Houston, SMU gear up for 2015 with new coaches

Houston and SMU have been afterthoughts in the landscape of Texas college football for years. Each was once a perennial contender or, at least, a viable option for top athletes coming out of high school at different times during program history. When each was left out of the Big 12 when the Southwestern Conference disbanded the road was tough. SMU suffered until June Jones came to town and had relative success until it all fell apart. Houston was where Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin jump-started their careers before moving on to more money and prestige at in-state colleges. Thanks to two high-profile hires in the latest offseason that is changing at both schools. Despite not being in P5 conferences, Houston and SMU have started to build momentum within recruiting. Chad Morris became famous as a high school coach at Lake Travis before successful years as the offensive coordinator at Clemson. He has surrounded himself with a young, aggressive staff that isn’t afraid to battle with the top dogs in recruiting. Tom Herman joined Houston after helping Ohio State win a national championship this past season as the offensive coordinator. He and his staff have made it a point to try and get Houston back to keeping local products at home, and it is working. The commitment of four-star defensive tackle Ed Oliver was a warning shot to the rest of the state that the Cougars are ready to keep Houston-area talent at home. The Cougars currently sit at seven commits, and six of them are from the Houston area. SMU has 10 commitments, and while not all of them are from the DFW area it is clear that Morris and his staff are much more confident and aggressive on the recruiting trail than the previous staff. The question remains on how much this will pay off this fall. It is hard to imagine that Morris can turn SMU around from a one-win team in just a season, but the trajectory is moving up and the Mustangs have plenty of money to invest in football. The Cougars weren’t bad last season, but Herman is a better coach. The issue with the Houston job is it has been proven to be a spring board into something better. If Herman has success quickly suitors from around the country will start calling. That puts pressure on the alumni base to pay up or start over again like it experienced after the departure of Briles and Sumlin. It is hard to imagine SMU returning to the form it had in the 70’s or for Houston to compete for national titles because of conference affiliation, but there is no reason that the two schools shouldn’t be the best non P5 programs in the state. Each has distinct advantages over similar programs like UTSA, North Texas, Rice and UTEP. Each resides in a recruiting base that is ripe with talent. Each has more money in the athletic budget. And each has a tradition that the other non P5 schools in this state simply can’t match.It is a dawn of a new era at Houston and SMU. We’ll just have to see how long that era can last.

Mike Craven is the publisher of BirdsUp.com and a TexasFootball.com contributor.