Tag: Chris Ash

ESPN Asks What Is The Texas Longhorns Biggest Question in 2020?

Sam Khan Jr of ESPN asks what is the biggest question for the Texas Longhorns in 2020? With a new staff, can they make it work?

ESPN came out with the biggest question for each of their projected top 25 teams in 2020. According to the story, the Texas Longhorns are projected as the number 24 team going into next season. Writer Sam Khan Jr asks the following question.

Will Tom Herman’s massive staff turnover work out? The talent isn’t really much of an issue at Texas; the Longhorns have recruited well since Herman’s arrival. But an 8-5 season was underwhelming, and as a result, Herman fired both coordinators and brought in Mike Yurcich to run the offense and Chris Ash to run the defense, as well as a host of new position coaches. How quickly the staff jells and how well the players take to the new staff will be key as the Longhorns embark on a pivotal 2020 campaign. — Khan

Outside of the 10-4 season in 2018, the entire tenure under head coach Tom Herman has been quite underwhelming. Wiping out most of the staff following the 7-5 regular was necessary for the future of Herman in Texas. Even though he was the first Texas Longhorns head coach to win his first three bowl games, Herman is under immense pressure to win.  Getting to a bowl may work for other universities but in Texas the aim is much higher.

The jelling period for this staff needs to come quickly as the Longhorns will play the defending National Champions in Baton Rouge for their second game of the season. That game will prove to be gut check time. If the Longhorns want to prove to the world that they are ready to compete with the top teams in college football, a strong showing in a hostile environment will be critical.

With the new staff in play there will be no excuses for Tom Herman and company this year. It is either win the Big 12 conference or the Athletic Director might be going big game hunting this next offseason.

Former Wisconsin Defensive Coordinator Dave Aranda Named Baylor’s Head Football Coach

Former Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Aranda named the new head coach at Baylor.

Former Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Aranda was announced as the new head football coach at Baylor on Thursday.

Aranda, 43, will replace former Baylor head coach Matt Rhule who accepted the head coaching position with the Carolina Panthers following Baylor’s loss to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Prior to coming to Wisconsin in 2013, Aranda served as the defensive coordinator at Utah State for one season under Gary Andersen in 2012. Andersen replaced Bret Bielema as the head coach at Wisconsin in 2013 when Bielema left for the Arkansas head coaching position. Despite the one season together at Utah State Andersen hired Aranda to coordinate Wisconsin’s defense.

In Aranda’s three seasons with the Badgers as the defensive coordinator, the Badgers consistently ranked as one of the top defenses as Aranda made the switch from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4.

Despite Aranda’s short stay at Wisconsin, his impact had a lasting effect.

In his three seasons with the Badgers, his defense’s consistently improved. In 2013 Wisconsin’s defense ranked seventh nationally in total defense (305.1 yards per game), in 2014 they ranked fourth nationally (294.1 yards per game), and in 2015 they ranked second nationally (268.5 yards per game).

Not to mention in two of his three seasons at Wisconsin the Badgers scoring defense ranked in the top 10 nationally, which includes ranking 1st in his last year as the Badgers allowed 13.7 points per game.

Even when Aranda was hired away from Wisconsin by LSU his defenses were still some of the top nationally in his four seasons with the Tigers. Aranda was able to help the Tigers win their first national championship since 2008 on Monday night when LSU beat Clemson 42-to-25.

This will mark Aranda’s first head coaching job as prior to him accepting the head coaching position in Waco he was being discussed as the head coach for the opening at UNLV.

With Aranda being named the head coach at Baylor he is the sixth former Badger defensive coordinator since 2004 to be named head coach of a college football program. Aranda joins a list that already includes Bielema (Wisconsin), Dave Doeren (Northern Illinois), Charlie Partridge (Florida Atlantic), Chris Ash (Rutgers), and Justin Wilcox (California).

Former Wisconsin Safety Jay Valai Named Cornerbacks Coach at Texas

Former Wisconsin safety was named Texas cornerbacks coach on Monday.

