2024 Texas Football Coaching and Support Staff Thread

[Danimal 331]

Performance of "Up and Coming Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Blake Gideon - Blessed as Muschamp's choice, has one more year to prove himself
• Brennan Marion - Good choice, bad results
• Tashard Choice - Great choice, great result
• Chris Jackson - "Who is this guy" grade for choice, good results so far
• AJ Milwee - What would he be without Sark?

Performance of "Established Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Andre Coleman - Bad choice to retain, bad results
• Kyle Flood - Great choice; amazing results
• Jeff Banks - Great choice, great results
• Jeff Choate - Good choice, good results
• Pete Kwiatkowski - good choice, good results (finally)
• Terry Joseph - "Meh" choice, "meh" results
• Bo Davis - Great choice, great results (depth chart is underwhelming though)

 

[Bodacious Bevo 3575]

Oof 

Only things to add that haven't been said

A) We now have three major question marks on our defensive coaching staff. Not ideal 

B) This is a huge offseason for IDL development

As has been said, nobody knows how this will work out, but this is disappointing

[utfan87 406]

I love the debate, but why is the end all be all the fact that our #1 said no so fall back option now has less than 0% chance of success… do you truly believe that there is only 1 guy for each job? If so God help us all. PK signed off on this hire too. I am excited that Sark has coached in the NFL and college so that he a rolodex filled with guys he can call up. Unlike elko who was not ready to put a staff together on his own. 

[Hookem2147 20908]

Just now, sith_horn said:

Bo didn't exactly knock it out of the park as a recruiting rainmaker while here. He developed well, and seems to have an eye for guys with upside, but the DL cuppers are not overflowing with blue chips. He might do better at LSU since they have a natural advantage with in-state talent though.

DL is the hardest position to collect blue chips at.

I do recall people being pretty excited about his 2022 class of Ross, Bledsoe and Bryant. Ross and Bledsoe were top 100 players in the country according to On3. Obviously didn’t work out. I thought his class this year of January, Hills and Robinson was good too.

But yes, he never really made it rain with all these high profile guys that come out of Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. My suspicion is that has more to do with built in disadvantages then Davis’ ability.

[Duane Moore 5236]

1 hour ago, HenryJames said:

Negged.

 

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

Agreed. “CKB” should be the preferred nomenclature, as befits an SEC message board. 

1 hour ago, hook me said:

Sark got HIS guy. Was Rod a candidate? Yes. Was O a possibility? My gut says he wouldn't turn down a chance to beat LSU & we had the money to get him here. But if you've been paying attention you'd know that Sark wanted a guy that he knew he could hang onto for a few years to avoid the trouble Saban had at Bama. He saw how difficult it was to have that much staff turnover every year and that's why I think this guy was actually number 1 on the board. So what's he do? He goes and gets an under the radar, up & coming, NFL guy. Make no mistake, people in the Dolphins organization rave, RAVE, about this guy. I had one NFL coordinator reach out to me personally and talk about how this guy is going to be a HC one day. That's how good he is & Sark got him at a discount because he's buying low. This sets up the defensive side nicely because you know what you have in PK, you have a natural successor in Nansen should PK move on, & now you have a guy that can come along after that should he prove himself as capable as what I've been told. Is he going to struggle recruiting? Maybe, but keep in mind the NIL at UT is a huge weapon for every coach & don't be surprised if T-Choice accompanies him when visiting some of the higher profile recruits - at least until he gets his feet under him in that area.

All in all this is an B+ hire with a chance for us to look back on it as an A+ here in 3-4 years. 

 

It was the best I could do off the top of my head

ChatGPT, please prepare a reaction to a new coaching hire in the style of Billy Liucci. 

[Bodacious Bevo 3575]

1 minute ago, Danimal said:

Performance of "Up and Coming Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Blake Gideon - Blessed as Muschamp's choice, has one more year to prove himself
• Brennan Marion - Good choice, bad results
• Tashard Choice - Great choice, great result
• Chris Jackson - "Who is this guy" grade for choice, good results so far
• AJ Milwee - What would he be without Sark?

Performance of "Established Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Andre Coleman - Bad choice to retain, bad results
• Kyle Flood - Great choice; amazing results
• Jeff Banks - Great choice, great results
• Jeff Choate - Good choice, good results
• Pete Kwiatkowski - good choice, good results (finally)
• Terry Joseph - "Meh" choice, "meh" results
• Bo Davis - Great choice, great results (depth chart is underwhelming though)

 

Good list. Only thing I'd change is Milwee. Good hire (for what Sark needs), good results. He'd been hired as an OC but chose to come here instead when Sark was hired. 

