"Chris Whaley, who's listed as a starter at defensive tackle, was recruited as a tailback. Linebacker Demarco Cobbs has the speed of a good safety. Safeties Kenny Vaccaro and Adrian Phillips are quick enough to play corner. All of this is by design." Nice article on Diaz & the D. Speed kills, and the D has speed to kill and blow up stuff! IMHO, this D has the potential to be the best D that UT has ever had...
Thanks for the recaps. In my opinion, the offenses throughout the Big 12 are down from last year. WVU will bring a certain level of speed (I noticed when re-watching the Orange Bowl on ESPN this past week), and TCU and K-State loom as the final two games after having played 10, but with two off weeks. When we talk about losses I keep coming back to the question, so name me who is better, better conditioned, faster athletes across the board, plus this whole coaching staff was brand new last year. With no real answer one way or the other, I say it's a level playing field at the least. No favorites, meaning I cannot bring myself to make the Longhorns an underdog in any game this year. Last year was an uphill battle, but I see this season vastly different.
hornpharmd, will Manny be the coach next year? A ton of talent and experience can be wasted in a new scheme. Belmont has got to up Manny's pay significantly if they want him to stay. (And that might not work.)
I hope he becomes our next HC. I would like to see them offer him a co-HC position with a 1 or 2 year transition period. This would allow him to continue to coach defense and give him a little more time to be groomed by Mack for the job. Of course Mack may want to continue to coach so who knows. But yeh if he were to leave next season that would be a blow. It isn't like on offense where you have Major ready to take over for Harsin if needed. Manny is on the rise and going to be a HC with his next job. This will be his 2nd year and Texas and will get serious offers at the end of this year. Dodds and Mack just need to decide what they want to do.
this might be an obvious statement, but i think diaz's chances at becoming yall's HC depend on how the transition happens. if mack has a losing season (not likely, but possible), then i'd imagine it will be a full scale regime change. if mack goes out on top, or goes out on a high note, i think there's a darn good chance diaz will get the job. next summer will be interesting. if i'm the AD at arkansas diaz is at the top of a very short list of potential coaches.
If this team has a losing season, everyone should be fired and Deloss should step down. There is zero reason for a losing season. Zero. The fact that you would say its a possibility is laughable. Cataclysmic injuries would have to ensue for this to be given any thought at all.
i didnt intend to insinuate that you guys would have a losing season this year. that's not going to happen. my comment was about how mack leaves. if he leaves on a good note then sure diaz becomes an obvious candidate. if he leaves on a bad note (not likely but possible) as in a losing season or something similar, then diaz likely wont get a look. i'd say that it's significantly more likely that mack leaves on his terms and on a good note, so yes, diaz will likely be a candidate.
Prop: Some of us understood what you said and a losing season is not beyond the possibllity. Some of us that were in school in the 1990's would never have thought the season was going to end like it did a few times.
I wonder about Diaz as HC - maybe I'm just jaded, but it seems to me that there is this rush to annoint young coordinators as the next big head coaching candidate, and it just doesn't seem to work well. If I'm a Texas DC, I look at the track record of success of the ones who have gone before: Muschamp, Chizik, Robinson, Akina and going back... with the exception of Chizik's one championship season (and w/o Cam Newton, that obviously doesn't happen, either), it just seems like the short-time coordinators haven't done well at the next level. I've always said that being a great coordinator doesn't mean you're going to be a great head coach, and if I were a Diaz or a Harsin, I would think about staying in that position long enough to really become a master at what he's doing, and then after maybe 10 years or so THEN looking at moving on up. I don't know that any of our coordinators should be stepping up as the head coach of the University of Texas, and I hate the idea of hiring someone prematurely because we feel like if we don't, he's going to leave.
Prodigal nailed it. I too really don't want to lose Diaz (or Harsin) but I am just not ready to annoint either as HC to keep them from leaving in the next ~ 1-3 ~ years. IMHO it is a little premature for both - at least at UT. We need to see a little more history / production here, we need to see a HC type presence exhibited over time - here AND we want to see some skins on the wall / Big XII & BCS Natl. Championships - here. Besides, I think Mack will be around another 4-5 years to see this transition through. I think Mack would like to retire on the heels of a MNC, if he can... we will see.
Diaz will not necessarily have to be the Texas DC to get offered the HC job when it becomes available. He may run someone else's show while Mack finishes up. Who knows what the landscape will look like by then, how he may be as a HC and who may be available. I do like his style. He seems to have infectious kickassness all over him.
Dammit, we're talking about this crap again?! Already? We are in the single digits till our season starts. Chillax.
How fortunate are we Texas fans to have coordinators so talented that they would be legitimate targets for other programs. Good programs. One thing that might keep quality staff on board for a while is the excitement around what they are building here, now. You think Diaz and Harsin aren’t just salivating at the thought of winning a national title with their players? The way the UT program is coming back together now, we could easily be in the title hunt this year, with 2013 looking perhaps even better.
I seriously doubt jeffcoat will be back for his senior year if he has anything like the season he should have.
