With all the questions flying around about who Houston Nutt will hire to coach quarterbacks and be an offensive coordinator, the authors of the Cup wanted to get our own discussion out there. Like we do for each Rebel Roundtable, we sent around an e-mail to get opinions. This is what we got back.
Ghost of Jay Cutler: Lots of rumors as to the new OC have been swirling around. Who do you want and why?
Ivory Tower: Some jackass who used to be the O.C. at Alabama. Have we totally forgotten how bad Alabama was under Mike Shula?
Ghost of Jay Cutler: He also hasn't been in the coaching game for the past three years which bothers me. A lot. One name that I am hearing a lot of is still Hugh Freeze. That is a hire I can get behind. He is a good X's and O's guy, has experience with Ole Miss, and is a good recruiter who knows the Memphis area very well. If it were my choice to make, I'd go after Freeze.
Ivory Tower: And, seriously, how much of this Gunther Brewer stuff is based solely on his daddy having been the head coach here? Answer: all of it. The Pokes were not able to adjust to the loss of Dez Bryant, and their offense went in the crapper. When your offense is in the crapper and you play in the Big XII, you know that it's deep down in there along with the dookey residue and blockages made up of 85% of the previous tenant's pubic hair.
Juco All-American: Honestly, the only two of the rumored candidates with which I would be completely unhappy are Dave Rader and Gunter Brewer. All the others have at least one solid quality. Hugh Freeze can recruit. David Lee has 35 years of exerience coaching in the NFL and has won awards for his coaching. Kragthorpe was colossal at Tulsa and quite good in his first year at Louisville, offensively. In that season, Louisville passed for over 4,000 yards and ran for more than 1,700.
Brewer and Rader on the other hand, don't interest me as much. Rader's faults, from a hiring standpoint, are numerous and need not be discussed here. Brewer, on the other hand, has never shown he can do anything at all with an offense. He was even recently demoted by Oklahoma State. Remember, he was co-OC there.
My money, in terms of who I want, is on Kragthorpe. I imagine we'll hire someone like Dave Rader though, and I'll cry.
One Man to Beat: I'm convinced we will absolutely screw this hire up. I fear us hiring Olive Branch head coach Scott Samsel so that we get the inside track on Shon Coleman. There has to be a name out there that will attract recruits in the future.
On the flip side, they could hire a boring guy like Rader, and then get a position coach like, shit I don't know, Duece McAlister, who will bring in the recruits. Make him a damn volunteer coach. The guy gets people excited. Period.
I'd really like to see Major Applewhite from Texas get the hire. He's a running backs coach at Texas right now and worked in the past with Alabama and Rice, and I think he knows the head coaching job is probably going to Muschamp. He should build his resume elsewhere and with connections to Louisiana(his birthplace) and Texas(his collegiate career), he would be a VERY valuable asset to recruiting.
[Editor's note: One Man is silly. He thinks we can sign someone like Major Applewhite and that we have a chance with Shon Coleman.]