[Hookem2147 20908]

2 minutes ago, Danimal said:

Performance of "Up and Coming Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Blake Gideon - Blessed as Muschamp's choice, has one more year to prove himself
• Brennan Marion - Good choice, bad results
• Tashard Choice - Great choice, great result
• Chris Jackson - "Who is this guy" grade for choice, good results so far
• AJ Milwee - What would he be without Sark?

Performance of "Established Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Andre Coleman - Bad choice to retain, bad results
• Kyle Flood - Great choice; amazing results
• Jeff Banks - Great choice, great results
• Jeff Choate - Good choice, good results
• Pete Kwiatkowski - good choice, good results (finally)
• Terry Joseph - "Meh" choice, "meh" results
• Bo Davis - Great choice, great results (depth chart is underwhelming though)

 

Coleman was truly the only “bad” recruiter we’ve employed in 3 years. The question marks for everyone else mostly center around play on the field.

[GTJ1982 378]

6 minutes ago, Ricky Butler said:

I think the more useful question is why did Sark choose to hire this guy? He clearly could have hired some old retread with the budget we have for assistants.

This!  

He was obviously on Sark’s short list.  I doubt Sark went into the search only looking at Rod; that would be a very poor search no matter Rod’s qualifications.  Like do we really believe Sark just threw a dart on the board and hired this guy.  Bet everyone would have a different tune if $9.95ers had been pumping him for weeks. 

[Hookem2147 20908]

Milwee apparently does a lot of stuff behind the scenes offensively/QB wise to help take things off Sark’s plate and allow him to do head coach things.

With Jackson in the booth on Gameday, Milwee also helps out with the receivers.

[JBJ 3647]

2 hours ago, LCHorn said:

Fangio is a top tier coordinator

Understatement of the year.  He's probably the leading mind in the NFL currently.  Fangio has a good coaching tree (defensive guys at least), but this is a far down and short-lived experience.

[sith_horn 2367]

3 minutes ago, JBJ said:

Understatement of the year.  He's probably the leading mind in the NFL currently.  Fangio has a good coaching tree (defensive guys at least), but this is a far down and short-lived experience.

Exactly. From our outside perspective, we can hope he soaked up everything he could about DL coaching while in Miami, and he does have experience coaching DL for several years, albeit not at the P5 level. He's got potential and time will tell. Recruiting wise, I take some comfort that he is surrounded by great recruiters on staff that can help guide him. Hope he can keep Brandon Brown from jumping ship.

[cochamps 1875]

15 minutes ago, JBJ said:

Understatement of the year.  He's probably the leading mind in the NFL currently.  Fangio has a good coaching tree (defensive guys at least), but this is a far down and short-lived experience.

That Fangio hired him is one of the few tangible bullet points on his resume

[bad_teammate 13125]

19 minutes ago, utfan87 said:

I love the debate, but why is the end all be all the fact that our #1 said no so fall back option now has less than 0% chance of success… 

We Have No Insight And We Must Post

This hire is an information vacuum, and all vacuums must be filled. So we fill it with our inane ramblings, insecurities, self-validations, and fears.

Posting is the key. Posting is life.

 

[Ghost of Shag 2576]

2 hours ago, Helobious said:

This is 100% about getting an in with D-line recruits from the Atlanta area, which has a knack for producing some good ones. This guy is from there and recruited plenty of guys from there to WKU. And the NFL experience is an even bigger plus. Whole lot of stupid in this thread. I think it’s a great hire. 

Wait a sec.

So this is “100%” about having ties to one city in the by gawd US of A. 

100%.

But there’s a whole lotta stupid in this thread?

Peak surly.

[Newy25 7638]

2 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

 

This is definitely an unconventional hire. It was reported Sark was looking for someone proven to develop players who can recruit and this guy is mostly potential. I think it’s fair to wonder if this guy will work out. 

[Newy25 7638]

7 minutes ago, cochamps said:

That Fangio hired him is one of the few tangible bullet points on his resume

Why does Fangio have this much street cred? I followed him closely when he was with the Broncos and the guy fucking sucked balls and was run out of town. 

