Nahlin:
We are the Joneses - The Official Texas Longhorns Athletics Thread
- Thread starter satam55
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@macpat @Spade @backinmyday @satam55 big thread on OB about Nahlin saying Charlie isn't happy here and that players' families are calling Nahlin talking about the disorganization in the program. i don't care for OB but nahlin is a respectable guy who has been behind charlie. yall got anymore info?
Here is the Big Cigar report from tonight (I haven't read it or the thread):
Mondays in the Humidor with the Big Cigar
By: Jesus Shuttlesworth 11/16/15 at 7:45 PM.
In this edition of Mondays in the Humidor, El Cohiba Grande has the goods on what's going down on the 40 acres after a frustrating loss on the road in Morgantown. The more things change, the more they remain the same as the young Texas Longhorns found a new way to lose a game -- one in which they perhaps dominated on the stat sheet. "Out-stating" a team doesn't make things more palatable on the 40 Acres, and in fact could be termed as just another way to come up a loser, but the meme that proclaims Texas doesn't have talent is shallow at best. The Longhorns are good enough to win, but may not understand exactly how to do so at this point. The Cigar chimes in on what to expect from the Texas brass going forward as it applies to the players and staff going forward as the losses continue to pile up and the frustration continues to mount. And if we're talking money, the Cigar will get to why striking while the iron is hot is of utmost importance for those running the Ivory Tower. Change earlier in the season garnered a lot of $goodwill$ and there's word that that the powers-that-be think they can raise more money in the near future if they can get the ship righted. We'll try to get this ship righted, as we go inside the Humidor.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So, about the game in Morgantown, what are your thoughts from the stadium and what you saw in the locker room prior to getting back to Austin?
Big Cigar: Damn, my thoughts are scattered from 11 am. when compared to Saturday night in Austin. I thought we went out with our hair on fire ready to do basically what we did to OU in Dallas. These kids were ready to play and I thought their pride and their hearts were ready for battle unlike all of the other road games this season.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: I used to travel to West Virginia for business and my heart was always ready for battle going into to that place. So this was a winnable game in your opinion?
Big Cigar: Yes. I don't think this group knows how to win at this point, but I also don't think the coaching staff does them any favors. I get the feeling that when the kids come in ready to fly around and make plays, the coaching staff isn't on the same page. The coaches, quite frankly, coached tight this game when the kids were ready to play and were excited to be there. I felt the coaches needed to loosen up and they really didn't at any point in the contest. The kids seemed to feed off this and definitely tightened up as the game wore on and the mistakes mounted. By the middle of the third quarter, everyone was looking around waiting for the next bad play. You can't coach like that or play like that if you've got a young team.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Is the coaching staff coaching any differently than they have all season? Or was this the same ole same ole?
Big Cigar: I think there's a palpable feeling among the staff that they are coaching for their jobs and it came through more so than most this week. It's funny, because this staff seemed to be coaching tight heading into the OU game but everything worked out. This game was similar because they coached tight during the week of practice this week as they did going into OU. But when you compare the actual in-game coaching of the OU game and WVU game, it just seemed like they were coaching not to lose and that seemed to feed into the kids' attitudes as the game went on. In my opinion they needed to take the reins off the kids and let them do their thing against a squad that seemed to be outmatched physically. That never seemed to happen.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Our readership is pretty dialed in as fans so they're going to ask for specifics here. Give us an example if you can.
Big Cigar: The decision to run out the clock with three timeouts in our pocket to end the 1st half is something that gets Mack Brown booed out of the stadium. That was not confidence inspiring and it sent a signal that the coaching staff didn't believe in the kids. I mean, it's a game you're not supposed to win in the eyes of the odds makers so why not tell the kids it's us against the world and see what you can do to end the half. You're more than a touchdown dog so why not throw caution to the wind and take a chance?
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Well, proponents of Strong would point out that if you could avoid a mistake there to end the half, then you guarantee you have a competitive ballgame in the 2nd half because you prevent a turnover.
Big Cigar: Sure, but you have a young team who feeds off of their coach. Taking a knee at the 35 with time to go score sends a bad message. And I can tell you that squad went into the half deflated and of course, the rest is history.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Do things look any better on the personnel front as we head into Tech?
Big Cigar: Well, there's a chance that Patrick Vahe may be out for the game but I'm also hearing that Johnathan Gray may have a toe injury that keeps him out for two games, including Baylor. So things on the offensive side of the ball may getting worse before they get better.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: What about the week off for the team? What benefit, if any, do you see here?
Big Cigar: I think this is a huge break for a bunch who has to be at a pretty low-low for the season. And I'm not just talking about the kids here. I think the staff needs some time to recalibrate and figure out what they're coaching for. There are a few guys who won't be here next season regardless of Strong's status and they need to look inward about what they're doing career-wise.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So with all of that said, we know there are going to be changes to the staff whether Charlie stays or goes. If you could outline what's at stake apart from what our readers already know about that would be enlightening.
