be third year, fourth, or fifth year guys. I'm telling you, the more you look at what people thought was an energetic, game changing hire at SMU really hasn't moved the needle all that much for them. A good hire for us puts us in good shape for the future. And, more quickly than I think some people expect.

The only difference between their '15 signing class and our was they got three 3-star guys. The rest were 2s; all of ours were 2s. The class SMU Jesus signed was identical to those June Jones was signing. They are not way ahead of us recruiting. Not even close. And, for all of the talk of SMU Jesus being an offensive guru, he signed one 3-star QB last year and has one 2-star committed this year. He does not have QBs flocking to The Hilltop. A decent hiring of a good college OC will likely pull us even pretty quickly. Three star or better signees: 2015: SMU Jesus - 4, McCarney - 2 2014: McCarney - 3, June - 3 2013: June - 6, McCarney - 0 2012: June - 12, McCarney - 5 2011: June - 21, McCarney - 5 Junes Jones, just looking at the recruiting record should not have had his ass whipped by us last year. People criticized Jones, saying he didn't recruit well...he was pulling in more highly regarded recruits than SMU Jesus. But, over the last two years: SMU - 7, UNT - 5 Like I said and predicted, the climb to be even with SMU is probably not even a climb at all. SMU has 23 commitments to its 2016, so it's basically done. And, again, only four 3-star guys. SMU Jesus is not, contrary to what everyone said would happen, sweeping high school preps off their feet. A high profile hire will easily have us equal or better than that. You have to wonder, at this point, whether SMU Jesus is hedging - worried he can't get guys to commit, so he offers marginal guys too soon. A committed class of 19 2-star guys and 4 3-star guys before November? By the way June signed 16 3-star guys in 2010, Dodge's last recruiting class year. So, our 2014 squad, on paper, should have been overmatched by SMU. Dodge's 2010 had 8 3-stars, and most were JUCOs. SMU's not far ahead of us, guys. A home run hire, and we're there.

In 2010, Texas Tech hired Tommy Tuberville for $1.5 million. Are we saying we have that type of money for this hire? If so, we will have no problem getting a young coordinator.

I fully supported the hiring of Canales back in 2010. But, there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then. A lot. And, much of it undrinkable. What can you say about results? He took one guy, Derek Thompson and - eventually - made him a pretty good quarterback? Or, do you look at the myriad of other names and faces who have been QBs here - both recruited by and not recruited by McCarney/Canales - who were never even serviceable? I mean, over the past two seasons, if we could have just gotten Sophomore/Junior Thompson-like performances out of any QB on the roster - 57% completion percentage and plus yardage in rushing overall - you might could say there had been some success here under Canales. But, for all of the talk of Phillip Rivers and Derek Thompson, there have been many here who never came close to panning out. And, the offenses have continually been a question mark. And, that's his responsibility. Is Canales passionate and loyal. Absolutely. Is he is positive influence on the team? Yes. But, I think that given the academic success of the squad, and lack of players on the police blotter, you can say that McCarney ran a clean program that Canales was a part of. But, what we want is something higher up the line. Maybe the next coach comes in here and keeps Canales as a Co-offensive coordinator/QB coach. Maybe. It will be hard for a young guy, unless he has friends in the business he's in regular contact with, to not be impressed with Canales personally. So, I think we need a new head coach. I think we need someone else sculpting the offense. The question is, then, how loyal is Chico in the end? If he's offered to stay on as Co-offensive coordinator, head coach calling the shots or splitting with another guy? What if it's just quarterback coach or just wide receiver coach with no coordinator duties at all? Guys, he's been here, recruiting and coaching for six year, and we can see the product on the field. No one here hates the guy. But, this is, at the end of the day, a results-driven career field.

If I'm not mistaken, Ruffin McNeil, Riley's boss at ECU, was a defensive coordinator as well. So, he's had two guys to buffer Leach's ridiculous go-for-it-on-fourth/damn-my-defense's-lung-capacity mentality. Also, I think Norvell's boss, Graham, was a defensive guy. So, I think either - in theory - won't be as reckless as Leach has been throughout his career about putting his defense out on the field too often.

If you really want to know who is going where to interview, you've got to get into spy mode like big schools' fans do: "A flight plan showed a chartered flight from Jacksonville left Gainesville at 12:16 p.m. for Joplin,. Mo. From there, the flight was destined for Fort Collins. The website OnlyGators.com first reported the flight plan that was widely tracked by media outlets." This is how Florida fans knew - and Colorado State fans knew - for sure that the Gators might pluck McElwain from the Rams. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/florida-gators/swamp-things-blog/os-gators-jeremy-foley-jim-mcelwain-20141202-story.html So, you've got to have a fan or two who works in a place where they can get and track flight plans from all sorts of places - airports, public and private. In essence, at big schools, the fans become sleuths. So... ...anyone know Rick's flight plans of late? Or, heard of him taking a long lunch, driving up 35, and not making it home until after dinner?

