Brian Early has a new analyst working for him with an inspiring story and a boatload of experience as a national championship player and coach, both in college and the NFL. Alex Hogan has thoughts on playing the nickel, and Kevin Sumlin could be scoping out Big 12 jobs.
August 5, 2023 | the daily #5
New Analyst. Kenechi Udeze is a name you’ll start hearing a lot about. He’s signed on as a new defensive analyst for the Cougars. While he does not show up on UHCougars.com yet, he is listed as a football analyst in the UH Campus Directory.
Udeze was a first-round pick in 2004 after starting on three Pete Carroll teams at USC (From the Pac-10? Remember them? Good times!). Udeze helped the Trojans to a share of the 2003 national title, then was drafted 20th overall by the Vikings. He was forced to retire just four years after a diagnosis showing he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Udeze’s story really connects with players. He was a consensus All-American, a coveted NFL pick, had a personal tragedy and overcame it, and has now worked for five NFL teams, USC, LSU during the national title run in 2019, and Vandy. Last year, he was an assistant defensive line coach with the Titans.
“He’s awesome to be around and for us as a staff,” Doug Belk said of Udeze. “A lot of experience as a player. Great person, great coach. I think he’ll provide value to us as well just being a fly on the wall in some of those rooms.
“First round pick, who has a great story like him, battled leukemia, has been a power-five, division one coach, has a lot of life stories, lot of experience, and I think he’ll help us in a lot of different ways outside of football as well.”
Udeze is tight with his former DL coach at USC, Ed Orgeron. Orgeron was spotted on the sideline at several UH games last season. He was an analyst at LSU in 2019 when Orgeron led the Tigers to the national title.
Versatility. Alex Hogan participated in the player availability and, through an oversight by me, wasn’t included in the video we published. How could I miss a guy in a fishin’ t-shirt? So here’s some Alex Hogan:
Take me home. We are a day late in wishing Kevin Sumlin a happy 59th birthday. Right. In other news…and maybe you missed it, but Kevin Sumlin is now the Co-OC at Maryland. He signed a two-year deal at $450,000 each in February.
Officially, he’s associate head coach, and Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends coach. That job sounds a lot like the job he had when Dave Maggard hired him at Houston in December 2007. He was Co-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers at OU then, having coached Bob Stoops’ TEs previously.
Sumlin left OU as co-OC/WR coach (he was WR coach – co-OC was not a play-calling job) to take the UH job, then A&M, and then Arizona shortly after the Ags fired him, all without taking time off. You never see that. So he took a year, then went to the Houston Gamblers and has been with Maryland since February.
Zac Spavital is also on that Maryland staff. He’d worked for Sumlin as a grad assistant at OU, then as defensive backs coach for Sumlin and Tony Levine at UH.
Sumlin is clearly angling for another head coaching job. Maybe not in this cycle but in the next. Where could we see him? SMU and UNT sure are matches, and neither is thrilled with their head coach at this point. And Rice is almost assuredly moving on from Bloomgren after this season.
Sumlin has been a head coach 3 times, and all three are former, current, or future Big 12 members. So that’s his thing, right? And who is 200 miles from Maryland? And will be looking for a coach in 2024?
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads
Click below for all of our preseason football coverage
Follow GoCoogs on YouTube
No one has more fun with Cougar Athletes, showing their personalities, quirks, and behind-the-scenes action, than GoCoogs.com. Follow us on YouTube today!
