Eric Morris

[Wag Tag]

31 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

he better find a qb to come with him

Evaluate talent and develop talent is a must for UNT. He signed a qb out in middle of nowhere and he developed into one of the top qb’s in the transfer portal with multiple P5 offers.

[SigmaGreen]

33 minutes ago, jtm0097 said:

For the Eric Morris camp, here are a few stats for the Washington State offense.

Averages:

375 yards of offense a game

263.5 yards passing

112.3 yards rushing

79th best offense in the country

That’s a fair point. I don’t know the average starting field position but maybe it was better than others? They had the number 3 special teams avg for kick returns and top 5 overall defense both in conference. 3 of the losses were against Utah (by 4), USC (by 14) and Oregon (by 3) The biggest loss was to in state Rival Washington who had the number 1 offense and #3 defense in the pac 12. Even with those stats they couldn’t get into the pac 12 championship over USC and Utah. My point is there are a lot of variables then just the overall stats.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/stats/team/_/view/defense/group/9

[Green Crazy]

9 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Curious as to why?

His success comes in a very small sample size and was helped a huge amount by Cameron Ward. He was 6-5;6-2, 5-7;4-5, (Ward shows up)3-3;3-3 and 10-3;6-1. 

Also, I don't really give him a lot of credit for Ward except for getting him to follow him to WSU.  Them and Texas Southern were the only two offers Ward had coming out of high school and more credit to their QB coach (Mack Leftwich former UTEP QB) for coaching him up than Morris who was a WR when he played.

Seems to have a decent system, but he needs to do good longer and at a better level to prove anything to me.  He doesn't seem like an improvement over Seth. 

[TheReal_jayD]

I am out on Morris. Would have rather had Seth stay. 

[Glory to the Green]

21 minutes ago, TheReal_jayD said:

I am out on Morris. Would have rather had Seth stay. 

Yeah, I don’t understand the Morris love, either. 

[TheReal_jayD]

42 minutes ago, Glory to the Green said:

Yeah, I don’t understand the Morris love, either. 

If I made a top ten list of realistic coaches I want. I don't think he is even in the top 10. I don't think I could even 'spin it" if he were the guy. 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

5 minutes ago, TheReal_jayD said:

If I made a top ten list of realistic coaches I want. I don't think he is even in the top 10. I don't think I could even 'spin it" if he were the guy. 

[TheReal_jayD]

6 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

I mean I might have to to make my "tip guy" happy. 

[Wag Tag]

9 hours ago, TheReal_jayD said:

If I made a top ten list of realistic coaches I want. I don't think he is even in the top 10. I don't think I could even 'spin it" if he were the guy. 

Give us your top 10. I hope the all have HC experience.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Wag Tag

[MeanGreenTexan]

1 hour ago, Wag Tag said:

Give us your top 10. I hope the all have HC experience.

This is not a hard requirement, and eliminates a ton of really good candidates.

I would be light-years more excited about Riley, Gillespie, or a guy like Mike Yurcich than I would Morris.   

I think the Air Raid system is starting to go the way of the Wishbone.    All of the defenses have it figured out for the most part now.   You've gotta have a stronger running game now.  That's why the Briles Veer-&-Shoot derivatives are doing so well now.   Heck, even a Leach disciple and brilliant offensive mind in Seth Littrell agrees with me after handing his offense over to Bloesch.

[GMG_Dallas]

10 hours ago, TheReal_jayD said:

If I made a top ten list of realistic coaches I want. I don't think he is even in the top 10. I don't think I could even 'spin it" if he were the guy. 

Thoughts on Todd Monken? Seemed like a led a good turnaround at Southern Miss considering what he inherited. Developed Nick Mullens into an NFL QB. Got hired away which is a big plus to me. He's been the OC at Georgia for 3 years now? My biggest pro with him is he's been around college and the NFL throughout his career and has bounced around a lot which means plenty of connections. I think that's more important as a HC than how your offense performed as an OC. Got to have connections to keep bringing in good coordinators/position coaches as your staff gets picked up elsewhere for bigger jobs.

[Wag Tag]

44 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

This is not a hard requirement, and eliminates a ton of really good candidates.

I would be light-years more excited about Riley, Gillespie, or a guy like Mike Yurcich than I would Morris.   

I think the Air Raid system is starting to go the way of the Wishbone.    All of the defenses have it figured out for the most part now.   You've gotta have a stronger running game now.  That's why the Briles Veer-&-Shoot derivatives are doing so well now.   Heck, even a Leach disciple and brilliant offensive mind in Seth Littrell agrees with me after handing his offense over to Bloesch.

