Major Applewhite
Major Applewhite went 30–27 as a head coach, 2016–2026, at Houston and South Alabama. Share
- Record
- 30–27 career
- Seasons
- 6
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Jul 30, 1978
- Best season
- 2026 4–2
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Houston bowl game | 0–1 | Las Vegas Bowl L | |||
| 2017 | Houston | 7–5 | 2nd | Hawai’i Bowl L | ||
| 2018 | Houston | 8–5 | T–1st | Armed Forces Bowl L | ||
| 2019–23: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2024 | South Alabama | 7–6 | T–2nd | Salute to Veterans Bowl W | ||
| 2025 | South Alabama | 4–8 | T–5th | |||
| 2026 | South Alabama | 4–2 | ||||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 6 | 2–4 | 33% |
| Against rivals | 9 | 5–4 | 56% |
| Conference games | 34 | 20–14 | 59% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 4 | 1–3 | 25% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 21 | 9–12 | 43% |
| At home | 27 | 17–10 | 63% |
| On the road | 26 | 12–14 | 46% |
| At neutral sites | 4 | 1–3 | 25% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 41 | 24–17 | 59% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 16 | 6–10 | 38% |
His own 57 games on file, 2016–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryant Vincent 2024–2026 | 3–0 | UL Monroe | 3 | |
| Butch Jones 2024–2026 | 1–2 | Arkansas State | 3 |
Major Applewhite’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Tulaneseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| UL Monroeseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Arkansas Stateseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Arizonaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| South Floridaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| East Carolinaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Riceseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Navyseries | 2 | 2–0 |
National title staffs
Every title staff- Won a national title on Alabama’s 2020 staff (football analyst) · the staff · source
The champions’ staffs from 1990 on, as the schools listed them that season: Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages. Roles as the source words them.
How he was hired
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Other roles
- Team captain, Texas 2001
From each season’s Wikipedia article.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003–04 | Texas | Graduate assistant | |
| 2005 | Syracuse | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 2006 | Rice | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2007 | Alabama | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2008–10 | Texas | Assistant head coach and running backs coach | |
| 2011–12 | Texas | Co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach | |
| 2013 | Texas | Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2015–16 | Houston | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2016–18 | Houston | Head coach | |
| 2019–20 | Alabama | Analyst | |
| 2021–23 | South Alabama | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2024–present | South Alabama | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Mack BrownTexas
- Greg RobinsonSyracuse
- Todd GrahamRice
- Nick SabanAlabama
- Tom HermanHouston
- Kane WommackSouth Alabama
Assistants who became head coaches
- A. J. RickerSaint Joseph’s (IN)
- Chris ScelfoTulane
- Jay HopsonSouthern Miss, Alcorn State
- Paul PetrinoIdaho
- Broderick FobbsGrambling
Worked under (6)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mack Brown | Texas | 2003–13 | 2003–04: graduate assistant; 2008–10: assistant head coach and running backs coach; 2011–12: co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach; 2013: co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Greg Robinson | Syracuse | 2005 | Quarterbacks coach | |
| Todd Graham | Rice | 2006 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Nick Saban | Alabama | 2007–20 | 2007: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; 2019–20: analyst | |
| Tom Herman | Houston | 2015–16 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Kane Wommack | South Alabama | 2021–23 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (5)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. J. Ricker | Houston, 2016: offensive analyst | Saint Joseph’s (IN) | |
| Chris Scelfo | Houston, 2017: offensive line coach | Tulane | |
| Jay Hopson | South Alabama, 2024: cornerbacks coach | Southern Miss, Alcorn State | |
| Paul Petrino | South Alabama, 2024: wide receivers coach; 2025: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Idaho | |
| Broderick Fobbs | South Alabama, 2025–26: running backs coach | Grambling |
Other assistants under him (12)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Craig Naivar | Houston, 2016: co-defensive coordinator | |
| Jason Washington | Houston, 2016: special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach; South Alabama, 2025–26: co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach | |
| Kenny Guiton | Houston, 2016: graduate assistant; 2017–18: wide receivers coach | |
| Todd Orlando | Houston, 2016: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; South Alabama, 2026: defensive coordinator | |
| Brian Johnson | Houston, 2017: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Clay Jennings | Houston, 2017: co-defensive coordinator | |
| Mark D’Onofrio | Houston, 2017–18: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Kendal Briles | Houston, 2018: assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Mark Cala | Houston, 2018: graduate assistant | |
| Jon Bradley | South Alabama, 2024: defensive line coach | |
| Rob Ezell | South Alabama, 2024: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Will Windham | South Alabama, 2024–25: defensive coordinator and safeties coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Houston | head coachbonuses up to $782,500; buyout $2,762,500 | $1,750,000 USA Today | |
| 2016 | Houston | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $63,750 | $375,000 USA Today | |
| 2015 | Houston | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $51,170 | $301,000 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Applewhite’s teams went for it on 29% of fourth downs and on 48% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 46% of plays and took 24.3 seconds a play, 2017–2026.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 12 g | Houston | 18 of 90 20% | 38% | 50% | 23.1 | +0.03 | |
| 2018 13 g | Houston | 29 of 101 29% | 44% | 50% | 18.9 | +0.18 | |
| 2024 13 g | South Alabama | 19 of 91 21% | 41% | 49% | 26.6 | +0.21 | |
| 2025 12 g | South Alabama | 37 of 96 39% | 56% | 40% | 27.6 | +0.07 | |
| 2026 6 g | South Alabama | 21 of 46 46% | 69% | 37% | 27.1 | +0.17 | |
| All 56 g | 124 of 424 29% | 48% | 46% | 24.3 | +0.13 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.