Sumlin: Just got a new contract Malzahn: Just got a new contract Peterson: Just signed with Washington Briles: Just got a new contract. Saban: Word is hes working on a new extension. If we wait too long, who will be left??
Jim Mora Jr. To me this is a no brainier if he will leave LA. No non-sense hard nose coach with a ton of NFL ties. Great ambassador for the program, and every now and then we can get his dad to be a keynote speaker and say Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs!
We should be looking at Def Coordinators cuz Mack will be back. Need someone to fill Robinson's spot if it was indeed interim.
This tells me the decision has already been made - whether's it Mack or some other specific coach. Malzahn didn't need to sign a contract extension today - he could have done it 2 weeks from now. Auburn's not going to pull the offer. The only reason to do it now is if you know the job you want isn't coming calling.
Correct me if im wrong but I don't think you can approach a coach till the off season.. Unless it's with permission.
Anyone thinking our we should have made an announcement about Mack being let go / resigning / etc before the Baylor game is loony.
Don't get all caught up in worrying about contracts already in place. Those are one sided deals offering economic security for coaches, not service indentures. For the right offer, any coach that would like to be here is "available."
Agree with Crockett plus, none of the names on OC’s are on my "A" list. Just saying. There are "plenty" of great potential options including (in no particular order) Shaw, Harbaugh, Gruden, Del Rio, Franklin, Mora... I'm just wondering who the wild card might be. Gruden?
If I were doing the looking for an up and comer, I 'd look at Hugh Freeze, Al Golden, James Franklin and Malzahn. Might consider Mark Richt from Georgia if you are looking for more experience, a good record and what seems to be a decent person.
James Franklin is a sleeper that definitely should be considered. The guy does more with less than just about anybody out there.
Why would we want somebody who does more with less? We want somebody who does well (or more) with more. I can never understand that argument, which was made by the majority about Barnett back in 1997. Texas needs somebody who is knows what to do when you have everything at your disposal. That is not same as coaching a bunch of nobodies at Northwestern or Vanderbilt into winning players. Heck, a Texas coach hardly even gets time to coach. As Mack himself showed for many years, you don't even need to be a great Xs and Os guy yourself to get it done. The question is on whether a coach candidate can do all the rest, after hiring the BEST coordinators to get the job done. Despite Texas being able to offer a lot, a lot of the best assistants might not come to work under a newbie coach however good his recent resume looks (sort of like in McWilliams' case), and some might not come due to certain coaches' personality characteristics (sort of the Mackovic issue). The bottom line problem all the way through 1985 to 1997 was that we never had the best coaching staff. I can hardly remember any of them making it big elsewhere later or anything of that sort (in general). The same applies to the recruiting ability of the staff - in judging player talent, and in doing it right. That's because the pipeline to Texas is never that dry unless you screw it up. The skills needed to sell Podunk Univ to a marginal player, or to keep him from going to a big program, is not the skills needed to convince the 5-star and 4-star kids to come to Texas - and again you need to show that you have the staff who will only help in their journey to NFL (and not a staff that will coach them up to compete with the players at Michigan or Alabama, which is how you sell your staff to the Vandy or Northwestern recruit). Those are the things to consider at a program like ours. Not that somebody who does more with less will not be able to do well at Texas. Just that it does not give much indication of a lot of other things the Texas head coach needs to do when the world is in his hands.
I would argue that Texas needs a good Xs and Os coach who is not going to spend as much time handling the political or commercial side of the UT brand game. The system is in place. Bring in a game coach, good O&D Cs, possibly keep a few of the existing coaches (Giles, Wyatt, maybe Searles) and supplement them with other good new coaches and , voila', Horns back on top for a long stretch. But as I have mentioned elsewhere, I expect Mack back for a few years. I think the Horns will be good but not dominant. in this case.
Third Coast, I added a few more lines to my response above, as you were typing. Read it, if you don't mind. I'm not trying to verbally spar with you. I do know what "doing more with less" is. I didn't say that coaching is not important. I don't think you carefully read what I had said in my first post before taking it as some attack on your opinion. It wasn't. I was saying that the coaching-up can be done with the right assistant who actually get to coach much more. Also talked about the difference in recruiting players.
Your'e welcome, TEXnSEATTLE. As for where Mack went wrong, I think it started the moment he got too excited about going and hiring the best, and got Muschamp as his DC and HCiW. Despite what everybody said (much of which is correct too, in some stubbornness in play-calling, and in poor coaching of OL run-blocking) Mack should have never let GD go. He was one side of the equation that was always solid with Mack. The moment the HCiW started showing displeasure at GD, the ride was over for Mack. We should have never had that 5-7 season where Mack totally lost control of his team (and the HCiW again didn't help a bit) - and it was really the only time in his career that MB didn't even have his team with him, as even the team was allowed to sulk at GD. All of that after 6 straight years of unbelievable offensive production. An OC who had produced Simms, Applewhite, Young, and McCoy shouldn't have been second-guessed so fast because of a first-year QB not panning out. Heck, that QB's dad knew some football - and wouldn't ahve sent him to Texas if GD was so bad... Mack was unable to keep a single good QB after that, and Major is still learning his trade as OC (he is not bad, but not what we need at Texas). Mack had no choice but to keep Major for recruiting reasons, as Muschamp tried to take even Major with him (talks about Muschamp's judgment on the offensive side - proven greatly later at UF too). Then it got worse when Mack made a poor judgment in getting Manny, and last year happened. It was over by then. But it all started with the hiring of Muschamp. That is my view. Mack always needed top coordinators with him, at least in the last 10+ years of his career when he was bound to become less of an "out in the practice field" coach. He was anyway never known for his Xs and Os. His trump card was judgement in hiring coaches and selecting players. 2 or 3 mistakes there, and that's all it took. Luck also played a part. The McCoy injury in the NC game, and even Ash's concussion this year.
