He's the OC at Houston: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/spo...link_cbpopular_bottom#cf2831fa.3503856.735776 I know he has taken some heat here, both for coaching and personal issues, but I like him as a coach.
I think he's been below-average-to-downright-bad as a coach. Gutsy player though. At Rice, he was basically a clipboard holding babysitter while Todd Graham was the brains behind their resurgent offense. It didn't hurt to also have the QB/WR combo who started the most games together in NCAA history. He was shown the door after a subpar season at Bama. His Syracuse teams and offenses were horrible. That was probably more on Robinson than Major, but Applewhite didn't exactly do anything to improve the situation. His time at Texas was marred by two things: always being overridden by Mack/Davis/Harsin and his inability to coach RBs when he was the running backs coach. He never would have been hired for the main playcaller job after the 2012 season if you redacted his name and only listed his qualifications. I was talking to a member of the OK State staff and he was convinced that Mack was on his way out when they hired Major to be the head OC because there's no other team in Division I that would have taken that risk looking at Major's resume. Then, he had nothing in the cupboard to work with when he was finally the main playcaller. Harsin showed it's possible to take over "lesser" programs and have success after leaving the quagmire that was the final Mack years at Texas, so maybe it's possible for Major as well. But Harsin had actual "success" as a QB coach before he came to Texas, whereas Major never really accomplished anything before being made the Texas OC. I think UH is a better fit for someone like him because it'll give him a chance to play around with scheming, whereas he never would have been able to do that at Texas. I'd like to think that someone SHOULD do that at Texas, but the jury is still out on whether Watson/Wickline are able to accomplish that.
Jury is out on Wickline. Watson performed just as he had in prior big conference stints. The big question is does Strong have the balls to Diaz Watson after the second game if the offense has not progressed.
Yes and no. He has the balls to do it but I don't think he is that kind of man to panic in that manner. Would he do it at the end of the season? Yes. If the offense is not producing by the third game, he might make a change internally to Wickline and make it look like nothing has changed to everyone else.
In coaching evaluation, it's often overlooked that coaches, especially young coaches, can learn and get better. Working with a man who was enormously successful for Urban Meyer will likely be very good for Applewhite.
Applewhite put up more points on FSU than anyone else did all year. Also, that was definitely Applewhite's offensive play calling/plays in that game. Would have loved to have seen him work with Swoopes/Heard instead of Watson. That said, I am excited for Gilbert who I think is change we can believe in.