Big Cigar: Well, donations to the Longhorn Foundation and the Athletic Department skyrocketed the day we got rid of Steve Patterson. If you combine this with the fact that President Fenves is fund raising visionary, in other words he wants to take UT from a transactional-based fund raising entity to a philanthropic driven University, then you can recognize his motivation as a president. He's a smart man who presciently called the football program the "face" of the University as it applies to donor-ship. If you get this then you get where his allegiances are. He wants to make phone calls to raise real money and it's a lot easier to do so when his sports programs are winning. He's not an altruistic pseudo-intellectual academic like his predecessor. He understands the math that goes along with winning, and he's much more pragmatic in this vein than Bill Powers ever was.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Well, it was easy for Powers to be who he was because we were winning. You can be altruistic when you have all the money that is not up-under the Vatican.
Big Cigar: Exactly. Which is exactly why you want a guy like Fenves and to an extent Perrin if you're in a rebuild. Fenves is already working on the next fundraising campaign for UT Austin - which will be greater than the $3 billion dollar campaign we just finished. It is likely to have a public launch in the next couple of years, but make no mistake, this guy gets the dollars and cents of all of this. He saw that the firing of Patterson moved the needle and he'll do what it takes to this end. Case in point is that he's fostered hiring more staff in the Longhorn Foundation to push the philanthropic angle to raise more money.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Great stuff and it begs the question, what are the thoughts on Charlie Strong getting 2016 for his own rebuild?
Big Cigar: Of course it's always a moving target. At this point I'm told that they're contingency planning scenarios with Charlie Strong as head coach and Charlie Strong taking another job. They've vetted, and dare I say, reached out to OC candidates to replace the OC folks we have currently if Charlie is still here at Texas next season. And as I've stated, Fenves/Perrin are smart, pragmatic men. They've also begun vetting and weighing head coaching candidates for 2016 if coach Strong ends up being somewhere else. They won't be using a search firm for anything more than nominal information and instead will rely college football confidantes and friends to vet their coaching search. They also will take a real world view on contract negotiations and take more seriously their fiduciary responsibility to the University at it applies to the next coach. That's not to say that coach Strong is gone, but these guys are smart men, and won't get caught with their pants down.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So is it safe to say that other avenues are being pursued or is this precautionary?
Big Cigar: At this point it's precautionary but there is definitely an appetite to change the program significantly. The dollars are just too great to rest on our laurels.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Thanks.
Big Cigar: You bet.
By: Jesus Shuttlesworth 11/16/15 at 7:45 PM.
In this edition of Mondays in the Humidor, El Cohiba Grande has the goods on what's going down on the 40 acres after a frustrating loss on the road in Morgantown. The more things change, the more they remain the same as the young Texas Longhorns found a new way to lose a game -- one in which they perhaps dominated on the stat sheet. "Out-stating" a team doesn't make things more palatable on the 40 Acres, and in fact could be termed as just another way to come up a loser, but the meme that proclaims Texas doesn't have talent is shallow at best. The Longhorns are good enough to win, but may not understand exactly how to do so at this point. The Cigar chimes in on what to expect from the Texas brass going forward as it applies to the players and staff going forward as the losses continue to pile up and the frustration continues to mount. And if we're talking money, the Cigar will get to why striking while the iron is hot is of utmost importance for those running the Ivory Tower. Change earlier in the season garnered a lot of $goodwill$ and there's word that that the powers-that-be think they can raise more money in the near future if they can get the ship righted. We'll try to get this ship righted, as we go inside the Humidor.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So, about the game in Morgantown, what are your thoughts from the stadium and what you saw in the locker room prior to getting back to Austin?
Big Cigar: Damn, my thoughts are scattered from 11 am. when compared to Saturday night in Austin. I thought we went out with our hair on fire ready to do basically what we did to OU in Dallas. These kids were ready to play and I thought their pride and their hearts were ready for battle unlike all of the other road games this season.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: I used to travel to West Virginia for business and my heart was always ready for battle going into to that place. So this was a winnable game in your opinion?
Big Cigar: Yes. I don't think this group knows how to win at this point, but I also don't think the coaching staff does them any favors. I get the feeling that when the kids come in ready to fly around and make plays, the coaching staff isn't on the same page. The coaches, quite frankly, coached tight this game when the kids were ready to play and were excited to be there. I felt the coaches needed to loosen up and they really didn't at any point in the contest. The kids seemed to feed off this and definitely tightened up as the game wore on and the mistakes mounted. By the middle of the third quarter, everyone was looking around waiting for the next bad play. You can't coach like that or play like that if you've got a young team.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Is the coaching staff coaching any differently than they have all season? Or was this the same ole same ole?