[6th Street 6340]

Dolphins ranked #3 in sacks this season with 56, behind only Baltimore (60) and KC (57). So maybe his swim move technique is good.

[Vito Andolini 9086]

1 minute ago, Newy25 said:

Why does Fangio have this much street cred? I followed him closely when he was with the Broncos and the guy fucking sucked balls and was run out of town. 

To paraphrase Red McCombs, some dudes are great assistants maybe even a coordinator, but suck ass as a head coach.

[Wishbone 4731]

1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

How do you hire an unnamed person?

PM @NoName

[Fondren & Main 6658]

Is Gideon that bad of a coach?  He has had the least talented group on the roster.  The safeties seem to know where to be, but they’re just slow like their coach.  I’m a lot more concerned with the play from the CB’s and the talent level there is much higher than at Safety.  It’s also possible that I’m a fucking moron.  Both things can be true.

 

Edited January 25 by Fondren & Main

[6th Street 6340]

Gideon is ass

[Ricky Butler 2657]

I

11 minutes ago, Newy25 said:

This is definitely an unconventional hire. It was reported Sark was looking for someone proven to develop players who can recruit and this guy is mostly potential. I think it’s fair to wonder if this guy will work out. 

Yeah, my biggest concern would be development but that's just because his resume doesn't have power 5 experience. I have no idea what makes a good DL coach. Bo seemed more hard-nosed and old school which works for him. I couldn't tell you what 95% of college and pro DL coaches are like. I hope he can motivate as I think that's been one of the biggest issues with Texas athletes during shit years. Keep your eyes on the prize and earn the NFL paycheck.

[Texasrocks 2124]

20 minutes ago, Danimal said:

Performance of "Up and Coming Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Blake Gideon - Blessed as Muschamp's choice, has one more year to prove himself
• Brennan Marion - Good choice, bad results
• Tashard Choice - Great choice, great result
• Chris Jackson - "Who is this guy" grade for choice, good results so far
• AJ Milwee - What would he be without Sark?

Performance of "Established Coaches" during Sark's tenure at Texas:

• Andre Coleman - Bad choice to retain, bad results
• Kyle Flood - Great choice; amazing results
• Jeff Banks - Great choice, great results
• Jeff Choate - Good choice, good results
• Pete Kwiatkowski - good choice, good results (finally)
• Terry Joseph - "Meh" choice, "meh" results
• Bo Davis - Great choice, great results (depth chart is underwhelming though)

 

Milwee is probably his own category. It's striking that Sark, Flood, Banks, and Choice are among the best coaches in the country at their position. Davis was the only defensive coach in that conversation. If I had to rank them it would be something like:

1. Flood
2. Choice
3. Banks
4. Kwiatkowski
5. Jackson
6. Joseph/Gideon

Nansen and Baker are TBD and there's a pretty big gap between Jackson and Joseph/Gideon. I don't really know where to put Milwee.

[tokamak 6350]

29 minutes ago, Fondren & Main said:

Is Gideon that bad of a coach?  He has had the least talented group on the roster.  The safeties seem to know where to be, but they’re just slow like their coach.  I’m a lot more concerned with the play from the CB’s and the talent level there is much higher than at Safety.  It’s also possible that I’m a fucking moron.  Both things can be true.

 

Counterpoint: Kitan Crawford 

[UncleSonny 6520]

12 minutes ago, Texasrocks said:

Milwee is probably his own category. It's striking that Sark, Flood, Banks, and Choice are among the best coaches in the country at their position. Davis was the only defensive coach in that conversation. If I had to rank them it would be something like:

1. Flood
2. Choice
3. Banks
4. Kwiatkowski
5. Jackson
6. Joseph/Gideon

Nansen and Baker are TBD and there's a pretty big gap between Jackson and Joseph/Gideon. I don't really know where to put Milwee.

I’m curious about what Milwee’s career path looks like from here. If Sark continues to have success you’d think he’d eventually be a commodity as a protege, but I’ve never heard his name come up for any jobs. 

He has a pretty great gig as is, Co-OC title and QB coach and he’s not exactly as young as I thought he was (38). His role doesn’t really give him the chance to prove himself as a P5 play caller or group of 5 head coach though. 

If he has aspirations for that, maybe eventually he has to take a step down and take a group of five OC gig to get some experience outside of being Sark’s right hand man. 

