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Major Applewhite

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PalyCane said:
That's the concern. The only time Applewhite put up good numbers was when he had another top offensive mind as either HC (Herman) or OC (Briles).

2007-Alabama OC -- Saban fired him
2008-2010-Texas position coach only
2011-2013-Texas Co-OC -- Mediocre to bad results. Entire staff fired.
2014-out of football
2015-2016-Houston OC. Strong offensive results (10th & 26th ppg) with Greg Ward Jr (poor man's Kyler Murray) at QB. Was the success attributable to Herman or Applewhite?
2017-Houston HC (without Kendall Briles) -- Poor offensive results. 65th ranked ppg offense.
2018-Houston HC (with Kendall Briles) -- Great results. 5th ranked offense by ppg

Concerns:
-What is there in the above resume that screams out "This is a great OC"? Absent the times he coached with either Herman or Briles, Applewhite's offenses have been no better than Richt's offenses at UM.
-Can he recruit the QB position? Has he ever pulled really good QB prospects? Why would a top QB prospect want to play for him?
-Leadership. There have been reports that he's a somewhat reserved personality and never particularly created a strong bond with players on any of the teams he coached, nor is he noted for getting the most out of the squads he's coached.

Reasons for hope:
-His failures as an OC came early in his career. As has been noted by many other posters, by coaching with Herman and Briles he's certainly been exposed to some of the most innovative offensive football ideas in the game today. By being exposed to Kendall Briles, is Applewhite now able to perform like Briles? Hopefully, yes.
-Good guy. While as noted above he's not the most extroverted leader, he is generally regarded as a good guy and solid team guy. I wouldn't be concerned about any potential friction on the staff that would percolate down to the team (something I do have slight concerns about with Fedora).

My conclusion:
-There is too large a question as Applewhite's ability to turn out a good offense without Herman or Briles alongside him, than I'm comfortable with personally. This is THE single most important hire to get right. A perpetuation of our offensive malaise will kill Manny's hopes to turn around the program. I wouldn't choose Applewhite, although I've cited reasons why it might work out well. On balance, if he's the guy I'll be disappointed but hope for the best.
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All the numbers are fine but is pretty clear what those number are based on. In the years that the offense were successful he had talented QBs. You can point to the minds around him but Tom Herman's offenses at Texas his first two years as HC are not better than his offenses at UH while Applewhite was calling plays. Why? Greg Ward is better than Ehlinger. At Texas the likes of David Ash and Case McCoy(the other McCoy) were Applewhite's QBs. At Alabama it was John Parker Wilson. At Houston last year the QBs were Kyle Allen and some guy named Postma. This year under Briles, D'Eriq King was the guy before he got hurt and he accounted for 50 TDs. Find a dynamic talented QB and the offense he brings here will be fine.
 
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Notsince1985 said:
I don't know where I am on the Major, but according to logic here, when he was at Houston, his success was because of Herman, but then his success was because of Briles too. Now, that makes no sense. You can't have it both ways.
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Well my thing is Herman gave applewhite playcalling those 2 years at houston and they were agressive and fun to watch. Applewhite saw how well Herman giving him playcalling worked out well for him as head coach he tried to do the samething and the o wasn’t as good as the previous 2 years when he called plays. Then this last year he hired briles to be the playcaller and they were very explosive again
 
RomeoJunior said:
List 1 thru 10....
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It's a figure of speech. My point is he's not a guy that would have been on my radar. If I was employed at Miami and in charge of making that hire I'd scour the country and the NFL ranks and come up with A LOT of names before I'd even consider Apples. Just off the top of my head

Canada
Yost
Graham Harrell
Brian Wright
Sark (check the temperature, no idea if he'd be interested)
Koetter (see Sark above)

and etc etc etc.

I don't get paid to scour the earth for OC candidates and I'm too lazy to do so.

Bottom line, Apples has a mixed bag of a resume. Fired as an OC, play calling duties taken away, and it's not as if he was a hot commodity after he was recently fired.

At best, it's a risky proposition.
 
Diaz would have went after Briles for sure. If timing were just a little better
 
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Jedi Master Cane said:
It's a figure of speech. My point is he's not a guy that would have been on my radar. If I was employed at Miami and in charge of making that hire I'd scour the country and the NFL ranks and come up with A LOT of names before I'd even consider Apples. Just off the top of my head

Canada
Yost
Graham Harrell
Brian Wright
Sark (check the temperature, no idea if he'd be interested)
Koetter (see Sark above)

and etc etc etc.

I don't get paid to scour the earth for OC candidates and I'm too lazy to do so.

Bottom line, Apples has a mixed bag of a resume. Fired as an OC, play calling duties taken away, and it's not as if he was a hot commodity after he was recently fired.

