The Houston Cougars have hired offensive coordinator Major Applewhite to succeed Tom Herman as their new head coach, it was announced Friday.Sources told ESPNs Sam Khan Jr. that Applewhite received a five-year contract. The university has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. ET Monday.When we set out on our search for the new leader of our football program, we wanted a coach with great integrity who believed in our mission and truly believed in our student-athlete experience, athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement. We had our sights set on a focused competitor who has demonstrated success and possesses a deep connection to college and high school football in the great state of Texas.As this process was completed, it was clearly evident the only individual to offer our position to was Major Applewhite and he was indeed the right man to lead our program.Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, Houston defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, former LSU coach Les Miles and Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley also were reported candidates for the job.Sources told ESPNs Brett McMurphy that Houston was down to Applewhite and Kiffin, but the tipping point was the number of players who expressed their support for Applewhite to Yurachek.Applewhite will take over immediately, coaching the Cougars against San Diego State in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 17. Orlando, who has been serving as the interim coach since Herman accepted the Texas job?on Nov. 26, will assume his usual duties as defensive coordinator.Herman commended Applewhites hire in a tweet Friday.The 38-year-old Applewhite steps into a program that has enjoyed a lot of success in the past 10 years and has become a launching pad for coaches. Art Briles went 34-28 with a Conference USA title at Houston from 2003 to 2007 before moving on to Baylor. Kevin Sumlin went 35-17 from 2008 to 2011 before leaving for Texas A&M. Herman went 22-4 with an American Athletic Conference championship in 2015.A source told ESPN on Thursday that the university wanted to require an excessive buyout so the next coach cant leave after a couple of seasons without paying a substantial penalty.My family and I are excited and honored to have the opportunity to lead such a tradition-rich program and continue our lives in one of the greatest cities is the nation, a city we love, Applewhite said. The student-athletes truly are the backbone of every great program, and as theyve demonstrated over the past few years, we have an exceptional group of young men in our program, and well continue to add men with great character and a competitive drive in our recruiting.Applewhite, who joined Houston in 2015, combined with Herman to lead one of the nations best offenses. The Cougars ranked 15th nationally in passing offense (301.9 yards per game) and 21st in scoring (38 points per game) this season. In addition, they averaged 157.3 yards rushing in 2016.Overall, Houston gained more than 500 yards in a game on 11 occasions over the past two seasons.Its no coincidence that the success UH football has achieved over the past two seasons happened with Major Applewhite running our offense, university president Renu Khator said in a statement. His energy and creativity are responsible for one of the most explosive passing games in college football and I am confident that as our head coach he will continue our upward trajectory as a nationally relevant athletics program.Before joining the Cougars, the former Texas quarterback, who was the 1999 co-Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, served seven years as an assistant coach for the Longhorns. He was Texas co-offensive coordinator in his last four seasons in Austin after serving as assistant head coach in his first three years on the Longhorns staff. In 2013, Applewhite admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a student during a 2009 bowl trip and said he was ordered to undergo counseling and had his pay frozen for a year at that time.He was out of coaching for one season before joining the Cougars.Applewhite was Alabamas offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2007. He also coached at Syracuse and Rice.During his playing career at Texas, Applewhite was 22-8 as a starter and threw for 8,353 career yards and 60 touchdowns.The Associated Press contributed to this report. Custom Nationals T-shirts .C. -- Calgarys Kevin Koe did it the hard way again. Authentic Custom Nationals Jersey . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. http://www.customnationalsjersey.com/ . The Nashville Predators were glad their captain was still on their side. Weber had a goal and two assists, and Roman Josi scored the shootout winner to lift the Predators to a 4-3 win over the Flyers on Thursday night. Wholesale Custom Nationals Shirts . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. Cheap Custom Nationals Jersey . -- Claudio Bieler hadnt scored since early September, and not from the run of play since mid-July.Expectations were high for the 2015-16 rookie class after the NFL Draft in Chicago last April with a number of high impact players expected to make their way into the professional ranks. As always with college players stepping up to the NFL, the results proved to be a mixed bag. There were some big winners and some high-profile drafting mistakes.Here we offer our opinion on the best five picks and the five who might want to work a little harder ahead of their second season in the league. Live free agency updates All the latest news of the comings and goings Top fiveTodd Gurley (St Louis - RB) - pick 10 (229 carries, 1,106 yards, 10 TDs. 21 catches, 188 yards) Todd Gurley scores a 71-yard touchdown run against the San Francisco 49ers Gurley was one of the 2015 NFL Drafts biggest risk-reward picks, thanks to a serious knee injury he suffered playing for Georgia in the college ranks, and the bravery of the Rams picking him so early looks like paying off in spades.He missed