Big Cigar: I think there's a palpable feeling among the staff that they are coaching for their jobs and it came through more so than most this week. It's funny, because this staff seemed to be coaching tight heading into the OU game but everything worked out. This game was similar because they coached tight during the week of practice this week as they did going into OU. But when you compare the actual in-game coaching of the OU game and WVU game, it just seemed like they were coaching not to lose and that seemed to feed into the kids' attitudes as the game went on. In my opinion they needed to take the reins off the kids and let them do their thing against a squad that seemed to be outmatched physically. That never seemed to happen.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Our readership is pretty dialed in as fans so they're going to ask for specifics here. Give us an example if you can.
Big Cigar: The decision to run out the clock with three timeouts in our pocket to end the 1st half is something that gets Mack Brown booed out of the stadium. That was not confidence inspiring and it sent a signal that the coaching staff didn't believe in the kids. I mean, it's a game you're not supposed to win in the eyes of the odds makers so why not tell the kids it's us against the world and see what you can do to end the half. You're more than a touchdown dog so why not throw caution to the wind and take a chance?
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Well, proponents of Strong would point out that if you could avoid a mistake there to end the half, then you guarantee you have a competitive ballgame in the 2nd half because you prevent a turnover.
Big Cigar: Sure, but you have a young team who feeds off of their coach. Taking a knee at the 35 with time to go score sends a bad message. And I can tell you that squad went into the half deflated and of course, the rest is history.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Do things look any better on the personnel front as we head into Tech?
Big Cigar: Well, there's a chance that Patrick Vahe may be out for the game but I'm also hearing that Johnathan Gray may have a toe injury that keeps him out for two games, including Baylor. So things on the offensive side of the ball may getting worse before they get better.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: What about the week off for the team? What benefit, if any, do you see here?
Big Cigar: I think this is a huge break for a bunch who has to be at a pretty low-low for the season. And I'm not just talking about the kids here. I think the staff needs some time to recalibrate and figure out what they're coaching for. There are a few guys who won't be here next season regardless of Strong's status and they need to look inward about what they're doing career-wise.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So with all of that said, we know there are going to be changes to the staff whether Charlie stays or goes. If you could outline what's at stake apart from what our readers already know about that would be enlightening.
Big Cigar: Well, donations to the Longhorn Foundation and the Athletic Department skyrocketed the day we got rid of Steve Patterson. If you combine this with the fact that President Fenves is fund raising visionary, in other words he wants to take UT from a transactional-based fund raising entity to a philanthropic driven University, then you can recognize his motivation as a president. He's a smart man who presciently called the football program the "face" of the University as it applies to donor-ship. If you get this then you get where his allegiances are. He wants to make phone calls to raise real money and it's a lot easier to do so when his sports programs are winning. He's not an altruistic pseudo-intellectual academic like his predecessor. He understands the math that goes along with winning, and he's much more pragmatic in this vein than Bill Powers ever was.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Well, it was easy for Powers to be who he was because we were winning. You can be altruistic when you have all the money that is not up-under the Vatican.
Big Cigar: Exactly. Which is exactly why you want a guy like Fenves and to an extent Perrin if you're in a rebuild. Fenves is already working on the next fundraising campaign for UT Austin - which will be greater than the $3 billion dollar campaign we just finished. It is likely to have a public launch in the next couple of years, but make no mistake, this guy gets the dollars and cents of all of this. He saw that the firing of Patterson moved the needle and he'll do what it takes to this end. Case in point is that he's fostered hiring more staff in the Longhorn Foundation to push the philanthropic angle to raise more money.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Great stuff and it begs the question, what are the thoughts on Charlie Strong getting 2016 for his own rebuild?
Big Cigar: Of course it's always a moving target. At this point I'm told that they're contingency planning scenarios with Charlie Strong as head coach and Charlie Strong taking another job. They've vetted, and dare I say, reached out to OC candidates to replace the OC folks we have currently if Charlie is still here at Texas next season. And as I've stated, Fenves/Perrin are smart, pragmatic men. They've also begun vetting and weighing head coaching candidates for 2016 if coach Strong ends up being somewhere else. They won't be using a search firm for anything more than nominal information and instead will rely college football confidantes and friends to vet their coaching search. They also will take a real world view on contract negotiations and take more seriously their fiduciary responsibility to the University at it applies to the next coach. That's not to say that coach Strong is gone, but these guys are smart men, and won't get caught with their pants down.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So is it safe to say that other avenues are being pursued or is this precautionary?
Big Cigar: At this point it's precautionary but there is definitely an appetite to change the program significantly. The dollars are just too great to rest on our laurels.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Thanks.