 

Edited January 25 by UncleSonny

[BruceVonClaude 212]

To be fair - Baker was named as the Defensive Line Coach for the Senior Bowl, which looks to be a prestigious honor for NFL coaches and their respective organizations:

I'm not sure if he still coaches the game or the Dolphins nominate someone else in his place.

Who will be coaching the 2024 Senior Bowl?

New York Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich and Tennessee Titans assistant head coach Terrell Williams will be the head coaches of this year’s Senior Bowl.

According to NFL.com, “This is the second year the Senior Bowl is implementing a “Coach Up” format in which coordinators and assistant coaches are placed into elevated or different roles from the ones they currently hold with their respective clubs. Head coaches and general managers from all non-playoff teams and Wild Card round participants had the opportunity to nominate assistant coaches. Ulbrich and Williams were then selected by a group composed of league office executives and representatives from the General Managers Advisory Committee.”

Source: Senior Bowl Coaches

[MonkeyDoughnut 10134]

38 minutes ago, Newy25 said:

Why does Fangio have this much street cred? I followed him closely when he was with the Broncos and the guy fucking sucked balls and was run out of town. 

Saw this quote on his hiring with Eagles today:

"This is a man who's overseen 10 different top-10 defensive finishes at five different stops as a DC or head coach, including with Miami this year. His personnel has varied. His staffs have varied. But his results as head of a defense have been remarkably consistent."

[Gene Parmesan 3992]

1 minute ago, UncleSonny said:

I’m curious about what Milwee’s career path looks like from here. If Sark continues to success you’d think he’d eventually be a commodity as a protege, but I’ve never heard his name come up for any jobs. 

He has a pretty great gig as is, Co-OC title and QB coach and he’s not exactly as young as I thought he was (38). His role doesn’t really give him the chance to prove himself as a P5 play caller or group of 5 head coach though. 

If he has aspirations for that, maybe eventually he has to take a step down and take a group of five OC gig to get some experience outside of being Sark’s right hand man. 

 

I doubt he leaves.  He's got a sweet NIL deal from Morrie's Wigs.

[USNALonghorn 5024]

The past three pages of this thread have me thinking that we expect to give up 300+ rush yards per game next season

[D_Goose 477]

4 hours ago, Reese Bennett said:

A little sunshine, but not too much.

[South Austin 52037]

4 minutes ago, USNALonghorn said:

The past three pages of this thread have me thinking that we expect to give up 300+ rush yards per game next season

That's nothing that 1,000 yards of total offense per game can't handle.

[Rimbo 25752]

4 hours ago, Teryor said:

Who we all expected

 

 

3 hours ago, Helobious said:

This is 100% about getting an in with D-line recruits from the Atlanta area, which has a knack for producing some good ones. This guy is from there and recruited plenty of guys from there to WKU. And the NFL experience is an even bigger plus. Whole lot of stupid in this thread. I think it’s a great hire. 

 

YOU TAKE THAT THE FUCK BACK

 

3 hours ago, South Austin said:

No thanks.  I'd prefer the devil you don't know.

 

THIS... is kinda true. He might suck, he might not. Right now, he's in a box existing in both states. Schroedinger's Coach.

 

2 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Neither is anything else fans do except contribute to TOF.

 

It can't be repeated enough.

DONATE TO TEXAS ONE FUND.

And if you already donate, INCREASE YOUR DONATION.

 

14 minutes ago, UncleSonny said:

I’m curious about what Milwee’s career path looks like from here. If Sark continues to have success you’d think he’d eventually be a commodity as a protege, but I’ve never heard his name come up for any jobs.

 

 

Why would he leave? He's in charge of one of the greatest QB rooms in all of CFB history.

[HeyMcFly 144]

49 minutes ago, 6th Street said:

Gideon is ass

my dude

[Fondren & Main 6658]

31 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Counterpoint: Kitan Crawford 

He was also supposed to be a CB at one point. 🥲

[Moderator 98]

4 hours ago, HenryJames said:

This is the only piece of evidence that seems promising.  How many d-linemen has WKU had drafted in their history? 

[ClubWhatever 12085]

1 minute ago, Moderator said:

This is the only piece of evidence that seems promising.  How many d-linemen has WKU had drafted in their history? 

Ah, the old divide by zero

[Hiphopopotamos 20865]

2 minutes ago, Moderator said:

This is the only piece of evidence that seems promising.  How many d-linemen has WKU had drafted in their history? 

