THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME
Major Applewhite might not look the part, but there’s evidence he can fill the bill to keep the ball rolling at UH
Major Applewhite is a good name. A memorable one. A likable one.
It might not have been the first name that sprang to mind when the University of Houston was searching for a replacement for football coach Tom Herman.
Names like Les Miles and Lane Kiffin were thrown out among others. Names of guys who have been head coaches in and won in Power Five conferences.
Applewhite hasn’t done that. He played in a big conference in the late 1990s. People around here still remember him from his University of Texas days. He was the charming kid from Louisiana slinging touchdown passes around for the Longhorns.
He’s well-liked in the community and among UH fans in general.
His personality and demeanor are different than Herman, who would walk into any room and immediately own it.
Not an attention getter
Applewhite is more likely to blend into a crowd than overtake it.
He’s not boisterous, loud or invasive.
He isn’t the first guy you would think about to take on a role as head coach of a Division I football team.
Applewhite doesn’t have that intense look in his eyes or that competitive growl in his voice. He’s calm and collected. Polite and polished. He doesn’t look the part of a guy who will argue with an official or yell at a player or throw his hands in the air in frustration.
So he doesn’t look the part. That’s fine.
All that matters is if Applewhite can play the role. All that matters is if he can coach up the Cougars, win some games and keep building a program that is starting to earn national respect and attention.
Judging by the Cougars’ offense the past two seasons, I think Applewhite might shock some people and pull this off.
“I think there was some surprise that he was hired,” former UH offensive lineman Alex Cooper said. “But if you think about it, it makes sense. Remember those plays we executed were ones he called. He knows what he’s doing.”
The development of quarterback Greg Ward, Jr. alone should give UH fans a good amount of hope that things under Applewhite’s reign are going to be entertaining if nothing else.
If he can bring the creativity and his knack for playcalling to the table and produce some wins, too, UH is going to look extremely smart for promoting from within.
Applewhite could seem like a disappointing hire for obvious reasons. He has no head coaching experience; his name was in the news for an affair with a student at UT a few years ago. He isn’t a big-name coach.
Despite what the UH administration wants to push, he isn’t well known in coaching in the country. He’s a medium-sized name in the state.
Still, he’s a name among high school coaches in the area. He has the ability to keep the HTown takeover going.
His ability to recruit this area is going to make a huge difference for the Cougars.
He played a major (no pun intended) role in helping Herman build UH into the team it is — one that can take down the giants but needs to be better on a regular basis against teams like SMU.
And he doesn’t seem to be looking for the next big job, like Art Briles, Kevin Sumlin and Herman were before him.
He could very well be the guy to come in and bring consistency and stability to a program that has been on the cusp of greatness on and off for a decade.
A happy medium
Applewhite doesn’t want to be a coordinator in the background, and UH doesn’t want to be a steppingstone for coaches.
The two might have found a way to make everyone happy.
Applewhite doesn’t have the name or the résumé that others do.
But his passion for and knowledge of the game are clear.
Next season will be a telling one.
It will be the one that could make Major Applewhite a different kind of name — one that comes up in conversations about coaches on the rise.