Big Cigar: You bet.
fukk Nahlin
That is one parents opinion and what do you think they would be basing that on?
I can't see Fenves/Perrin forcing Strong out and I think it'd be out of character for him to bail. We are in a rut, but we are maybe a year or 2 away. Charlie leaves now and it sets the program back another 2 years.
And what is all this talk about Herman, its not hard to succeed at Houston considering their competition, and I don't think Patterson would take the Texas job this time.
I'll be honest and say I'm not as much on the Charlie wagon as I was before, but I think he needs at least one more year to show the progress in the program, 2 years for us to be back to where we need to be.
That is one parents opinion and what do you think they would be basing that on?
I can't see Fenves/Perrin forcing Strong out and I think it'd be out of character for him to bail. We are in a rut, but we are maybe a year or 2 away. Charlie leaves now and it sets the program back another 2 years.
And what is all this talk about Herman, its not hard to succeed at Houston considering their competition, and I don't think Patterson would take the Texas job this time.
I'll be honest and say I'm not as much on the Charlie wagon as I was before, but I think he needs at least one more year to show the progress in the program, 2 years for us to be back to where we need to be.
Spade
Superstar
If Strong stays at Texas in year three and again does not contend for at least the conference and they go 6-6 or worst, he will not get year number four IMO.
Wait, so All this talk of Strong being unhappy & going to leave is because of 1 parent's opinion??!!
Well that's obvious though. But if Strong makes a good OC hire in the offseason, I see no reason why Texas won't win at least 8 games next season,
I see no reason he shouldn't win 8 either. When I look at this season we should have won the Cal and OSU games, and we didn't even bother to show up to the ISU game, one we should have won easily as well, without the TOs we likely beat WVU. If we had taken care of business there we'd have 8 wins right now, Tech is beatable and so is Baylor at this point. Season would look much different. With the experience the young pups have gotten I see no reason why he can't reach 8 next year, and if he doesn't, then honestly it may be best we part ways.
Nahlin posted this yesterday on IT in the OP in a thread about JUCO QB prospects:
After reading that post & reading Thujone's posts on ShaggyTexas, I'm starting to think cacs on OB just blew up what Eric posted on Monday out of proportion.
I literally was shook that Strong was gonna leave. Just thinking about that shyt doesn't even make. Strong really gonna bail on all these kids he just recruited & especially with the way he recruits these kid's parents. 
After reading that post & reading Thujone's posts on ShaggyTexas, I'm starting to think cacs on OB just blew up what Eric posted on Monday out of proportion. I literally was shook that Strong was gonna leave. Just thinking about that shyt doesn't even make. Strong really gonna bail on all these kids he just recruited & especially with the way he recruits these kid's parents.
Nahlin posted this yesterday on IT in the OP in a thread about JUCO QB prospects:
Nah Nahlin and IT have gone full blown meltdown. They haven't acknowledged the reports that Strong is continually getting irritated that his name is being brought up in relation to the Miami job. I think its intentional, may have crossed paths with Bianco in a non pleasant way and they are lashing out.
Nahlin is usually a trustworthy reporter. That sounds out of character for him. What makes you say they've gone full meltdown mode? I haven't been reading the forum.
I don't read his forum, I just see his tidbits posted elsewhere. Don't feel like looking for the exact passages but there was the Texas and Charlie should part ways piece, then he called into question Charlies eye for talent for not pressing for J. Madabuike and instead pursuing Christmas-Giles, and I heard the other day he had changed his twitter handle to "Not Inside Texas", dude is butthurt over something.
Ian Boyd from IT did a write up Texas' next OC:
"
Inside the Gameplan: UT’s next OC
November 19, 2015 by Ian Boyd
Ever since Mack threw Greg Davis under the bus to save his own skin, the Texas OC job has been a revolving door. First the ‘Horns brought in Bryan Harsin, who was arguably an upgrade but that simply meant that his departure was nearly inevitable and it proved to come very early.
Then Mack finally turned to his young apprentice, Major Applewhite, who was frankly over-eager and got his only good QB knocked out of football.
Charlie Strong has now had two chances to hire a QB coach and OC that could handle the pressure and current situation at Texas and leverage the state’s absurd resources to produce a good signal caller that could lead the Longhorns against an offensive-minded Big 12.
In his first attempt, he brought over the QB guru that enabled Strong’s Louisville program to take off and earned Charlie his opportunity at Texas, Shawn Watson. It’s worth noting that Mike Sanford was the first OC at Louisville and then Charlie demoted him and elevated Watson midseason.
Charlie decided to position himself to repeat his Louisville trick when Watson’s QB collapsed at the end of 2015 by hiring Jay Norvell, the recently fired Co-OC of an OU offense that had fallen off due to an inability to develop QBs, as a back-up option at OC. Obviously this hasn’t worked.