At best, it's a risky proposition.
Click to expand...

Who took his play calling duties away? You keep saying that. Herman didn't take them away. He was there for two years with Herman before Herman took the UT job and Applewhite was the playcaller.
 
PalyCane said:
That's the concern. The only time Applewhite put up good numbers was when he had another top offensive mind as either HC (Herman) or OC (Briles).

2007-Alabama OC -- Saban fired him
2008-2010-Texas position coach only
2011-2013-Texas Co-OC -- Mediocre to bad results. Entire staff fired.
2014-out of football
2015-2016-Houston OC. Strong offensive results (10th & 26th ppg) with Greg Ward Jr (poor man's Kyler Murray) at QB. Was the success attributable to Herman or Applewhite?
2017-Houston HC (without Kendall Briles) -- Poor offensive results. 65th ranked ppg offense.
2018-Houston HC (with Kendall Briles) -- Great results. 5th ranked offense by ppg

Concerns:
-What is there in the above resume that screams out "This is a great OC"? Absent the times he coached with either Herman or Briles, Applewhite's offenses have been no better than Richt's offenses at UM.
-Can he recruit the QB position? Has he ever pulled really good QB prospects? Why would a top QB prospect want to play for him?
-Leadership. There have been reports that he's a somewhat reserved personality and never particularly created a strong bond with players on any of the teams he coached, nor is he noted for getting the most out of the squads he's coached.

Reasons for hope:
-His failures as an OC came early in his career. As has been noted by many other posters, by coaching with Herman and Briles he's certainly been exposed to some of the most innovative offensive football ideas in the game today. By being exposed to Kendall Briles, is Applewhite now able to perform like Briles? Hopefully, yes.
-Good guy. While as noted above he's not the most extroverted leader, he is generally regarded as a good guy and solid team guy. I wouldn't be concerned about any potential friction on the staff that would percolate down to the team (something I do have slight concerns about with Fedora).

My conclusion:
-There is too large a question as Applewhite's ability to turn out a good offense without Herman or Briles alongside him, than I'm comfortable with personally. This is THE single most important hire to get right. A perpetuation of our offensive malaise will kill Manny's hopes to turn around the program. I wouldn't choose Applewhite, although I've cited reasons why it might work out well. On balance, if he's the guy I'll be disappointed but hope for the best.
Click to expand...
These are exactly my concerns with Applewhite. There has to be a better option.
 
RaiseCane said:
I was actually a student at UT at the time, and seeing it first hand, it was sort of like replacing Ken Dorsey with Kyle Wright. Major was a winner and a great college QB, but lacked the big time arm and measurables that Simms had, while Chris Sims had all of the measurables but was a punk and read defenses like Kyle Wright. People were excited for Simms because he was so highly rated, but once he started getting PT, it was clear that Major was the better QB. Simms was never the fan favorite like Major, which I think was also part of the reason Simms didn't like Major.
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Had it not been for Simms. Majors records would've been harder to break for Young and McCoy
 
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FlaSportsFan88 said:
Diaz would have went after Briles for sure. If timing were just a little better
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What makes Briles any better then Major? I don’t really like either but quit acting like if we higher “Briles boss” it is a worse move then what FSU did. I just don’t understand how some think Briles is a genius and Major is a dud.
 
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BloodEunsOrangeAndGreen said:
What makes Briles any better then Major? I don’t really like either but quit acting like if we higher “Briles boss” it is a worse move then what FSU did. I just don’t understand how some think Briles is a genius and Major is a dud.
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His first two seasons calling plays he's had top 15 offenses. He is a rising star. Learned directly from the best to lace them up in this generation of offense.

In 7 years Applewhite has one offense in the top 25. His decision making lead him to hire D'onofrio. Think about that. Had some issues with personel.

Briles over Applewhite all day
 
BloodEunsOrangeAndGreen said:
What makes Briles any better then Major? I don’t really like either but quit acting like if we higher “Briles boss” it is a worse move then what FSU did. I just don’t understand how some think Briles is a genius and Major is a dud.
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Lets see; One was FIRED
And the other given a promotion and sought after by every major college program
 
BloodEunsOrangeAndGreen said:
What makes Briles any better then Major? I don’t really like either but quit acting like if we higher “Briles boss” it is a worse move then what FSU did. I just don’t understand how some think Briles is a genius and Major is a dud.
Click to expand...


Honestly, I like Applewhite's last two years at Houston with Herman and feel that's the best way to judge him as a playcaller.

But Briles.....in his limited OC experience basically has produced two top ten offenses each at a different program in consecutive years despite being in his mid-30s and was for two years at Baylor under his dad ( a great offensive mind) also great and a Broyles finalist.

What he's done with his opportunities has been tremendous in comparison to Major.
 
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