Compare your choices to Seth's resume when he was hired. Either, no difference or Seth's is superior.  Three years ago Riley was running back coach at App State who has he recruited or developed? SMU got to see Riley up close and they did not hire him. I don't want to see another coach that can't hire, can't do game time or halftime adjustments and can't figure how to use time outs! If they do go that way I hoped it is stressed the he hire an Assistant with HC experience.

[MeanGreenTexan]

5 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

Compare your choices to Seth's resume when he was hired. Either, no difference or Seth's is superior.  Three years ago Riley was running back coach at App State who has he recruited or developed? SMU got to see Riley up close and they did not hire him. I don't want to see another coach that can't hire, can't do game time or halftime adjustments and can't figure how to use time outs! If they do go that way I hoped it is stressed the he hire an Assistant with HC experience.

Your frame of mind appears to be:  "Coordinator = Seth Littrell".   That's not fair to these other guys, and if no Coordinator was ever hired as a HC eventually... there would never be any HC's!

[Wag Tag]

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Your frame of mind appears to be:  "Coordinator = Seth Littrell".   That's not fair to these other guys, and if no Coordinator was ever hired as a HC eventually... there would never be any HC's!

Of course it is fair. When you hire you look at past experiences and compare resumes. With the changes and expectations we are going through not having any experience we don't need. If we can't find a suitable head coach then we will have to hire an Assistant.

[southsideguy]

Can recruit quality QB's or be develop or QB's.  That seems to be our weakness. I think we need a bit of salesman that can close the deal with players.

[GMG_Dallas]

10 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Your frame of mind appears to be:  "Coordinator = Seth Littrell".   That's not fair to these other guys, and if no Coordinator was ever hired as a HC eventually... there would never be any HC's!

I generally agree with your point but with somebody like Garrett Riley, I think he's too green. HC success is about continuously replenishing the support staff with quality coordinators and position coaches. It's why I believe SL flamed out. I think Garrett needs a couple more stops before his network is big enough or at least 5 more years if he stays at TCU so he works with more coaches.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Just now, Wag Tag said:

Of course it is fair. When you hire you look at past experiences and compare resumes. With the changes and expectations we are going through not having any experience we don't need. If we can't find a suitable head coach then we will have to hire an Assistant.

How dumb was UTSA to hire an Arkansas RB's coach with no previous HC experience?
 

When you're talking about Garrett Riley VS Seth Littrell, the resumes are vastly different.   One of them has a friggin BROYLES AWARD on his resume!!    Look at this who's-who list of Broyles award winners:
http://www.espn.com/college-football/awards/_/id/29

I'm not saying we MUST hire a coordinator, and to be honest, I'd rather not.    But I am not going to eliminate qualified candidates from the search just because Seth Littrell was a coordinator prior to his hire (which seems to be your only argument against them).   That's not smart.

[MeanGreenTexan]

5 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

I generally agree with your point but with somebody like Garrett Riley, I think he's too green. HC success is about continuously replenishing the support staff with quality coordinators and position coaches. It's why I believe SL flamed out. I think Garrett needs a couple more stops before his network is big enough or at least 5 more years if he stays at TCU so he works with more coaches.

The problem with waiting is that the longer a G5 school like UNT waits, the further he slips away, eventually taking a P5 opening... because they're watching him too, and if he continues to have TCU's offense clicking, he'll get a P5 opportunity.   Coordinators are calculated risks for G5 schools.   I believe Riley would be a good risk.

[MGNation92]

9 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

The problem with waiting is that the longer a G5 school like UNT waits, the further he slips away, eventually taking a P5 opening... because they're watching him too, and if he continues to have TCU's offense clicking, he'll get a P5 opportunity.   Coordinators are calculated risks for G5 schools.   I believe Riley would be a good risk.

Out of all the coordinators he's the one I'd be most okay with. He can damn sure call an offense, and he has experience recruiting at the G5 level, granted it's a private school, but I'd imagine he'd take a lot of the stuff he learned from Dykes and apply it here.

[Wag Tag]

I would be a Skip Holtz supporter over any of the Assistants mentioned! GMG 

[GMG_Dallas]

1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

But I am not going to eliminate qualified candidates from the search just because Seth Littrell was a coordinator prior to his hire (which seems to be your only argument against them).   That's not smart.

Definitely agree with this. 