So what does Charlie need to do with the next OC hire to get this thing going? I’m going to discuss the competencies Texas needs to look for and then hit on a few of the major candidates so that your savages can form teams and rip each other to shreds.
The necessary competencies for the next Texas Offensive Coordinator
The Longhorns absolutely have to get someone who can double as the QB coach and develop the talent on campus, such as it is, and be great at evaluating and developing future talents that will be coming to Texas.
Making the most of the talent on campus is basically what sunk Watson as his system for developing and deploying QBs did not translate to success for Tyrone Swoopes and hasn’t yet panned out with Jerrod Heard.
The failure of Texas to bring in some QBs that were close to being ready to help has been totally baffling. When Texas failed to get Jake Hubenak or any other JUCO or graduate transfer I cautioned that being dependent on either Swoopes making a huge leap or Heard being ready as a redshirt freshman was a very precarious situation. Well?
The high school recruiting choices were also confusing up to the 2016 class and the signing of Shane Buechele. In the midst of turmoil and doubt about whether Ash would be healthy or Swoopes functioning, Texas made it a point to recruit a raw OOS QB who will probably end up as a TE at Michigan. When neither he nor a more college-ready option were landed, Texas ended up with another raw out-of-state option that’s likely to end up at WR and a raw, nearly grey-shirted player.
In a state that regularly produces QBs well versed in spread concepts, Texas has failed to stumble upon an easy solution for a position that just needs to master some basic competencies.
Failure to get Baker Mayfield in all of this is a particularly frustrating part of the story but the blame there lies more with Mack and his staff who turned him down out of high school because they had five QBs and then shut down communication when Papa Mayfield told them none of those five QBs could even start at Lake Travis.
At any rate, the next QB coach at Texas will need to be able to make something of Swoopes (too late), Heard, Locksley, Buechele, Merrick, or a JUCO (hopefully). For the future, they’ll need to be good at identifying and landing the big-time talents within the state as well as the 3-star kids that often end up being the best players.
I don’t care that Florida Atlantic was his best offer, Texas’ failure to know what they had under their nose in Baker Mayfield is inexcusable.
Another crushing blow to the Shawn Watson era was lack of staff cohesion in the offensive meeting room. Strong seems to prefer a methodical pro-style approach to offense that can control the ball, run clock, and be multiple. The problem was that not only were the QBs on campus ill-suited to this task, but so was the staff he hired to support Watson.
Wickline’s specialty is building OL for the spread and his career took off working with Air Raid coordinators. Les Koenning was from the Urban Meyer school of offense that utilizes entirely different concepts. Then Watson was asked to oversee a move to the spread with new staff Jay Norvell and Jeff Traylor, both of whom are ambitious and know much more about the offense than their boss did.
The next OC at Texas, in addition to being a great QB coach, needs to be someone with command of a system they can teach and oversee.
Guys like Norvell and Traylor need to be bought-in to that coach’s leadership and his system.
Strong will build a tough culture, bring in talented players, and effectively challenge his offense but he’s not a guy that’s going to be valuable for helping an OC oversee installation and deployment of a system. The OC needs to set the vision for the offense and have the leadership to see it through.
Some of the candidates
There are lots of popular names floating out there right now, basically anyone who’s currently the coach of a good offense is going to get consideration on message boards. Charlie is probably going to tend to rely more on his connections to find someone he can trust but then Perrin and the powers that be will probably have a firm helping hand in all of this as well. Since we’ve yet to see Strong hire a great OC as the head coach of a program, I’d say a firm helping hand is appropriate.
This is Texas, after all, if the program can’t shore up Strong’s weaknesses to result in an elite product then we shouldn’t assume that the next coach wouldn’t also have some difficulties.
Sonny Cumbie, Co-OC at TCU (QBs)
Cumbie has never risen higher than the level of a Co-OC, but it’s likely that the next hire will have that title and “share” the job with Jay Norvell. That doesn’t matter, what matters is that the new hire excel at developing QBs and brings a system that he can lead.
Cumbie’s system is the Air Raid and he’s coached the Neal Brown version (a classical approach), the Kingsbury version (little bit more run game), and now the TCU edition, which is a balanced and precise attack.
Unless Doug Meacham is responsible for everything good about the TCU offense from week to week, Cumbie excels at game planning and making the most of the Frog roster. Thanks to Boykin’s brilliance and flexible tactics the Frogs have been able to put a lot of points on the board from week to week with a few different skill players serving as the main components.
The way in which they’ve unleashed true freshman Kavontae Turpin should really stand out to a program that hasn’t been able to figure out how to get the most from an uncountable number of similar athletes over the years.
