I think Mora Jr. would be an exciting hire - sky's the limit on upside but some downside risk by UT standards at the same time. Outside the most obvious "big" names (which I'm sure we would all agree on so I won't even discuss), all the coaches come with a few questions, not that different from Mack himself when we hired him. He hadn't won any championships, but clearly had turned around a program that had been struggling by bringing in serious talent at UNC (Dre Bly, Greg Ellis, Brian Simmons, Vonnie Holiday, Ebenezer Ekuban, etc. - and he successfully recruited Julius Peppers there). Look at the burgeoning talent at UCLA (Barr, Hundley in particular). Not saying Mora brought it all in, but he's a strong recruiter and has coached up the talent he inherited, which would seem helpful to the cause at UT at this particular point in our football program's history. And the players seem to love playing for him. On the down side, he's clearly not a home run because he's not won anything yet. But he has to be at the top of that second group behind the home runs, with Briles and Franklin. I really like what Briles has done at Baylor, and would be happy with him as coach at UT, but I do think that my comfort with him comes from a sense of Briles being a known commodity. But is his ceiling as high as Mora or Franklin when all factors are considered? I think the national media regularly misinterprets the University of Texas by conveying this sense that the Art Briles-type is just culturally "perfect" for UT. Whether it's fair or not, I don't think it's true, and I think the national media thinks UT is a much more provincial University than it obviously is (I'm sure we have all felt this at one time or another). Look at the direction the University has gone with Bill Powers as President and even with the hiring of Patterson - Texas ties but broad vision. It just seems from a "fit" perspective, both Mora and Franklin actually have a better "fit" at the University of Texas than Briles does. And with Mora's schematic advantages from his time in the NFL, in a way I think he makes the most sense of the second group when all is considered. On the upside, Mora has some strong similarities to Pete Carroll when he went back to SC. Nobody was really thrilled with that hire, but it was the right place at the right time and it turned out there was no ceiling during his run - and that run was not the singlehanded result of cheating in my view). Who knows what will happen, and I think Briles would be very successful at Texas. From what I've seen of Patterson I have a high degree of confidence that he will bring us the best candidate that we reasonably can get.
