Bruce Feldman reports that Pete Lembo will join Mike Norvell’s staff at Memphis.

Sucks to lose our associate head coach to another G5 school. That said, I’m not surprised as Lembo has a reputation of being a bit of a job hopper.

Hope the emphasis on special teams continues.

Not surprising.
But this is crummy news.
The kicking game showed light years of progress in 2018 and it seemed that Lembo made a difference in recruiting, too.
I wish him well and I’ll really be interested in who we get to replace him.

Bloom made a good hire for ST before. Maybe he can do it again.

Time to bring James Casey back home.

(01-06-2019 11:15 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Time to bring James Casey back home.

That would actually be a good fit for this position.

Hopefully he’d take the hometown discount.

He was TE and ST coach at UH. Supposedly fans there liked what he did with the TE's but they weren't thrilled with the UH special teams.

Here is what Memphis is adding:

• OC/QB - Kevin Johns (OC/QB - Texas Tech)
• TE - Tony Tokarz (GA - Memphis)
• WR - John Simon (AHC/RB - Arizona State)
• DC - Adam Fuller (DC - Marshall)
• DL - Deke Adams (DL - North Carolina)
• STC - Pete Lembo (STC - Rice)
• LB - TBA

Less than a week ago.

Quote:Pete Lembo
‏@Pete_Lembo
31 Dec 2018
Goodbye 2018. Looking forward to an exciting year ahead - including more explosive plays by our return units!

(01-06-2019 11:31 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  He was TE and ST coach at UH. Supposedly fans there liked what he did with the TE's but they weren't thrilled with the UH special teams.

As a general rule, I think it’s very difficult to coach a position group and give the necessary attention to special teams.

Assuming Coach Best stays with the TEs, I think Casey could be worth a try at STC.

Pretty sad if we can’t match a Memphis offer for our associate HC and strongest unit of 2018.

Or... he just wanted to leave. His family wasn’t even in Houston this year if I recall correctly so it’s not too hard to move.

Either way I think this is a big loss. We’ve had several recruits from the northeast because of him and as everyone has acknowledged our ST play improved tremendously.

(01-06-2019 11:21 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 11:15 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Time to bring James Casey back home.

That would actually be a good fit for this position.

Hopefully he’d take the hometown discount.

Why should he do that? He should be paid whatever he is worth, just like you. Would you work for a “hometown” discount?

If Rice ever wants to be competitive in FBS (big if), it can’t do so on the cheap.

BTW - James was born in Fort Worth, not Houston. Maybe the Frogs should offer him the hometown discount?

(01-06-2019 12:00 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 11:21 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 11:15 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Time to bring James Casey back home.

That would actually be a good fit for this position.

Hopefully he’d take the hometown discount.

Why should he do that? He should be paid whatever he is worth, just like you. Would you work for a “hometown” discount?

If Rice ever wants to be competitive in FBS (big if), it can’t do so on the cheap.

BTW - James was born in Fort Worth, not Houston. Maybe the Frogs should offer him the hometown discount?

LOL. I wholeheartedly agree that Rice needs to pay its coaches much, much more in order to be competitive in FBS. You’re preaching to the choir there.

With regard to the “hometown” discount part, I meant it slightly tongue in cheek but it is true that he’ll likely get a pay cut moving from UH to Rice. That said, if he got an associate head coach title like Lembo had, it’d probably end up being pretty close to the same pay.

As to whether I would take a discount to work for my alma mater... I’m not sure. Probably depends what stage of my career I was in. If I was a young coach like Casey, no... If I was an older guy on the back end of my career, probably.

All along I said if we lost anyone it would be Lembo.

(01-06-2019 12:23 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  All along I said if we lost anyone it would be Lembo.

I suspected that we lucked out on getting him under less than ideal circumstances. He probably saw the writing on the wall with the way the Maryland program was being run and wanted an out before it all came tumbling down (just a few months later). We offered him the exact same roles he excelled in at a Big 10 school. He might have seen us as an excellent place to land in an emergency, but it was always a hire punching above our weight.

https://twitter.com/jamescasey85

Swede Owl is already recruiting him it appears....

(01-06-2019 01:42 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://twitter.com/jamescasey85

Swede Owl is already recruiting him it appears....

I love Thor's retirement plan. Paging Coach Bragga!

(01-06-2019 01:29 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 12:23 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  All along I said if we lost anyone it would be Lembo.

I suspected that we lucked out on getting him under less than ideal circumstances. He probably saw the writing on the wall with the way the Maryland program was being run and wanted an out before it all came tumbling down (just a few months later). We offered him the exact same roles he excelled in at a Big 10 school. He might have seen us as an excellent place to land in an emergency, but it was always a hire punching above our weight.

Agree completely. But now we see what a good ST coach can do.

(01-06-2019 01:29 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 12:23 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  All along I said if we lost anyone it would be Lembo.

I suspected that we lucked out on getting him under less than ideal circumstances. He probably saw the writing on the wall with the way the Maryland program was being run and wanted an out before it all came tumbling down (just a few months later). We offered him the exact same roles he excelled in at a Big 10 school. He might have seen us as an excellent place to land in an emergency, but it was always a hire punching above our weight.

Its concerning that as recently as 2012, losing to Memphis was rock bottom. Now they are poaching our coaches.

Unprecedented.

(01-06-2019 08:45 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 01:29 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 12:23 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  All along I said if we lost anyone it would be Lembo.

I suspected that we lucked out on getting him under less than ideal circumstances. He probably saw the writing on the wall with the way the Maryland program was being run and wanted an out before it all came tumbling down (just a few months later). We offered him the exact same roles he excelled in at a Big 10 school. He might have seen us as an excellent place to land in an emergency, but it was always a hire punching above our weight.

Its concerning that as recently as 2012, losing to Memphis was rock bottom. Now they are poaching our coaches.

Unprecedented.

Hyperbole much?

They're also hiring coaches from Texas Tech, Arizona State and North Carolina, among others. And Marshall's defensive coordinator so we're not the only CUSA team losing a coach to that school.