Cumbie has been a QB coach for three years now but in that time he’s flashed some real aptitude for the job. His coaching allowed Tech to field a great offense in 2013 with Baker Mayfield, Michael Brewer, and Davis Webb all seeing action at the position and Mayfield and Webb were true freshmen. Then he turned Boykin into a star QB, which everyone already knows.
What could he do with the Texas roster? Well, you have to assume that he’d get the most of Heard as a passer but there are questions about exactly what that even means. He’s also shown the ability to work with raw players like Jerod Evans (fingers crossed) and to set up freshman like Shane Buechele for success.
The sales pitch for Cumbie is basically: The guy who taught Boykin to play QB like a Heisman! + Air Raid +Texas roster + Charlie defense = WINS!
He’s also familiar with recruiting Texas, indeed it’s where he’s been for his entire career.
Sterlin Gilbert, Co-OC at Tulsa (QBs and WRs)
Gilbert got his start as a Texas HS coach and did work at Temple, San Angelo Lake View, and Abilene Cooper for those who are HS football enthusiasts. His college career has consisted of him coaching with and following around guys from the Art Briles coaching tree (Dino Babers for three years and now Phillip Montgomery) and running Briles’ “veer and shoot” offense.
That started at Eastern Illinois with Babers, where Gilbert coached Jimmy Garappolo, who may be the most successful pro QB to have come from the Briles system.
His Tulsa team is currently 5-5, which will see him disqualified by some hoopleheads, but Gilbert’s offense has scored a lot of points this year in only year one in a system rich with option reads and option routes.
Like Cumbie’s Air Raid, this system requires a real passing QB, which means that unless Heard is up for making a leap that Texas would probably need a JUCO or to start Buechele. This system also puts more of a premium on arm strength than the Cumbie Air Raid because the wide splits require a QB that can throw over greater distances.
The run game attached to this system is more of a gap-oriented approach that would jive well with Vahe and Williams’ talent.
Unlike Cumbie, Gilbert has not worked as an OC apart from a head coach that also knows the system of offense being run.
Tim Beck, Co-OC at Ohio State (QBs)
Beck has been in the spread-option game for some time, knows the Mangino and Urban Meyer offenses, has Texas HS roots, and is a guy that Charlie is likely to have connections to through Urban.
This would be the second time that Beck has replaced Watson as a result of the defensive-minded HC seeking to get someone more suited to coaching a dual-threat QB. That’d be humorous.
Beck’s specialty is building offenses around the zone read and mixing up H-back or RB blocking angles or attaching pass options (RPOs) to get the most out of the concept. At Nebraska he focused on outside zone and has made that a bigger part of the Ohio State approach where inside zone ruled the day under Herman. Texas has good personnel for either but mixing in plenty of power/counter schemes would be more than advisable given Vahe’s stunning aptitude for the play.
In terms of getting the most from Tyrone Swoopes, Jerrod Heard, or Jerod Evans if Texas goes that route, Beck is a hire that makes a good deal of sense. He got good mileage out of Taylor Martinez and Tommy Armstrong at Nebraska and neither were savants throwing the football.
In terms of getting the most from guys like Shane Buechele, Sam Ehlinger, or the other more passing-oriented QBs that tend to come from within the state, this is not a hire remotely as exciting as Gilbert or Cumbie. Given Strong’s need for someone that can come in and install something workable with the current personnel, Beck is a hire that simply makes a lot of sense from the head coach’s perspective.
It’d basically be hiring a QB coach and OC whose expertise lies in what Texas is already doing with Jerrod Heard at the helm.
Of course there are many more options out there but these are some that are likely to be discussed and brought up over the next few weeks. Up to now, Strong has tended to take the long-view with his various moves aiming mostly at “building through the draft” with high school recruits and looking to engrain his process on defense while trusting Watson to make things work on offense.
Gilbert or Cumbie would be great long-term hires that might get Texas playing an exciting brand of football if given enough time to work with…but Charlie Strong probably does not have a lot of time, so keep an eye on Beck.
Inside the Gameplan: UT's next OC - Inside Texas
"
"
Inside the Gameplan: UT’s next OC
November 19, 2015 by Ian Boyd
Ever since Mack threw Greg Davis under the bus to save his own skin, the Texas OC job has been a revolving door. First the ‘Horns brought in Bryan Harsin, who was arguably an upgrade but that simply meant that his departure was nearly inevitable and it proved to come very early.
Then Mack finally turned to his young apprentice, Major Applewhite, who was frankly over-eager and got his only good QB knocked out of football.
Charlie Strong has now had two chances to hire a QB coach and OC that could handle the pressure and current situation at Texas and leverage the state’s absurd resources to produce a good signal caller that could lead the Longhorns against an offensive-minded Big 12.