Former Wisconsin safety Jay Valai (2006-2010) on Monday was officially announced as the cornerbacks coach for Texas.

Valai a Texas native has previously coached at Rutgers as he served as the cornerbacks coach for the Scarlet Knights. Valai has also served as a coach with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Valai joins Chris Ash at Texas as Ash the former head coach at Rutgers will serve as Texas’ defensive coordinator. Ash served as Wisconsin’s defensive backs coach in 2010 before being named co-defensive coordinator at Wisconsin with Charlie Partridge from 2011-to-2012.

Valai only played one season under Ash as a player in 2010 and has also coached under Ash at Rutgers for only one season. Ash will also serve as the safeties coach for Texas in addition to being the defensive coordinator.

Valai replaces Jason Washington as the cornerbacks coach at Texas as Ash elected not to retain him as his position coach.

Valai in his career at Wisconsin started 37 career games while appearing in 48 overall. Valai finished his career at Wisconsin with 153 career tackles (91 solo), 10.5 tackles for loss, one sack, four forced fumbles, 10 pass deflections, and two interceptions.

Valai was a two-time second-team All-Big Ten selection as he made the second team in 2008 and 2010. Statistically Valai’s best season came in 2008 when he posted career highs in tackles (56), tackles for loss (four), sacks (one), and forced fumbles (three).

Valai will be tasked with helping shore up a Longhorn secondary that allowed 292.5 passing yards per game, which ranked 127th nationally. Compared to the 232.5 passing yards Rutgers allowed this past season, which ranked 76th nationally.

 

Texas officially announces the hiring of two new assistant coaches

Texas announces two new coaching staff hires with wide receivers coach Andre Coleman and cornerbacks coach Jay Valai.

Texas has officially announced two new hires to their 2020 coaching staff. Wide receivers coach Andre Coleman and cornerbacks coach Jay Valai have joined head coach Tom Herman’s tree of assistant coaches.

Herman has rightfully reshaped his staff this offseason. While this may not be the last shakeup, it’s certainly significant. The Texas football program welcomed the new coaches on Twitter moments ago.

The Longhorns receivers were previously coached by Drew Mehringer and Corby Meekins. Mehringer was fired on Dec. 1, while Meekins was reassigned to an administrative staff position.

Coleman is a former Kansas State offensive coordinator who assisted Texas as an analyst during the 2019 season. Serving as the receivers coach for the Wildcats from 2013-2017, Coleman has an ample amount of experience. As an interm receivers coach during the Alamo Bowl, Coleman showcased his ability to connect with his players and impressed Herman with his offensive mind and attention to detail.

One of the more surprising replacements this offseason was new defensive coordinator Chris Ash’s decision to not retain defensive backs coach Jason Washington. Also serving as a recruiting coordinator, this left a major hole to fill for a young, talented group of cornerbacks.

It appears that Ash has landed his top choice. Former Rutgers coach Jay Valai has joined the Texas staff as a cornerbacks coach. Ash expects to assist with the safeties for the Longhorns in 2020. This two-man group for the back end of Texas’ defense has quite the history together.

Valai played under Ash at Wisconsin in 2010, where he was a captain and starting safety for the Badgers. After experience as a quality control coach for the Georgia Bulldogs and Kansas City Chiefs, Ash hired Valai as the cornerbacks coach at Rutgers for the 2019 season.

In a statement announcing Valai’s hiring, Herman feels confident and optimistic with staff addition.

“As a Texas native, he has a passion for our state, knows it well and will also be a tremendous recruiter for us. Chris Ash coached him as a player, hired him as a coach and thinks the world of him. I really enjoyed my time visiting with Jay and was really impressed by what he’ll bring to our program. We’re thrilled to add him to our staff.”

Texas is surrounded with high expectations and hopeful developments as they enter the 2020 season.

More Texas Longhorns Staff Shakeups On The Way?