58 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

The problem with waiting is that the longer a G5 school like UNT waits, the further he slips away, eventually taking a P5 opening... because they're watching him too, and if he continues to have TCU's offense clicking, he'll get a P5 opportunity.   Coordinators are calculated risks for G5 schools.   I believe Riley would be a good risk.

Do you think a P5 would hire a 30- something year old who's only been a coordinator for a few years to be their HC? I don't. Two names that come to mind when I think of guys who became first time HCs at P5s are Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney. Smart was a college coach for 17 years before he got the Georgia gig. Dabo was more green but also Clemson's recruiting coordinator and one of the best in the country. He wore multiple hats. I think Garrett's time will come but I doubt it'll be this year.

[MeanGreenTexan]

14 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Definitely agree with this. 

Do you think a P5 would hire a 30- something year old who's only been a coordinator for a few years to be their HC? I don't. Two names that come to mind when I think of guys who became first time HCs at P5s are Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney. Smart was a college coach for 17 years before he got the Georgia gig. Dabo was more green but also Clemson's recruiting coordinator and one of the best in the country. He wore multiple hats. I think Garrett's time will come but I doubt it'll be this year.

Right, absolutely.   And no, I don't think a P5 would need to take that risk.   They've got gobs of money. 

Think about a guy like Billy Napier.   Napier was a WRs coach at Alabama (so, not even an OC) before taking the job as LA-La's HC.   Huge gamble for LA-La, but Napier was highly regarded.  He succeeded (understatement) there and parlayed it into a HC spot for the Gators.   If he had stayed on and worked his way up to OC and continued proving himself at 'Bama, he's likely skipping the LA-La job & getting a P5 job directly from 'Bama.

But LA-La is certainly better for having Napier there.

[GMG_Dallas]

26 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Right, absolutely.   And no, I don't think a P5 would need to take that risk.   They've got gobs of money. 

Think about a guy like Billy Napier.   Napier was a WRs coach at Alabama (so, not even an OC) before taking the job as LA-La's HC.   Huge gamble for LA-La, but Napier was highly regarded.  He succeeded (understatement) there and parlayed it into a HC spot for the Gators.   If he had stayed on and worked his way up to OC and continued proving himself at 'Bama, he's likely skipping the LA-La job & getting a P5 job directly from 'Bama.

But LA-La is certainly better for having Napier there.

Wasn't familiar with his path to Florida. If Riley is the guy, so be it. This coaching hire is just so important due to the move to the AAC that I hope they don't just go with a guy because of potential. He needs to be ready to be a HC now.

[aztecskin]

I like Morris because he turned UIW -- which was a lot of nothing -- into something. The Kinne guy came in with a stacked roster and won a ton, but the hard work was done by Morris. 

I lived just a mile or two from UIW and followed them a bit. I liked what I saw. They had no facilities, his coaching office was in a trailer and no one cared about what they were doing. 

I don't see how getting a program-changing QB is a knock? I mean, if any coach came in here and only recruited NT HOF QBs I would be pretty stoked. 

Morris+ = been a head coach at a place where it's hard to get attention and resources, and won. Built a program. Also, he won. He recruited well IN TEXAS and won. 

Morris- = He is looking to move up, so he might just be using NT for a short step. Not bad, but I would like 5-7 years from the coach. He is job-hopping, but then again, he was clearly using FCS-> FBS. He got an OC gig so he could speed up his timeline getting an FBS job. 

 

[BBA1989]

15 minutes ago, aztecskin said:

I like Morris because he turned UIW -- which was a lot of nothing -- into something. The Kinne guy came in with a stacked roster and won a ton, but the hard work was done by Morris. 

I lived just a mile or two from UIW and followed them a bit. I liked what I saw. They had no facilities, his coaching office was in a trailer and no one cared about what they were doing. 

I don't see how getting a program-changing QB is a knock? I mean, if any coach came in here and only recruited NT HOF QBs I would be pretty stoked. 

Morris+ = been a head coach at a place where it's hard to get attention and resources, and won. Built a program. Also, he won. He recruited well IN TEXAS and won. 

Morris- = He is looking to move up, so he might just be using NT for a short step. Not bad, but I would like 5-7 years from the coach. He is job-hopping, but then again, he was clearly using FCS-> FBS. He got an OC gig so he could speed up his timeline getting an FBS job. 

 

Even though Kinne is a Texas boy, I'm surprised Tulsa didn't choose him since that's where he played college ball and he went to Tx State to replace Jake Spavital.  You're 100% right that Morris did the hard work at UIW and put them on the map.  There were Tech grads who thought Morris would go there to coach but the administration went a different route.