In his first attempt, he brought over the QB guru that enabled Strong’s Louisville program to take off and earned Charlie his opportunity at Texas, Shawn Watson. It’s worth noting that Mike Sanford was the first OC at Louisville and then Charlie demoted him and elevated Watson midseason.
Charlie decided to position himself to repeat his Louisville trick when Watson’s QB collapsed at the end of 2015 by hiring Jay Norvell, the recently fired Co-OC of an OU offense that had fallen off due to an inability to develop QBs, as a back-up option at OC. Obviously this hasn’t worked.
So what does Charlie need to do with the next OC hire to get this thing going? I’m going to discuss the competencies Texas needs to look for and then hit on a few of the major candidates so that your savages can form teams and rip each other to shreds.
The necessary competencies for the next Texas Offensive Coordinator
The Longhorns absolutely have to get someone who can double as the QB coach and develop the talent on campus, such as it is, and be great at evaluating and developing future talents that will be coming to Texas.
Making the most of the talent on campus is basically what sunk Watson as his system for developing and deploying QBs did not translate to success for Tyrone Swoopes and hasn’t yet panned out with Jerrod Heard.
The failure of Texas to bring in some QBs that were close to being ready to help has been totally baffling. When Texas failed to get Jake Hubenak or any other JUCO or graduate transfer I cautioned that being dependent on either Swoopes making a huge leap or Heard being ready as a redshirt freshman was a very precarious situation. Well?
The high school recruiting choices were also confusing up to the 2016 class and the signing of Shane Buechele. In the midst of turmoil and doubt about whether Ash would be healthy or Swoopes functioning, Texas made it a point to recruit a raw OOS QB who will probably end up as a TE at Michigan. When neither he nor a more college-ready option were landed, Texas ended up with another raw out-of-state option that’s likely to end up at WR and a raw, nearly grey-shirted player.
In a state that regularly produces QBs well versed in spread concepts, Texas has failed to stumble upon an easy solution for a position that just needs to master some basic competencies.
Failure to get Baker Mayfield in all of this is a particularly frustrating part of the story but the blame there lies more with Mack and his staff who turned him down out of high school because they had five QBs and then shut down communication when Papa Mayfield told them none of those five QBs could even start at Lake Travis.
At any rate, the next QB coach at Texas will need to be able to make something of Swoopes (too late), Heard, Locksley, Buechele, Merrick, or a JUCO (hopefully). For the future, they’ll need to be good at identifying and landing the big-time talents within the state as well as the 3-star kids that often end up being the best players.
I don’t care that Florida Atlantic was his best offer, Texas’ failure to know what they had under their nose in Baker Mayfield is inexcusable.
Another crushing blow to the Shawn Watson era was lack of staff cohesion in the offensive meeting room. Strong seems to prefer a methodical pro-style approach to offense that can control the ball, run clock, and be multiple. The problem was that not only were the QBs on campus ill-suited to this task, but so was the staff he hired to support Watson.
Wickline’s specialty is building OL for the spread and his career took off working with Air Raid coordinators. Les Koenning was from the Urban Meyer school of offense that utilizes entirely different concepts. Then Watson was asked to oversee a move to the spread with new staff Jay Norvell and Jeff Traylor, both of whom are ambitious and know much more about the offense than their boss did.
The next OC at Texas, in addition to being a great QB coach, needs to be someone with command of a system they can teach and oversee.
Guys like Norvell and Traylor need to be bought-in to that coach’s leadership and his system.
Strong will build a tough culture, bring in talented players, and effectively challenge his offense but he’s not a guy that’s going to be valuable for helping an OC oversee installation and deployment of a system. The OC needs to set the vision for the offense and have the leadership to see it through.
Some of the candidates
There are lots of popular names floating out there right now, basically anyone who’s currently the coach of a good offense is going to get consideration on message boards. Charlie is probably going to tend to rely more on his connections to find someone he can trust but then Perrin and the powers that be will probably have a firm helping hand in all of this as well. Since we’ve yet to see Strong hire a great OC as the head coach of a program, I’d say a firm helping hand is appropriate.
This is Texas, after all, if the program can’t shore up Strong’s weaknesses to result in an elite product then we shouldn’t assume that the next coach wouldn’t also have some difficulties.
Sonny Cumbie, Co-OC at TCU (QBs)
Cumbie has never risen higher than the level of a Co-OC, but it’s likely that the next hire will have that title and “share” the job with Jay Norvell. That doesn’t matter, what matters is that the new hire excel at developing QBs and brings a system that he can lead.
Cumbie’s system is the Air Raid and he’s coached the Neal Brown version (a classical approach), the Kingsbury version (little bit more run game), and now the TCU edition, which is a balanced and precise attack.
