Roll the dice and keep Orlando/Beck needs to go YESTERDAY

[moondog_LFZ]

He had the sad task of playing behind our inferior offensive lines and was concussed out of the game of football.

Yes. And he was concussed because Applewhite kept running him right into the defensive line.
Even though he had two more than capable running becks in Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron.

 

[Walking Boss]

I can’t remember where I heard this or if it was from Herman or a talking head relaying from Herman, but I recall Herman’s philosophy being that his coaches number 1 responsibility is recruiting. Apparently actual coaching, developing talent and putting in a plan to maximize that talent is not that important to him. On this account, beck will stay because he can recruit. Orlando by all accounts is not a strong recruiter which is why he didn’t get the uh job.

 

[caryhorn]

Larry Fedora is available because he works for us.

Fedora is generally well thought of. He had a couple of very good seasons at UNC. But his overall record at UNC was barely above .500. Seems like his downfall there was poor defense, especially before Gene Chizik arrived and after he left. His offensive success is indisputable everywhere he's been.

 

[caryhorn]

On this account, beck will stay because he can recruit. Orlando by all accounts is not a strong recruiter which is why he didn’t get the uh job.

OK^^^, then change Beck's job to Recruiting coordinator.

 

[Chinstrap]

I agree with the rest of the post ... but this is still football. Do NOT forsake the defense like Mackovic did.

Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships. How many years in the 80s were we ever anything because of two things ... fairly solid defense and a kicker.

9-7 wins were not unusual ... and they were as valid as 50-49.

I totally agree with the fact that defense wins championships, and remember those great defenses of the 80’s. But holding to low scores in the B12 today is less likely.
Texas should have both and your first priority should always be a good defense. A team can overcome talent deficiencies with a hard hitting overachievng defense. I played on a team once with a talent disadvandge. It won the championship with multiple shutouts and a brutal hard hitting defense. Brutal.
My post was only addressing the offensive side of the team, for now.

 

[SabreHorn]

Is Applewhite available to be an OC?

Find out why Major was fired by Saban the first time around - he can't evaluate talent.

Secondly, NO ONE with the OC title in Tuscaloosa has actually been OC

 

[SabreHorn]

his overall record at UNC was barely above .500.

Which is remarkable. Kind of difficult to run a program when the FBI, NCAA, Attorney General, & District Attorney are interviewing players every day and have their head so far up *** you feel like you live in a proctologist's office.

 

[Statalyzer]

The way I see it: when the head coach is an expert in one particular side of the ball, you cannot blame the coordinator on that same side of the ball for repeated struggles. Herman's always been an offense guy. If the offense sucks - and it does - and if the biggest part of that suckage is plays and scheme - and it probably is - then it's on Herman as much as it's on Beck.

 

[AC]

I or we don’t know who is responsible for the scheme problems on Offense. Is it Beck or Herman?

to me we keep Orlando and hire:

1) Morris
2) Fedora
3) Applewhite

as the New OC. I don’t know who would be the best. They’re all good OC’s. Perhaps Morris, he was great at Clemson? He doesn’t have the baggage Applewhite has.

 

[SabreHorn]

AC,

I was going to link Meatloaf, but in this case two out of three ARE bad

 

[Htown77]

Honestly, I think Herman should go get the best offensive coordinator he can find. There is someone out there better then Fedora, Applewhite and Morris.

All that said, I bring up Applewhite and Fedora only because Herman has a rare situation where he has two readily available offensive coordinators who are both upgrades over Beck that work at/have worked at Texas and work with/have worked with him so he does not have to conduct a national search. The point of Applewhite and Fedora is more that there is no real reason to keep Beck at all.

That said my preferences would be in the following order:
1. Go find the best OC possible;
2. Hire Fedora;
3. Hire Applewhite; then
4. Hire Morris.

If he does not want to conduct a national search, Fedora is the best and easiest choice. I understand if Herman does not want to promote him on a short week, but there is not any reason that Fedora should not be calling plays for the bowl game.

@SabreHorn I actually agree with you on going with Fedora more than Applewhite. That said, Applewhite is better than Beck and probably even Morris is too.

 

[AC]

Maybe just maybe TH saw the writing on the wall after 17’ and brought in Fedora when he became available last year. Back up plan, OC in waiting.

 

[LonghornCatholic]

 

[caryhorn]

Jeff Howe : If #Texas is going to get fixed, it’s time for Tom Herman to swallow his pride and take a long look in the mirror: https://247sports.com/college/texas/LongFormArticle/Texas-Longhorns-football-Tom-Herman-job-status-loss-Baylor-Bears-Sam-Ehlinger-coaching-changes-139166391/…"

Well, this^^^has a very small chance of happening with any real chance of significant change. Most Tigers have a really hard time changing their stripes.

DKR great for many reasons. One was that he had the rare ability to make a change and/or do the unexpected. One example of needed change that he made was when he listened to Emery Bellard and installed a radically new offense; the wishbone. And we all know how that worked out.

And doing the unexpected was when he made the "call of the century" in the game of the century (Horns v Swine) when Street threw to Peschel.

As great as DKR was he had a certain humility. That helped him listen, really listen to the input from those around him.

I know TH is getting all kinds of advice and input of various kinds. Deciding what is going to turn this team around is not going to be easy.

 

[BevoJoe]

Build a state of the art coaching staff for the offense to recruit and develop high school recruits from the most talent rich state for high school players. Don’t look back for past coaching successes but hire the brightest most innovative coaches available.

^^^^THIS!! We are supposed to be an elite program, and have the funds to build the best staff in college football. That doesn't mean we do a ridiculous contract like the ags did with Jimbo, but we can and need to invest in the best coaches/recruiters for the OC and DC positions, and any other coaching positions, and preferably guys that have been OCs at programs, have developed raw talent into elite players who produced champions, We don't need guys from programs where they won 8 to 10 games or had one decent year then went in the crapper afterward. We have that now. Find and bring in the best!

 

[LAGA4]

I looked up total defense stats, we rank 105th. Tech, and Kansas were the only 2 from our conference ranked below us.

I didn't bother looking up offensive rank, but I don't see how you could keep a DC doing that poorly if you are serious about having a good defense. I know injuries played a part, but he didn't have his players or a game plan ready to go when needed.

Remember the Kansas game.

 

[zuckercanyon]

Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships. How many years in the 80s were we ever anything because of two things ... fairly solid defense and a kicker.

ShAArk, this used to be 100% true, but OU has proven that (especially in the Big 12), offense puts a ton of points on the board, and defense holds on for dear life while they try to hold on to a two touchdown lead with 6 minutes left...

 

[ShAArk92]

Ask Baylor .. .as a recent example. Up by 25 at halftime against OU ... and lost.

The gap was going to be closed because of OU’s offense ... but OU’s defense collapsed the gap. They had to stop Baylors offense. OU’s offense couldn’t do that. No offense can stop the other team’s offense.

As much as the “cigars” want to just sell tickets and hamstring the defense (fair catch kickoff?? Et al) ... defense STILL is the determining factor in a championship team.