StarkVegasSteve
11-15-2023, 06:07 PM
As promised I have come back with pt. 2 of the deep dive to try and familiarize people with candidates. I will say this before we get going. Rosebowl, Faulk, Jones, etc. know just a tad bit more than the average fan. They are reporting the names that agents are feeding them and whatever Ross Dellenger is telling them. Now that we have that out of the way we'll continue:
1. Tom Herman (HC FAU)- His rise at Houston was incredible. What he did there and the talent he brought there was absolutely amazing. He had a record of 22-4 with a NY6 bowl and win and his last recruiting class was a top 10 class....AT HOUSTON. He obviously had some struggles at Texas, relative to their expectations, and always seemed to lose a game he wasn't supposed to that would cost him a shot at the Big 12 Championship. I still believe that they were the best 8-5 team in the country in 2019 and had they knocked off LSU it could've propelled them to a spot in the playoffs. That game seemed to just kill them. He is going to run the Urban Meyer/Dan Mullen offense as he was Urban's OC for his fist few teams at Ohio St. and was the OC when they won the CFP. He is also an ACE recruiter He was 32-18 at Texas and if you look back he was never blown out while he was there. He lost some weird games. Rehabbing his career right now at FAU and they're struggling at tad bit, but he is also taking over for Willie Taggart. I think Herman would succeed at State. I think he is a little in that Kiffin cloth of fired from a big time program and is taking his lump to rehab the name.
2. Willie Fritz (HC Tulane)- The oldest name on the list at 63 but he has also been a HC for over 25 years. He is not going to wow you and I very seriously doubt he's going to increase NIL very much. He's just not an exciting personality. Another knock is that all of these years coaching he has never been on the P5 level. His offense has evolved over time which is a good thing to see. He used to be almost 3:1 rushing over passing and was running an option offense. Since at Tulane that has changed and he realized that he had to start throwing to be able to win. And look his players play for him. I think ability to adapt is probably his biggest asset. And it's very obvious he wants our job and thinks he can get it as Northwestern pulled the interim tag of their interim today and made him the full time guy. Most thought Fritz was the shoo in for that job. I would place him behind a few guys but if it fell to him it wouldn't be the worst thing.
3. Jon Sumrall (HC Troy)- Defensive minded HC but has Troy absolutely rolling. They are 20-4 and his two years there. He is pretty balanced offensively. They don't really have an identifiable gimmick, which can be good due to the fact that he isn't married to a system. They were within 2 pts of James Madison earlier in the year, losing 16-14. That's the closest anyone has been to them this year and the lowest point total they have been held to since last year. He is from Huntsville and played at Kentucky so he knows the area very well from a recruiting standpoint. He also coached at Ole Miss in 2018. If you are going to go defense, this may be the guy you need to hire. He is young and energetic and he is a damn good football coach. The worry would be that if Kentucky ever opens up that he would run to get that job and with the rumors of Ferentz stepping down at Iowa and that being a job that Mark Stoops covets, so we may want to steer clear of Sumrall
4. Jeff Traylor (HC UTSA)- This would be a good hire in my opinion. He has tons of connections in the Texas High School football world and can probably get you in the door of every high school program in the state of Texas. He has been at UTSA since 19 and has them absolutely rolling. He is 37-13 there. He is going to be more modified AR but is very balanced as he will be at about a 50/50 clip from a run/pass standpoint. He does have knowledge of the P5 as he was on staff at both Texas and Arkansas prior to coming to UTSA. He really has utilized the portal well and has gotten some players the last couple of years that I really wanted on our team. The knock on him that I have always heard is that he will never leave the state of Texas. He will wait it out for SMU, Baylor, A&M, etc because he is happy at UTSA
5. Barry Odom (HC UNLV)- Another defensive minded guy but has produced very good offenses in the past at Missouri and now at UNLV. His mind for recognizing offensive play calling talent is very good. He brought Heupel on at Mizzou and that really transformed Drew Lock and now has Brennan Marion at UNLV and they are lighting scoreboards up out in Vegas. Funny enough, the thing that was his downfall at Mizzou was an OC, when he brought in Derek Dooley. Even then, he wasn't bad at Mizzou and they put up a lot of points when Heupel was there. And he's doing the same thing at UNLV. He is modified AR. He also was a lights out DC at Arkansas and a lot of there folks think the team regressed once he left. His defense kept them in games when their offense would struggle. He's probably down my list a little, but like Fritz, we could do worse.
