A Major mistake
A.J. Hoffman: UH, Applewhite make desperate, reckless move with Briles hire
Jan 8, 2018, 5:29 pm
Kendal Briles brings controversy to UH. Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Major Applewhite’s first season as head coach at the University of Houston was far from disastrous. It was, however, a disappointment relative to recent performance. The 2017 Cougars lost the same number of games (5) as Tom Herman’s 2015 and 2016 teams lost combined. Their 7 wins was the lowest total since 2012, which was Tony Levine’s first season as head coach. The offense put up 339 points, the fewest posted by a Cougar team since 2005.
Houston fans have become accustomed to a better product than they got this season. The initial excitement over Applewhite being named head coach started to fade on October 14th, when the Coogs got housed 45-17 by a Tulsa team that didn’t win another conference game all season. The home opener drew 38,900 fans to the shiny, new, $128 million TDECU Stadium. Attendance declined every home game, with the home finale drawing just over 29,000. The team was decidedly mediocre, but unlike past seasons where the on-field performance wasn’t ideal, the team was not entertaining to watch.
Fans and media alike ripped Major for the lackluster offense. During prep for the Hawaii Bowl, offensive coordinator Brian Johnson left after just one year to coach quarterbacks at Florida. Major called the plays for the bowl game, and the Cougars lost to Fresno State 33-27. D’Eriq King, the third quarterback UH tried during the season, threw for 269 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He also added 38 rushing yards. The rest of the Cougars rushed for a combined 34 yards on 22 carries. Not exactly inspiration that the offense has an up arrow headed into next season.
You may recall a quote that surfaced when Major was hired that was attributed UH President Renu Khator. “The winning is defined at University of Houston as 10-2. We’ll fire coaches at 8-4.”
So Major did what any first time coach nursing a $1.5 million salary and a 7-5 first season would do. He panicked. He tabbed former Baylor assistant Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator, and brought on Randy Clements to coach the offensive line and coordinate the run game. The same Kendal Briles and Randy Clements who coached under Kendal’s father Art Briles at Baylor. The same Baylor that reached a settlement agreement with a student last year who indicated she was aware of “at least 52 rapes, including 5 gang rapes by not less than 31 different football players under former Baylor Football Head Coach Art Briles.” The same Kendal Briles that asked a recruit, “Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at BAYLOR and they LOVE football players.” According to the lawsuit, the Baylor coaching staff recruiting strategy made girls in Baylor’s hostess program available for sex, using drugs and alcohol.
Of course, Baylor (albeit slowly) fired Art Briles and did its best to clean their hands of the mess, after a thorough investigation by the Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton Law Office. Even after this, Kendal Briles was one of several assistant coaches who voiced their support for their disgraced boss via twitter. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, the coaches maintained that no wrongdoing had occurred.
Houston isn’t the first school to dip into the Briles coaching pool since his firing. Arizona State hired defensive coordinator Phil Bennett after he declined to become the Baylor interim head coach. Texas hired quality control assistant Casey Horny. Florida Atlantic hired Kendal Briles last year.
When Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin faced pressure about the hire last season, he basically let everyone know that winning is what mattered most. “My plan is not in place to please the media,” Kiffin said. “My plan is still in place to do the best thing for our players and the people that hired me.”
This is essentially the decision that the University of Houston has made. They are willing to put their reputation on the line, basically on the word of Kendal Briles, who is still under investigation by the NCAA. UH can claim to have “strongly vetted” him, but there is no way they could have done an inquiry in three weeks that is more thorough than the one the NCAA has been conducting for nearly the last 2 years. The fact is, there is more evidence that Kendal was involved than there is evidence that he was not involved.
The Florida Atlantic offense thrived under Briles, and I am sure the Cougar offense will as well. He is a hell of an offensive mind, but there are plenty of coaches UH could have gone after that didn’t carry the stink that Briles’ does. Best case scenario, it has drawn scrutinizing eyes to your program. Worst case scenario, the news comes out that Briles’ knew more than he says, and now your program has the stench of Baylor’s scandal all over it.
There are bold moves, then there are reckless moves. The short term payoff for UH could be on-field success. The long term downside of this move is disastrous and paints the university in a light that winning football games is more important than anything, including your school’s morals, reputation and the safety of it’s students.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.