Your Official Thursday Coaching Changes And Hires Open Thread and Omnibus

Cool by me. Funny to look at Mad Dog compared to this freak.

Harsin is fine. And lots of people don’t get it but Boise IS a power running game.

Anna-Nicole Smith says hi!

2 most famous people from Mexia- Anna Nicole Smith and Allen Stanford of Ponzi scheme fame. Let’s hope Bennie turns out better.

Cindyj Walker is a Mexia native. May Bennie do as well as she did.

Cindy,

Wonder what dedfischer’s take on Wylie is? Curious to hear his thoughts.

My prediction is total mayhem reaction by all the other Big XII (-2) teams and by those who have us scheduled through 2015. Wylie looks the polar opposite of Mad Dog. The players may have feared Madden if they ever pissed him off but he would have to catch those young whipper-snappers first. Wylie not only looks like he would shove a blocking sled up your kazoo if you found yourself on the wrong side of his ire but he also appears to have a secret pair of jet packs in his legs whereby catching you would only be considered the foreplay part of his punishments.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up to this hire!!!

Ray Rhodes says whazzup!

Overhear at Texas baseball game about 10 years ago:

“Anna Nicole-Smith is just a Mexia road whore.”

Thought:
Brett Favre coordinates offensively… And I think he’s available

Wylie? I look at the S&C hire much like the O-Line hire……not much needed for instant upgrade.

I was hoping that the loss to TCU would hide Chryst a bit from HC spots. So much for that, once Texas shows interest, the hounds come calling.

This is Mack’s last shot at a splash. As I’ve been saying all along, the indecision, the waiting, have not been positive indicators of the process nor ones of landing lateral move heavies. Harsin should have been hired on December 23rd.

We will be taking a step down creating new systems, and getting the personnel to perform in those systems takes time.

I have to say for the last few years, I’ve loved watching Boise Football. It’s fast, loose, fun. The guys play like it’s supposed to be played in my book. So if Harsin is the guy, I say bring it. That kind of play would shake up the Big 12 remnants most definitely.

The problem with Harsin? It would take 2-3 years for this offense to fully develop. Chryst would have been 1-2.

S&C is the best hire so far. Thumbs up.

The rest look to be green as hell. Talk about going from one extreme to the other.

>>
 Possibly poaching Wickline from Pokelahoma?
>>

Shouldn’t this be Pickline?

Jack Lalane said he couldn’t have a fat dog – I wonder if Madden’s dog is skinny? Upgrades for S&C and OC shouldn’t be that hard for you. Speaking of absenses – has Scipio been taken into the Witness relocation program? Is he finding himself in an ashram? Anyone else have any ideas? Is he Clipper Coopers power bottom now?

Watching the press conference on mackbrown-texasfootball.com right now. Good to see Mack not looking like he is losing his mind after another loss. Hoping for a surprise hire like Steve Mariucci to spice things up.

@ Robin Herman: Nice :) I loves me some word play.

Saltshaker-

I could not possibly disagree more with you about Chryst taking less time to implement his O then Harsin- I see it 180 opposite. We are closer, schematically (to the extent that we have a scheme hahahaha) to Boise then to Wiscy. I see less ramp up time for Harsin, not more.

I love this hire. If it wasn’t the rapey OSU co-ordinator, nor the sleezy auburn co-ordinator I will roll with this guy over any of the other names that were bandied about. If it happens that is

Some brilliant, inciteful, even clever comments/responses by Diaz at the news conference. He’s much better with the press than Coach Boom was. Just sayin’. Hopefully, he’s as good as WM as a coordinator and motivator.

I applaud the youth, the vitality, the potential for fresh ideas in Mack’s four hires (S&C included) thus far.

I disagree that it will take 2-3 years to install a “new system”. The talent in our 2010 and 2011 classes ranks with anybody in the country — better than most. There’s also talent — maybe in limited numbers — from the classes of 2008 and 2009. Much of that talent, regrettably, was hidden under a rock this season.

Bennie is intense, no doubt. The big discussion at Tech last year when he left was that he might have focused too much on station-training, not enough on football lifts, but I always thought he got the best out of what we had in Lubbock.

When you take HS Tight Ends and turn them in to All-Conference Tackles, something’s happening in the weight room.

With all the injuries Tech suffered this year, there was also talk that Wylie’s style had been better for flexibility and avoiding injury, but then again, Mike Leach never discussed injuries so it’s hard to compare.

I think we improve in 2011. If we can get GG straightened out Texas could be back in business in 2012.

If you are coaching the secondary at OU in particular, you can trash your UT game film for good.

Boise offense is heavily reliant on the tight end and they run some two TE sets. We got a lot of work to do at that position.

Speed and power. Speed and power. Sounds good to me. Welcome Bennie.

I think it depends on who you hire as your OC. Bennie is probably good for man and pass blocking, but not the best call for zone blocking. I don’t think the S&C guy is as important for skill players as it is OL. His guys were always strong and had good stamina. He’s a big motivator, the games won’t be harder than this, team building type of guy. Texas can recruit fast guys. I don’t think his program was as specialized or tailored to the individual as much as it was high intensity, group mentality. I know most of our players would bolt to train elsewhere for the 40 when draft time came around. The players seem to love Bennie and he’s a class act. The guys who are still around praise the new and talk about how much better he is and I think he helped our OL. However, Baron Batch, Bront Bird and Sam Fehoko certainly looked slower with the weight they were asked to gain. Dudes like LaAdrian Waddle and Mickey Okafor that were asked to lose a bunch of weight looked much better. That’s about all I can tell you from what I heard. I’m not even sure how much of it is true. He looks like a guy that knows what the fuck he’s doing, that’s for sure. When he got to Tech, strength and stamina were big issues. That certainly improved over his tenure, but it’s not as big an issue in zone blocking schemes. Mobility and flexibility would be more important, imo.

