Fire Major Applewhite!

Alabama's hiring of Nick Saban may have been a media circus but it paled in comparison to the cloud of rumors surrounding Major over the past few days. According to the Houston Chronicle, however, the saga is over:

An NCAA official confirmed that Rice offensive coordinator Major Applewhite will be named quarterbacks coach at Alabama under new coach Nick Saban.

Join us again here at FMA in two years when Saban leaves Alabama to try his hand at minor league baseball and Major becomes the head coach at TCU. (Gary Patterson to the Crimson Tide, of course, and the cycle repeats itself...)

An unexpected development in the Major sweepstakes:

Sources: Graham next TU coach

Todd Graham will be named the University of Tulsa's next head coach, multiple sources told the Tulsa World on Thursday night. The news comes one year after the Golden Hurricane's former defensive coordinator departed to take the same position at Rice.

Graham, 42, didn't return repeated messages left on his cell phone throughout this week and on Thursday. Tulsa athletic director Bubba Cunningham was unavailable for comment.

Cunningham flew to Houston on Thursday evening to seal the deal. Graham is expected to fly to Tulsa on Friday, and a news conference introducing the new coach could take place later that afternoon.

Graham will take over for Steve Kragthorpe, who was introduced as the University of Louisville's coach on Tuesday afternoon. Graham spent three seasons under Kragthorpe running the TU defense.

...

Graham's departure stunned the Rice community.

"I'm kind of upset personally," Rice cornerback Ja'Corey Shepherd told the Houston Chronicle. "We just got adjusted to these coaches, and it's going to be hard to get adjusted to a whole new set of coaches.

"For Coach Graham to leave is a disappointment to me."

Is Rice ready for a head coach younger than most of its graduate students? Does a few years as a graduate assistant at Texas, a 1-10 season in the Big East, and a 7-6 season as OC in the WAC, culminating in a bowl loss to Troy State, mean you are reading for a D-1A coaching position? Could a scrappy undersized QB lead Texas to a come from behind victory in the Holiday Bowl? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Stay tuned...

Word on the street is that Major may be named the new Co-OC and QB coach at LSU. Looks like Les wants to change the headline from yesterday's classic: Russell going pro, Perrilloux under investigation.

We've had close to 3,000 visitors in the last 5 days (95% from the greater Tuscaloosa metro area) so we will break tradition and provide more than a bi-monthly update. Here's a round-up of the most recent Major speculation... including a rumor about the LSU OC job:

The Prine Report:

Jimbo Fisher will not be coming to Alabama and has made up with Bobby Bowden. It was announced yesterday that Fisher will be joining the FSU staff as offensive coordinator. Now, ironically, LSU and Alabama each have Major Applewhite on their list of possible OC candidates. This could make for even more interesting drama between the two schools since Nick Saban left the Dolphins to become Bama’s head coach.

Journalism is for RockStars:

From what I've picked up, Rice offensive coordinator Major Applewhite is supposed to accept the OC job at Alabama (according to the disembodied voices at WJOX).

Of course, there are detractors of Applewhite's success at Rice (motto: "We're good at baseball. The rest can suck it."). Just ask the guys at Fire Major Applewhite!.

According to their poll, 76 percent of readers want Applewhite on a private plane to Tuscaloosa. Considering his offense was one of the best, if not the best, in Rice history, I'd be down with that.

The Birmingham News (via The Rice Football Webletter)

It was not clear when Saban will announce the rest of his staff, though a key time frame appears to be this weekend's big recruiting date.

Add your own rumor on the FMA Discussion Board.

The meteoric rise of the Major continues:

After helping steer Rice to its first bowl berth in 45 years, Owls offensive coordinator Major Applewhite was contacted by Alabama on Saturday to gauge his interest in joining the staff of new Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban.

"I have been contacted, and I do have some interest, but I have not been offered the job," Applewhite said. "I'll sit down with my wife, Julie, and we'll make a decision this week.

"Right now, I'm still committed to Rice and the recruiting class we have coming here."

He sounds pretty committed. Rest easy, Rice.