Reports have surfaced that cornerbacks coach Jason Washington will not be retained for the Texas Longhorns. Could Jay Valai be the guy?

The reports concerning the Texas Longhorns’ staff heading into 2020 have been at a fever pitch. Following the news that Craig Naivar is out as an assistant in the secondary and running backs coach Stan Drayton could be heading to the NFL, there might be more still to come.

New defensive coordinator Chris Ash is looking to bring his own defensive staff following his hire. Reports are beginning to surface about cornerbacks coach Jason Washington being let go as the defensive assistant shuffle moves along.

Washington has been a coach in the state of Texas since 2004 with stops at Rice, Texas State, Houston and Texas. With any new coordinator, bringing in coaches they have dealt with is no shock. According to Anwar Richardson, the name to replace Washington will be Rutgers cornerbacks coach Jay Valai.

Ash brought over the former Wisconsin Badgers cornerback as his cornerbacks coach when he took over at Rutgers. Valai was working with the Kansas City Chiefs as a defensive quality control coach prior to the move.

The big question now will be, how will that impact recruiting given that Washington does well to recruit talent in the state of Texas.

Texas Longhorns: Five Areas To Improve In 2020

The Texas Longhorns finished the year 8-5 but here are five areas to get even better in 2020.

Even with the Texas Longhorns victory over the Utah Utes to cap off a 8-5 campaign, there are plenty of areas where the team can improve upon in 2020. The Longhorns will be looking to get to double digit wins for only the second time since 2009 that ended a run of nine consecutive 10-win seasons under Mack Brown.

Defense Needs To Create Turnovers

For any offense, creating turnovers is their best friend. It gives the offense some advantages in that they deal with short fields and the Longhorns could do well to put pressure on the opposing offense that really can play right into the hands of the defense.

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

The Longhorns created 22 turnover opportunities under Todd Orlando and with the recent hire of Chris Ash, Texas needs to continue to create more opportunities for Sam Ehlinger and the offense. D’Shawn Jamison led the team with three picks in 2019.

Chris Ash will be looking to bring some of that 2014 Ohio State magic to the Longhorns defense. That season, the Buckeyes tallied 25 interceptions. Ash has a big opportunity to create a defense that Texas has been missing for the last several years.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5

Jalen Milroe still 100% committed to the Longhorns

After hiring a new OC, recruiting is picking up for Texas. QB Jalen Milroe is “100% committed” and is “excited” to meet OC Mike Yurcich.

Experiencing a dip in recruiting after the firing of offensive coordinator Tim Beck and defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, Texas had a bad string of decommitments. Most of that was because it was not known who was going to be hired to those roles going forward for the Longhorns.

Now that they have hired Mike Yurcich as the offensive coordinator and Chris Ash as the defensive coordinator, recruits have started to reaffirm their commitment to Texas. First, it was 2021 athlete Billy Bowman, now it is 2021 quarterback Jalen Milroe.

According to Mike Roach of 247sports.com, Milroe is “100% committed to Texas,” and is “excited” to meet and talk to new OC Mike Yurcich.

Milroe had been approached and offered by Arkansas earlier this month, adding another team to his long list of offers. He is currently the second-highest-rated recruit in the Texas 2021 class, only trailing ATH Ja’Tavion Sanders.

Yurcich, Ash, and the Longhorns staff will continue to build a great 2021 class. Ranked third in the country right now, the Longhorns are looking at another top 10 recruiting class.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Chris Ash officially named defensive coordinator

After reports going around about Chris Ash becoming the DC, it was made official today. Texas sent out a tweet welcoming Ash to Texas.

Having both the offensive and defensive coordinator jobs open at the moment, one of those has officially been filled. After reports going around about Chris Ash becoming the team’s defensive coordinator, Texas made it official today. The Longhorn Football Twitter account sent out a tweet welcoming Ash to Texas.

Ash was the head coach of Rutgers before being fired at the beginning of October. There were reports that Ash joined the staff after his firing from Rutgers to help advise the defense before the Oklahoma game.