Boise offense is heavily reliant on the tight end and they run some two TE sets. We got a lot of work to do at that position.

Major area of concern. Not sure Harsin is into EBS.

Wake up Mack!

Agree bullzak,

At least 2 years to get this machine firing on all cylinders. The old game film is now trashed, and I love that. Harsin may not waste time trying to unscrew him and start McCoy or Wood.

Somebody with some Stan Lee skills needs to draw up what the Longhorns will look like after a year or two of Bennie’s S&C TLC.

“And like that, poof. He’s gone…”

http://www.utsports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/wylie_bennie00.html

Just glad to have Manolo Diaz.

I mean, look at the way he dresses, man. Come on. That’s style. Flash, pizzazz. And a little coke money doesn’t hurt nobody.

Nice with the Usual Suspects nod. So is Kaiser Soze in the running for Cleve or Wynn’s old spot in the AAD spot?

Don’t mean to pick nits, but Stan Lee couldn’t draw his way out of a paper bag. Lee was a writer.

The guys you’re wanting are John Romita or Jhon Buscema or Jack Kirby.

Hook ’em.

I had fallen hard into a dark cloud of skepticism and did not believe Mack had the energy to pull it all off successfully.It apprears the man’s luck continues….. disinterest and other bigger job options for some of his targets has created the opportunity of a Harsin/Applewhite combination that will be fun to watch; they are both smart and have the energy to go the extra mile. They will be innovative and will have the youthful enthusiasm that will motivate the players to work hard to execute things properly.
I am warming up to Diaz although I fear his brand of attack could yield lots of big play opportunities for the opponent. It is all going to be exciting to watch.

Boise actually runs some triple TE sets, but I would throw out what we think we know about our players because we are going to be a different animal come the spring game.

I think people will be surprised how quickly we improve simply because the players will give a shit again.

I believe former NFL head coach Ray Rhodes is also from Mexia. Isn’t Lovie Smith from around there too?

Lovie is from Big Sandy.

haha, uncle bevo is a bigger nerd than me. or just faster.

Mr. Trout,

I was just wondering the same…where the F is Scipio? When will we say goodbye to our blue monday?

Are Peter Bean, Scipio, and Jesus Shuttlesworth really all just the same guy?

I always assumed the were the Holy Triumvirate of Texas football blogs, but now I have my suspicions.

Bennie Wylie is a good S&C coach. I have long said that if OU was ever forced to fire Shmitty, he would be the guy for the job. I met him a few years ago during their summer workouts, and he was awesome.

When I showed up, they were running sprints as a team. He was running every single sprint in this all white outfit. It was like watching a shredded black Ghandi out-sprint a college football team. He told me that he ran every single sprint with the team, and that he did it with every workout group (3 in the summer, I believe). That’s a badass.

Then, we went in for a lift, and he was very focused on proper form. Everyone moved on his command (“Up… Down…”). It was a really tightly run workout session, and as an added bonus they played funk and soul music in the background. I always get annoyed when I go in a weight room and it is either rap or metal. This was upbeat and seemed pretty fun.

Around 160 or 170 years ago, families from Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi would just write “GTT” on their front door when they left. Their neighbors knew that meant Gone To Texas. The land of opportunity. Maybe coaches from the SEC could do the same thing today.

I had a really difficult time not reading Diaz’s press conference transcript to myself in a thick Cuban accent. I’m going to need to actually listen to the guy speak so I can shake that voice.

Over the recent holidays, I met a retired head coach and AD who knew a bit re the Texas coaching situation. I asked him if hiring an OC and DC would result in a team that would take a year or two to get the new offense and defensive systems down.

The guy jumped on the question. “No, they’ll get the Xs and Os down in the spring and summer. That won’t be the problem at all. That stuff isn’t as tough to learn as you think. The problem Texas faces is keeping their recruits right now, and in the next class. The Xs and Os wll be fine.”

For what it’s worth.

My first impression of Diaz is way way up there. Really smart, thrives on aggression, and a powerful almost effortless ability to communicate. And for each of those traits, I don’t detect any sign of pretense. They guy is ON.

I’m good with the hirings so far. It’s a firing that didn’t happen that frosts my ass. Mad Dog should have been shown the door. He’s a walking, talking testimony on the healthy benefits of over-dosing on Dunkin Donuts. If Mack wanted to do womething for him by keeping him on staff, he should have spent the money on a donut franchise and given Mad Dog the key to the front door.

Diaz is a communicator. Not sure how MD was in this regard, but it is an important area.

The failure of Mack to: 1. fire the deadwood several years ago; 2. leverage the NC in to national recruiting advantage [the “we can win with Lake Travis talent” crap is so anemic and pathetic], and 3. demand a higher standard of everyone in the program, starting with himself, is likely doing major damage to the program. It is being reflected in the fact that no one wants to work for him.

What? No separate thread for the must see Gotdildo.com bowl?

Did anyone see it?

Anyone?

At all?

ransom – Yeah, that is extremely infuriating – especially when you consider that gd passed on Andrew Luck ?! – & that 2010 5-7 collapse will still be there in the record 100 years from now – still – that plus Mack’s penchant for surrounding himself w/ inept crony sycophants makes all the new invigorating hires more surprising, astonishing really – looks promising -