Here is every player they've had drafted.  I count 6 DL since 1950.

Edited January 25 by Hiphopopotamos

[Vertigo 20257]

4 hours ago, Michael Knight said:

I mean I assume he comes with references

 

 

One thing I did find interesting in this interview is the fact that 3 different defensive coordinators kept him on staff. I guess that's something? That's all I got. 

[Js1 85056]

Not even mentioning Bo Davis was an assistant defensive line coach for 1 year with…The Dolphins!… before his first full time DL college coach stint, coaches have to start somewhere. 

[Hiphopopotamos 20865]

1 minute ago, Vertigo said:

One thing I did find interesting in this interview is the fact that 3 different defensive coordinators kept him on staff. I guess that's something? That's all I got. 

If we're looking for positives - he was a holdover through 3 different DCs.

Hired by Vic Fangio

After one year as ADL coach, chosen to coach the DL at the Senior Bowl.

[Elmer_Fudd 22084]

1 hour ago, Hookem2147 said:

That's a man that hustles and never sleeps.

[LonghornBreeder 550]

I guess this is our karma for all the shitty puns yesterday.

[Vertigo 20257]

4 minutes ago, LonghornBreeder said:

I guess this is our karma for all the shitty puns yesterday.

Garnet, you may be right. 

[alphahydro 332]

it's a strange hire from my perspective, because you would think Sark has the ability to attract someone with a much more developed resume. 

 

I'm sure Baker has great recs, but you also want to see skins on the wall before you say it was a great hire, i would think.

 

Below is some indication of his developmental track record, based on quick googling.  prolly missed something or made a mistake or two. 

(I assume he can't take all the credit for these guys' development).

 

3 years @ WKU - (DE&DL coach) 

• Conference defensive player of the year (DE) (3rd round NFL draft pick) DeAngelo Malone (3* recruit)
• All conference honorable mention (DT) (3rd round NFL draft pick) Brodric Martin (unrated coming out of high school)

1 Year UT-Chatanooga (DL coach)

• All conference; second team FCS all american; holds conference record # of sacks (DT) Bengals Free Agent -  Devonnsha Maxwell  (unrated coming out of high school[?])
• Second team all conference Khayyan Edwards (unrated coming out of high school)
• Second team all conference Telvin Jones (unrated coming out of high school)

5 years Mercer (DL coach)

• All conference DE Isaiah Buehler (2*)

 

I mean, at least he can talk to recruits about putting guys in the league and coaching in the league.  At it seems like he doesn't suck at coaching technique.  I'm in the wait and see camp.  If there were no A+ hires available so Sark took a shot on a guy with big potential and great recs from guys like Fangio, it is what it is.  

[Park Gothic 4949]

4 minutes ago, LonghornBreeder said:

I guess this is our karma for all the shitty puns yesterday.

[Newy25 7638]

In this day of NIL at Texas, being able to recruit seems like effort is mostly needed to be successful. From all accounts Bo Davis was more Oscar Giles than Tim Brewster in that regard. I’m less worried about his recruiting if he is hungry and looking to make a name for himself. He could actually be a plus recruiter if he uses this opportunity to breakout as a coach. It’s the lack of resume developing players but we will see I guess. 

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

4 hours ago, BornAndRaised said:

I've seen several media talking heads, not just Texas ones, refer to him as a "top up and coming coach." I don't know how that's quantified but this seems well, regarded?

Fixed

[Leanderman 2263]

Gonna give him the benefit of the doubt for right now. He would have not been my first choice but some folks have more knowledge than I do on hiring.

[DigDug 1649]

There is something very comforting in seeing that all the blowhards here are against this hiring.  If there is one thing that never changes, the heavy loud opinionated here are wrong almost all the time.  Almost every time.  

[BurntOrange&White 39486]

2 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

DL is the hardest position to collect blue chips at.

I do recall people being pretty excited about his 2022 class of Ross, Bledsoe and Bryant. Ross and Bledsoe were top 100 players in the country according to On3. Obviously didn’t work out. I thought his class this year of January, Hills and Robinson was good too.

But yes, he never really made it rain with all these high profile guys that come out of Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. My suspicion is that has more to do with built in disadvantages then Davis’ ability.

For the first few years we had horrible negative recruiting because of scheme on the front. Those negatives no longer exist so I am interested to see how recruiting goes at DT in our scheme moving forward. Were already seeing it at edge.