It has been reported for several days that Houston's Daikiel Shorts is in the sights of the UK coaching staff to take over the WR coach position left vacant after the Cats moved on from Scott Woodward.
Here is some background info:
** Played WR at West Virginia toward the end of Dana Holgorson's tenure with the Mountaineers. He had 176 career receptions for 2,246 yards and 14 touchdowns from 2013-2016 in Morgantown. Team captain who was honored with the "Iron Mountaineer" award.
** On the Buffalo Bills' practice squad in 2017 after his time as a player at WVU
** Was on staff at WVU in 2018 and then in early January was named Director for Player Development at Houston where Holgorson landed
** Holgorson comes from the Mike Leach coaching tree. He learned directly under Leach alongside others like Neal Brown, Graham Harrell, Sonny Cumble, Kliff Kingsbury, Josh Heupel, Lincoln Riley, and others, so that's Shorts' background
** Shorts has been Houston's WR coach for the past three seasons, where he has been since he had the player development role. He was interim WR coach his first year in '21 then took over the position without the interim tag for '22 and '23
** In 2021, he coached Nathaniel "Tank" Dell (90 catches, 1,329 yards, 12 TD). The previous year Dell only had 29 catches for 428 yards and 3 TD. Dell had another monster season in '22 with 109 catches for 1,398 yards and 17 touchdowns
** Replacing Dell was a huge task this year. This year Houston produced Samuel Brown (62 catches, 815 yards, 3 TD), Joseph Manjack IV (46 catches, 577 yards, 6 TD), Texas-bound Matthew Golden (38 catches, 404 yards, 6 TD), Stephon Johnson (24 catches, 277 yards, 3 TD) and Dalton Carnes (20 catches, 263 yards, TD)
** Dell was drafted in the 3rd round, 69th overall pick in the draft earlier this season. Pretty good for a guy who started out at FIU
** The Houston official site notes that Houston's receivers are 5th in the country in receiving TDs over Short's three seasons. They had three top-10 Big XII receivers in their first year in the conference. The site also notes that of the league's top 11 underclassman receivers according to PFF grades, five were Houston Cougars. Matthew Golden had a program-record 7 TD catches as a freshman
** Shorts was the lead recruiter for four-star Rivals250 WR Mikal Harrison-Pilot, who signed with the Cougars early this year. He also took officials to Texas and Cal
** Houston also landed 4-star WR Jonah Wilson, 3-star (5.7 RR) WR Ja'Ryan Wallace, and 3-star (5.7) WR Ja'Koby Banks out of last year's crop. WR was the best position group Houston recruited. Golden was a four-star prospect and Shorts landed 3-star (5.6 RR) WR CJ Nelson as well in '22.
** If Shorts is the choice for UK then it would make a lot of sense for the Cats to become a prime option for near 5-star Jordan Marsh. He is close with Shorts.
Here is some background info:
** Played WR at West Virginia toward the end of Dana Holgorson's tenure with the Mountaineers. He had 176 career receptions for 2,246 yards and 14 touchdowns from 2013-2016 in Morgantown. Team captain who was honored with the "Iron Mountaineer" award.
** On the Buffalo Bills' practice squad in 2017 after his time as a player at WVU
** Was on staff at WVU in 2018 and then in early January was named Director for Player Development at Houston where Holgorson landed
** Holgorson comes from the Mike Leach coaching tree. He learned directly under Leach alongside others like Neal Brown, Graham Harrell, Sonny Cumble, Kliff Kingsbury, Josh Heupel, Lincoln Riley, and others, so that's Shorts' background
** Shorts has been Houston's WR coach for the past three seasons, where he has been since he had the player development role. He was interim WR coach his first year in '21 then took over the position without the interim tag for '22 and '23
** In 2021, he coached Nathaniel "Tank" Dell (90 catches, 1,329 yards, 12 TD). The previous year Dell only had 29 catches for 428 yards and 3 TD. Dell had another monster season in '22 with 109 catches for 1,398 yards and 17 touchdowns
** Replacing Dell was a huge task this year. This year Houston produced Samuel Brown (62 catches, 815 yards, 3 TD), Joseph Manjack IV (46 catches, 577 yards, 6 TD), Texas-bound Matthew Golden (38 catches, 404 yards, 6 TD), Stephon Johnson (24 catches, 277 yards, 3 TD) and Dalton Carnes (20 catches, 263 yards, TD)
** Dell was drafted in the 3rd round, 69th overall pick in the draft earlier this season. Pretty good for a guy who started out at FIU
** The Houston official site notes that Houston's receivers are 5th in the country in receiving TDs over Short's three seasons. They had three top-10 Big XII receivers in their first year in the conference. The site also notes that of the league's top 11 underclassman receivers according to PFF grades, five were Houston Cougars. Matthew Golden had a program-record 7 TD catches as a freshman
** Shorts was the lead recruiter for four-star Rivals250 WR Mikal Harrison-Pilot, who signed with the Cougars early this year. He also took officials to Texas and Cal
** Houston also landed 4-star WR Jonah Wilson, 3-star (5.7 RR) WR Ja'Ryan Wallace, and 3-star (5.7) WR Ja'Koby Banks out of last year's crop. WR was the best position group Houston recruited. Golden was a four-star prospect and Shorts landed 3-star (5.6 RR) WR CJ Nelson as well in '22.
** If Shorts is the choice for UK then it would make a lot of sense for the Cats to become a prime option for near 5-star Jordan Marsh. He is close with Shorts.