Last year, SMU hired SMU Jesus amongst much fanfare. Here is how he is recruiting in year two: https://smu.rivals.com/Default.asp You can tick back a year and see it wasn't all that different in 2014. Tick back into the June Jones years, and it really is no different: all two star recruits with 3-5 three star guys mixed in. Even after his multi-year bowl run. We're going to get, we believe, a guy who should easily be on par with SMU Jesus. I'm going to go ahead and call it now, so that it's on record: His first year here, UNT Jesus will do better than SMU Jesus did there. And, I'd lay odds that UNT Jesus has us beating SMU Jesus next year at Apogee; so, order your tickets today. Hear me now, believe me later.

This. Either would know what a prep or JUCO QB should look like for this level of play. I think Chico and Mac, having coached at higher levels, thought they could bring in some guys who had huge holes in their game and bring them along slowly. It didn't work. I think if these are seriously the candiates - guys like Riley, Norvell, etc. - then we will have QBs who already have the tools to succeed, on and off the field; and, so, there won't be any gambling at the position any longer.

Memphis was terrible, underfunding the program, and in a ghetto. There were about zero positives about taking the Memphis job when Fuente did. The only thing is, "Hey...I can prove my stripes, maybe, and then move up to a money program." The hype of an assistant or head coach can burn hot for a season or two, then drop out of sight. These young guys need to get out and prove their spurs...or, they get the Applewhite/Heupel treatment the moment one season goes wrong for their head coach. When trouble hit Texas and Oklahoma, Mack pitched Applewhite overboard; Stoops did the same to Heupel. Nothing good lasts forever in coaching. These young guys have got to get a job while their star is rising...or, it could pass them by forever. Fuente did it. The gamble, on his part, was low. Fail at Memphis...would have been chalked up in the coaching world as, "Meh, it's Memphis...come be my OC, brother." It'll be the same for whomever we hire. Not really a huge career risk for them. Tremendous upside, very low downside. As far a McCarney, he got us to a bowl. We've been to very few. He and Canales screwed the pooch on QB recruiting and development. It is what it is. QBs and coaches generally get too much credit when they win and too much blame when they lose. But, when either win or losses pile up in one direction or the other, you can call church on the situation pretty easily. No way in Mac's fifth season should we have been as bad as we were at the beginning of Dodge's tenure. No way. The bowl was a welcome reprieve from many losing season; but, it ended up being a mirage. A mirage that left us with sand and camel piss in our mouths.

Not all negotiations or contacts between schools and coaches are public.

You guys do know (I hope) that when agents (normally attorneys) are negotiating for their clients non-disclosures are signed at the beginning of discussions, right? So, you aren't going to get daily or weekly press conferences from any AD or candidate about ongoing negotiations and contacts. Neither side is going to be on the horn with sports writers either. Sorry. What you will get is what you get: random people saying they heard this and that.

Six hours.

If the choice is between Riley and Briles, give me Riley for two reasons: (1) More seasons as an OC (2) Success as OC at two different stops, P5 and non-P5 (3) Hasn't drawn NCAA investigations of his recruiting yet; Briles has done so twice already in his short career One problem with both, though, is that they have little boy names.

And, so...? The expectation at $3.1 million a year is to do no better than Tommy Tuberville did there? Tuberville, 9-18 in the Big 12; Kingbury, 8-16 = both .333 in the Big 12 Tuberville, 20-17 overall; Kingsbury, 17-17 = Tuberville advantage .541 winning percentage to Kingsbury's .500. Both are mediocre, so the argument is a moot from a team competitiveness standpoint. But, what isn't moot is that Tech is throwing a lot of money away on Kingsbury's hype...which was ridiculously high. Tuberville clocks in at $2.2 million a year for Cincy. In the same period Kingbury has gone 17-17 for his $3.1 million, the Bearkats have gone 23-11 under Tuberville. Tuberville originally signed with Tech for $1.5 million in 2010, then got kicked up to $2 million in 2011. Tech overpaid for Kingsbury. Cincy probably pays Tuberville at about what the market would bring for him. The bottom line for Tech will always be the same: no matter how Kliffy coifs his hair, he will always be stuck with trying to get top recruits to spend four or five years of their lives in Lubbock. There are a myriad of schools that. like Tech, win seven or eight games a year for high school kids to choose from...and, most are in better locales than Lubbock.