University of Houston Coaching Search

I have been fairly quiet on this issue (at least on this board) until a successor to Art Briles was named and according to ESPN, that successor is current Oklahoma co-offensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin. As you may be aware (and as I posted a few weeks back), Briles left UH after 5 seasons to go to the coaching wasteland known as Baylor University. Candidates to replace Briles included Notre Dame OC Michael Haywood, Tulsa OC Gus Mahlzan, and former UH (and Houston Oilers) head coach Jack Pardee. While a Pardee hire could have been one of the most interesting developments (especially with the staff he was going to put together), I must say that I am quite intrigued by what Sumlin brings to the table. He is a young coach with no previous head coaching experience, but he has been on the staffs at Purdue, Texas A&M, Minnesota, Wyoming and has spent the past few years under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma. Right now, UH has the athletes in place to be successful and compete for the championship in Conference USA and a change in philosophy at the top may be a great thing. Even though he was getting better every year, Briles still had the mind of a high school coach who would try to out-gimmick opposing teams. These past 2-3 years, all we needed to do was line up and pound the ball and we probably would've been a better team. Having a guy who learned under Stoops, who consistently runs one of the top offenses (despite having QBs with absolutely no NFL potential) is a blessing. Paired with our Strength & Conditioning Coach Larry Jackson (who probably is the one most responsible for the success of the past two seasons) who we also got from OU, we have a potentially fantastic staff, especially considering that former WR coach Jason Phillips is back on board (assuming he stays). I can't wait to hear from Sumlin on where he sees this team going, who he brings in to complete his staff and how we will shape the Coogs over the next few years as we head towards another potential conference reshuffling when the current BCS contract expires. Reading Cougar message boards these past few weeks has itself been a very interesting task as there were people on all different sides of the coaching issue, each championing there own guy or wondering why we weren't going after X, Y or Z. In the end, I think Dave Maggard has made a great decision and my fellow Coogs need to rally around Sumlin and the Coogs. Now let's go beat the Horned Frogs in the Texas Bowl [December 28, 2007 - 7pm, Reliant Stadium].

[espn]