Well, At Least Someone's Happy to Come to Houston!

Could this not be read as a taunt of some sort to outgoing Coach Briles?

Maggard made one coaching move Thursday, adding former Cougars All-America wide receiver and assistant coach Jason Phillips to the staff. Phillips will help interim coach Chris Thurmond prepare the Cougars for the Dec. 28 Texas Bowl.

Phillips spent last season at Baylor, where he served as recruiting coordinator and inside receivers coach for Guy Morriss, who was fired on Nov. 18. Prior to his one season in Waco, Phillips had spent the previous four seasons with the Cougars, where he mainly coached wide receivers and spent one season handling the cornerbacks.

"Jason is ready to roll," Maggard said. "Jason is going to help us with the preparation (for the bowl game). ... and he's going to be on the sidelines. ...

"Jason is going to be part of our staff, and he's going to remain a part of our staff until the new person comes in, and we'll see what happens after that. I'm glad to have him. He wants to help, he wants to be here, and we wanted him back."

Phillips, 41, jumped at the opportunity to return to Houston.

Whatever ... happy to have ya back, Jason.

Remings me, add to my list of eventful items for the next two months, a certain UH-UK basketball game (12/18) where Michael Young gets his jersey retired.

ADD-ON: Among the names mentioned as possibilities for UH in the article, Terry Bowden's is likely the most appealing to me. Hopefully, it's more than just a wishcast suggestion. The downside, of course, is that he's gone after 3-4 good years. As opposed to, say, anyone else who comes through UH that might stick around for, oh I dunno ... 3-4 good years.

I'm not all that impressed that Applewhite's name is in there, but obviously when you've got papers to sell, you play to the home crowd. Am I just missing something about Major that makes him just that in-demand as a potential head coach?

Among the names I'm less familiar with, Lucious Selmon at least wins some attention due to the fact that he's a D-line coach. If there's one thing I miss as far back as the Pardee days, it's a good defensive team. I'm curious how effective that is when you account for recruiting strength, though. Maybe any coach worth his weight can recruit well enough at that to get yer 6 wins and head to a bowl, but if the aim is to start cracking the Top 25, you're back to recruiting against bigger schools for some of the talent to make that calling card a strong unit.

The one thing I've got my fingers crossed for is that we don't see a massive recruiting effort from the JuCo circuit to get a short-term fix. Then again, let's see how many kids leave UH now that they've got a free pass to do so. Ugh, how I dread coaching changes.