By Jay Saunders | Houston Columnist
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The Houston Cougars are looking for a new football coach.
Tony Levine Relieved of Houston Coaching Duties. Full info: http://t.co/aC8YYiesqW
— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) December 8, 2014
With heavy heart, we bid farewell to Coach Levine. Thank you for your contributions! — Renu Khator (@UHpres) December 8, 2014
After three seasons, a 21-17 record, and back-to-back bowl games, Tony Levine will be searching for a new job. Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades didn’t speak with the media, rather making the announcement with a news release.
“Although we are excited to play in our second straight bowl game,” Rhoades said, “the expectations of our program have changed over the last five years with the opening of TDECU Stadium and the current college football landscape.”
Translation: don’t lose the first game in our brand new stadium, be more consistent, and win more games and you likely would have kept your job. As you can imagine, this isn’t a popular decision with everyone, and some players took to Twitter to voice their displeasure:
Thank you @CoachTonyLevine. Many people won’t understand what you did for us, they just see W’s and L’s. But that’s the business though.
— Malcolm XXL. (@NotoriousMbu) December 8, 2014
Say what you want but Levine always went to bat for players and always took care of us Only coach besides spav to be here since I got here
— Meka (@mekkaworldpeace) December 8, 2014
You won’t find a better person in college football than @CoachTonyLevine Going to miss playing for you coach!
— John O’Korn (@JohnOKorn) December 8, 2014
John O’Korn also posted a tweet insinuating players found out about Levine’s firing on Twitter. Such is the life we live in 2014.
Despite some of the players’ displeasure about the move, there are a lot of reasons this makes sense. This season was a complete roller coaster, and the Cougars never truly found an identity. In fact, they had a lot of identities, especially on offense. UH started the season with a pass-happy, spread-the-field attack under O’Korn. When that didn’t work they tried a run-heavy game with Greg Ward, Jr. behind center. Then suddenly, in one of the more shocking losses of the season (Tulane), Ward was given the green light to throw the ball… a lot.
The Cougars also had problems at various times throughout the season with special teams, which is Levine’s specialty. (Pun intended.)
The only consistency the Coogs had all year was on defense, and even the “Third Ward” crew had its problems giving up points in bunches against teams that had no business scoring at will. And in the final game of the year against Cincinnati, the Cougars lost the one thing the team has hung its hat on for years: the streak of games forcing a turnover.
Add up all of the inconsistencies, plus the culture of “win now and win often” we live in and it doesn’t take much to realize why Rhodes made his move. Now the pressure is on the A.D. to move this program forward. Rhoades just fired a coach with a winning record and two bowl bids. He better hope he can find a coach that makes Houston more of a household name, or the next tweet from the University President will be announcing Rhoades is on the unemployment line.
So where does Houston look? This should be an attractive job. Houston is one of the largest cities in the country, it is in the middle of recruit-rich Texas, the school has a brand new stadium and facilities, and gets a decent amount of national attention thanks to the growing AAC.
It’s possible, maybe even likely, the next head coach in Houston will be a coordinator at a school right now. Offensive coordinator Tim Beck at Nebraska is looking for work and wants to be a head coach. I’m sure there are guys on the Michigan staff that might make a good fit. Shawn Watson at Louisville is going to lead a program some day. With the problems on offense, and a top quarterback recruit coming in, it might make sense to go with an offensive-minded coach.
What about a coach with a successful past that is currently out of a job? Two names that come to mind that would be “splash hires” are Greg Schiano and Jim Grobe. Houston Nutt (I mean, really, the headlines write themselves) said he would take the SMU job if offered and had an interview with UNLV. All of those men may have led larger teams before, but they could be given complete control of a growing program.
Whichever way the Cougars choose to go they should move quickly. This is a crucial recruiting time and teams throughout the country are lining up their picks on the coaching carousel.
The search is on. The pressure is on. Now it’s time to wait and see who will end up in Houston.
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