Head Coach Tom Herman is familiar with Ash, as the two worked together in the 2014 season at Ohio State. The Buckeyes went on to win the national championship that year, defeating Alabama in the semi-final and Oregon in the title game. Ash’s defense only gave up 22 points a game in the 2014 season and just 342 yards per game.

The second Texas fired Todd Orlando, this was the hire most people expected. Even though he has gotten some criticism for it, Herman continues to hire coaches he is familiar with and coached with in the past. Orlando was with him while he was the head coach of Houston and he did the same with Tim Beck on the offensive side of the ball.

Ash has the potential to be a home run hire for the Longhorns. The roster is full of stud players that have the potential to be something special. It has just been missing a coach that can put it all together. Ash has proven he can do it in the past and Texas is hoping he can do it again.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Chip Brown Reports Chris Ash Expected To Join Longhorns Staff

Chip Brown of Horns247 is reporting that Chris Ash will take over as defensive coordinator. Ash has a history with head coach Tom Herman.

Following the dismissal of defensive coordinator Todd Orlando after three years at the University of Texas and a two-year stint with Tom Herman in Houston, the Longhorns are expect to name former Rutgers coach Chris Ash to run the defense. Chip Brown of Horns247 reported the story Sunday morning.

Ash has familiarity with Herman much like Todd Orlando did. Ash was with Herman at Iowa State as the defensive backs coach and again with him at Ohio State in 2014 when they won the National Championship with the Buckeyes.

Ash takes over a defense that struggled down the stretch. The Longhorns defense ranked 108th nationally in yards per game surrendered. Their turnover margin (+6) was 26th nationally but given the talent on this team, it could be better and Ash can bring some new ideas to help them get to where Texas football should be.

A huge focus on this defense needs to be getting off the field on 3rd downs. This year the Longhorns allowed a first down conversion on 3rd downs at 40%, that was 74th nationally. The hiring of Chris Ash should bring optimism for a team in dire need that needs some positive news going into the offseason after a disappointing season by Longhorns standing. With Ash in the fold, Tom Herman now will be looking to make a hire on the offensive side of the ball.

Every Big Ten voter in the Amway Coaches Poll put Ohio State at No. 1

Six Big Ten coaches had votes in the Amway Coaches Poll this year. All of them put Ohio State at No. 1.

The Amway Coaches Poll powered by USA TODAY Sports is decided by 65 FBS coaches. These 65 voters are split up relatively evenly between the ten conferences, to avoid potential bias. Not only is there possibly an incentive for coaches to make their opponents look stronger, but familiarity breeds respect, and coaches are generally most familiar with the teams in their own conferences.

Usually, the ballots for the Coaches Poll are kept private. No one knows which coach voted which way. However, in a tradition that came from the BCS, the poll does release the ballot of each coach for the final rankings. USA Today published those ballots, which contain some interesting nuggets.

An important takeaway, though, is that all sseven Big Ten coaches will ballots put Ohio State at No. 1. The Buckeyes received 14 first-place votes in the final poll, and a full half those 14 came from Big Ten coaches. Chris Ash of Rutgers, Jeff Brohm of Purdue, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, Ohio State’s own Ryan Day, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald, Penn State’s James Franklin, and Nebraska’s Scott Frost all put the Buckeyes in the top spot. (Even though Ash was fired partway through the season, his vote isn’t transferred to a different school or coach.)

This is not too unexpected. The trends for years have indicated that teams are slightly overrated (relative to the rest of the poll) by coaches in their own conference–which is why the bias is spread out the way the poll does it. Still, it’s noteworthy that the Big Ten coaches all think that Ohio State is the best in the land, while the vast majority of others had the Buckeyes at No. 2. A few coaches did have Ohio State at No. 3 behind both LSU and Clemson, but no one had the Buckeyes lower. In fact, astonishingly, every single coach (and every single AP voter) had the Oklahoma Sooners at No. 4–not a single voter had them higher or lower.