6. Joe Judge(AHC New England Patriots)- Just no. Matt Wyatt needs to shut it.
If y'all want me to do any others just let me know. I may try to do some coordinators tomorrow.
1. Tom Herman (HC FAU)- His rise at Houston was incredible. What he did there and the talent he brought there was absolutely amazing. He had a record of 22-4 with a NY6 bowl and win and his last recruiting class was a top 10 class....AT HOUSTON. He obviously had some struggles at Texas, relative to their expectations, and always seemed to lose a game he wasn't supposed to that would cost him a shot at the Big 12 Championship. I still believe that they were the best 8-5 team in the country in 2019 and had they knocked off LSU it could've propelled them to a spot in the playoffs. That game seemed to just kill them. He is going to run the Urban Meyer/Dan Mullen offense as he was Urban's OC for his fist few teams at Ohio St. and was the OC when they won the CFP. He is also an ACE recruiter He was 32-18 at Texas and if you look back he was never blown out while he was there. He lost some weird games. Rehabbing his career right now at FAU and they're struggling at tad bit, but he is also taking over for Willie Taggart. I think Herman would succeed at State. I think he is a little in that Kiffin cloth of fired from a big time program and is taking his lump to rehab the name.
2. Willie Fritz (HC Tulane)- The oldest name on the list at 63 but he has also been a HC for over 25 years. He is not going to wow you and I very seriously doubt he's going to increase NIL very much. He's just not an exciting personality. Another knock is that all of these years coaching he has never been on the P5 level. His offense has evolved over time which is a good thing to see. He used to be almost 3:1 rushing over passing and was running an option offense. Since at Tulane that has changed and he realized that he had to start throwing to be able to win. And look his players play for him. I think ability to adapt is probably his biggest asset. And it's very obvious he wants our job and thinks he can get it as Northwestern pulled the interim tag of their interim today and made him the full time guy. Most thought Fritz was the shoo in for that job. I would place him behind a few guys but if it fell to him it wouldn't be the worst thing.
3. Jon Sumrall (HC Troy)- Defensive minded HC but has Troy absolutely rolling. They are 20-4 and his two years there. He is pretty balanced offensively. They don't really have an identifiable gimmick, which can be good due to the fact that he isn't married to a system. They were within 2 pts of James Madison earlier in the year, losing 16-14. That's the closest anyone has been to them this year and the lowest point total they have been held to since last year. He is from Huntsville and played at Kentucky so he knows the area very well from a recruiting standpoint. He also coached at Ole Miss in 2018. If you are going to go defense, this may be the guy you need to hire. He is young and energetic and he is a damn good football coach. The worry would be that if Kentucky ever opens up that he would run to get that job and with the rumors of Ferentz stepping down at Iowa and that being a job that Mark Stoops covets, so we may want to steer clear of Sumrall
4. Jeff Traylor (HC UTSA)- This would be a good hire in my opinion. He has tons of connections in the Texas High School football world and can probably get you in the door of every high school program in the state of Texas. He has been at UTSA since 19 and has them absolutely rolling. He is 37-13 there. He is going to be more modified AR but is very balanced as he will be at about a 50/50 clip from a run/pass standpoint. He does have knowledge of the P5 as he was on staff at both Texas and Arkansas prior to coming to UTSA. He really has utilized the portal well and has gotten some players the last couple of years that I really wanted on our team. The knock on him that I have always heard is that he will never leave the state of Texas. He will wait it out for SMU, Baylor, A&M, etc because he is happy at UTSA
5. Barry Odom (HC UNLV)- Another defensive minded guy but has produced very good offenses in the past at Missouri and now at UNLV. His mind for recognizing offensive play calling talent is very good. He brought Heupel on at Mizzou and that really transformed Drew Lock and now has Brennan Marion at UNLV and they are lighting scoreboards up out in Vegas. Funny enough, the thing that was his downfall at Mizzou was an OC, when he brought in Derek Dooley. Even then, he wasn't bad at Mizzou and they put up a lot of points when Heupel was there. And he's doing the same thing at UNLV. He is modified AR. He also was a lights out DC at Arkansas and a lot of there folks think the team regressed once he left. His defense kept them in games when their offense would struggle. He's probably down my list a little, but like Fritz, we could do worse.
6. Joe Judge(AHC New England Patriots)- Just no. Matt Wyatt needs to shut it.
If y'all want me to do any others just let me know. I may try to do some coordinators tomorrow.