Unless Doug Meacham is responsible for everything good about the TCU offense from week to week, Cumbie excels at game planning and making the most of the Frog roster. Thanks to Boykin’s brilliance and flexible tactics the Frogs have been able to put a lot of points on the board from week to week with a few different skill players serving as the main components.
The way in which they’ve unleashed true freshman Kavontae Turpin should really stand out to a program that hasn’t been able to figure out how to get the most from an uncountable number of similar athletes over the years.
Cumbie has been a QB coach for three years now but in that time he’s flashed some real aptitude for the job. His coaching allowed Tech to field a great offense in 2013 with Baker Mayfield, Michael Brewer, and Davis Webb all seeing action at the position and Mayfield and Webb were true freshmen. Then he turned Boykin into a star QB, which everyone already knows.
What could he do with the Texas roster? Well, you have to assume that he’d get the most of Heard as a passer but there are questions about exactly what that even means. He’s also shown the ability to work with raw players like Jerod Evans (fingers crossed) and to set up freshman like Shane Buechele for success.
The sales pitch for Cumbie is basically: The guy who taught Boykin to play QB like a Heisman! + Air Raid +Texas roster + Charlie defense = WINS!
He’s also familiar with recruiting Texas, indeed it’s where he’s been for his entire career.
Sterlin Gilbert, Co-OC at Tulsa (QBs and WRs)
Gilbert got his start as a Texas HS coach and did work at Temple, San Angelo Lake View, and Abilene Cooper for those who are HS football enthusiasts. His college career has consisted of him coaching with and following around guys from the Art Briles coaching tree (Dino Babers for three years and now Phillip Montgomery) and running Briles’ “veer and shoot” offense.
That started at Eastern Illinois with Babers, where Gilbert coached Jimmy Garappolo, who may be the most successful pro QB to have come from the Briles system.
His Tulsa team is currently 5-5, which will see him disqualified by some hoopleheads, but Gilbert’s offense has scored a lot of points this year in only year one in a system rich with option reads and option routes.
Like Cumbie’s Air Raid, this system requires a real passing QB, which means that unless Heard is up for making a leap that Texas would probably need a JUCO or to start Buechele. This system also puts more of a premium on arm strength than the Cumbie Air Raid because the wide splits require a QB that can throw over greater distances.
The run game attached to this system is more of a gap-oriented approach that would jive well with Vahe and Williams’ talent.
Unlike Cumbie, Gilbert has not worked as an OC apart from a head coach that also knows the system of offense being run.
Tim Beck, Co-OC at Ohio State (QBs)
Beck has been in the spread-option game for some time, knows the Mangino and Urban Meyer offenses, has Texas HS roots, and is a guy that Charlie is likely to have connections to through Urban.
This would be the second time that Beck has replaced Watson as a result of the defensive-minded HC seeking to get someone more suited to coaching a dual-threat QB. That’d be humorous.
Beck’s specialty is building offenses around the zone read and mixing up H-back or RB blocking angles or attaching pass options (RPOs) to get the most out of the concept. At Nebraska he focused on outside zone and has made that a bigger part of the Ohio State approach where inside zone ruled the day under Herman. Texas has good personnel for either but mixing in plenty of power/counter schemes would be more than advisable given Vahe’s stunning aptitude for the play.
In terms of getting the most from Tyrone Swoopes, Jerrod Heard, or Jerod Evans if Texas goes that route, Beck is a hire that makes a good deal of sense. He got good mileage out of Taylor Martinez and Tommy Armstrong at Nebraska and neither were savants throwing the football.
In terms of getting the most from guys like Shane Buechele, Sam Ehlinger, or the other more passing-oriented QBs that tend to come from within the state, this is not a hire remotely as exciting as Gilbert or Cumbie. Given Strong’s need for someone that can come in and install something workable with the current personnel, Beck is a hire that simply makes a lot of sense from the head coach’s perspective.
It’d basically be hiring a QB coach and OC whose expertise lies in what Texas is already doing with Jerrod Heard at the helm.
Of course there are many more options out there but these are some that are likely to be discussed and brought up over the next few weeks. Up to now, Strong has tended to take the long-view with his various moves aiming mostly at “building through the draft” with high school recruits and looking to engrain his process on defense while trusting Watson to make things work on offense.
Gilbert or Cumbie would be great long-term hires that might get Texas playing an exciting brand of football if given enough time to work with…but Charlie Strong probably does not have a lot of time, so keep an eye on Beck.
Inside the Gameplan: UT's next OC - Inside Texas
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texlarry is probably the most well known/respected online insiders (he broke mack brown to texas back in the day when everyone thought it was going to be gary barnett). he only posts a handful of times a year, well he just made a thread on OB saying that strong is out at the end of the season and the place is going crazy. @satam55 @rantanamo @macpat