Over at Football Study Hall I chronicle how things are going for the various Briles-tree coaches around the college game.
The situation in Houston is pretty interesting. If you’re a fan of conspiracy theories there’s some reason to believe that the pro-Briles Cougar boosters are working a hostile takeover of the program. First pushing Applewhite to hire Kendal (maybe) and overhaul his offense after only a single year (and one that ended positively once he established sophomore D’Eriq King at QB) and next…?
Philip Montgomery isn’t in great shape because he’s losing at Tulsa and also has baggage from being at Baylor for all of the shenanigans.
Sterlin Gilbert seems the most likely to emerge as the top guy from this tree down the line, particularly if he can break through at USF now that Taggart’s main guys are gone and he can start to run more of his own offense rather than a makeshift version suited to Quinton Flowers’ skill set.
Probably though this tree won’t have a big part in the future of the college game and it’ll be the ideas and concepts, pilfered by other coaches, that really stick. Or else some other coach stumbling upon something similar, perhaps with guidance from a veer and shoot guy, much like Chad Morris with Gus Malzahn, that brings the next big breakthrough for this offense.
Bunch of rumors that both Gilbert and Briles JR at least ‘talked to’ Coach O regarding the LSU OC job last offseason.
Not sure how that would have gone over in practice with regards to Aranda’s approach to coaching defense.
Not great, is the most likely answer. I think Aranda got what he wanted here.