the first three games of last season as he continued his fitness crusade, and had only nine yards on six carries in his NFL debut, but his career would take off in the next four games as he piled up 566 yards and three touchdowns.Some defences caught up with him later in the season, but a rookie campaign of 1,106 rushing yards and 10 scores bodes well for Gurleys future, should he avoid injury. Hes a candidate to top the league in rushing next season when the Rams restart life in Los Angeles, but only if they can find some other offence to take the focus away from him.Jameis Winston (Tampa Bay - QB) - pick 1 (312 pass completions, 4,042 yards, 22 TDs, 15 INT. 54 carries, 213 yards, 6 TDs) Jameis Winston throws his first NFL touchdown With the first pick of the NFL Draft comes great responsibility - and the Florida State product certainly managed that in his first season, thankfully making his headlines on the pitch rather than off it.Winston and Marcus Mariota, the second pick in 2015, had fairly similar seasons but the Buccaneers quarterback was more durable and just about edged the Tennessee Titans QB in terms of results as he posted franchise records for a rookie quarterback in passing yards and touchdowns.The 22-year-old looks to have an exciting future ahead of him but he could do with an extra weapon out wide, and perhaps wants to cut down on the more avoidable mistakes if he is to improve on the 6-10 record from his rookie season.Marcus Peters (Kansas City - CB) - pick 18 (60 total tackles, 8 INTs, 26 passes defended) Marcus Peters celebrates after defending against a pas The defensive rookie of the year proved a superb first-round pick for the Chiefs, slotting into their defence from day one and ending the season tied with Cincinnatis Reggie Nelson for the league lead on eight interceptions.His career started in sensational fashion when he picked off Houstons Brian Hoyer on his first career snap, and he also counted the likes of Peyton Manning (twice) and Derek Carr among his interception victims.Peters was highly-rated coming out of the University of Washington, but the Chiefs might not have expected such an early impact and it might not be long before he is being talked about in the class of Josh Norman and Darrelle Revis.Tyler Lockett (Seattle - WR) - pick 69 (51 receptions, 664 yards, 6 TDs. 33 kick returns, 852 yards, 1 TD) Watch Russell Wilson hit rookie Tyler Lockett for this 43-yard touchdown Speed, speed and more speed was what the Seahawks expected when they drafted Lockett in the third round last year - they certainly got that, but you have to wonder whether they thought he would turn into the receiver he became as the season wore on.Lockett proved to be a spark plug from week one, most of his early damage coming on kick and punt returns with his first return touchdown coming straight away against the St Louis Rams.The receiving game took a little longer to develop, but by the end of 2015 he and Doug Baldwin had emerged as a dangerous wideout pairing, and Russell Wilson looked in their direction often. While Baldwin took many of the plaudits, scoring 10 touchdowns in four games in one spell, Lockett might be the receiver to follow in Seattle for many years to come.Thomas Rawls (Seeattle - RB) - undrafted (144 carries, 830 yards, 4 TDs) Highlights ofThomas Rawls performance against Cincinnati Bengals Who? That was the question on many lips when Rawls made his breakthrough in week three of the regular season, coming in for an injured Marshawn Lynch and rushing for 104 yards on 16 carries.ddddddddddddThe powerful running-back was an inconsistent player at best in college, used as a short-yardage back in Michigan before transferring to Central Michigan and spending a lot of time on the sidelines with injury.No-one took a risk on him late in the NFL draft and he landed with the Seahawks - and how thankful they are now that Lynch has announced his retirement. Although Rawls, who runs like a bowling ball, ended the year on injured reserve he did more than enough in his seven starts to suggest a decent career is likely.I was going to put running-back David Johnson in here, who broke a number of Arizona Cardinals rookie records during his first season in the league, but there is just something about an underdog story that gets me.Flop fiveMelvin Gordon (San Diego - RB) - pick 15 (184 carries, 641 yards, 0 TDs. 33 receptions, 192 yards, 0 TDs) Melvin Gordon surges with the ball Many expected Gordon to be taken before Gurley in last years draft, as more of a sensible pick than one who might excite a franchise. As it turned out, sensible was…well…hugely disappointing as well.Gordon played okay - thats about as good as descriptions get - in the first three games but then performed a disappearing act, ending the season on injured reserve with not a single touchdown in 14 appearances.What next for the Wisconsin running-back? The Chargers might have to look at the position again in the draft this coming April, and a high-profile selection could mean curtains for Gordon already. Of course there is a chance we are giving up on him too soon, but early evidence is not positive.Nelson Agholor (Philadelphia - WR) - pick 20 (23 receptions, 283 yards, 1 TD) Nelson Agholor reacts after dropping a catch in the endzone Agholor was a consensus first-round pick in last years but might have landed in the wrong spot, or at least with the wrong quarterback on an Eagles team that struggled badly and will start next season with a new coach, and possibly not Sam Bradford under centre.He is undoubtedly talented, but there are concerns Agholor could not force his way into a more regular role in Chip Kellys offence, ending the year with a paltry 23 catches and scoring only once - his top yardage game was only 64 in week four.The main problem? Slippery gloves. Dropped catches plagued him in training camp, in pre-season and that stretched into the regular season as well, leaving him seventh on the team in receiving - simply not enough of an impact for a first round pick.Phillip Dorsett (Indianapolis - WR) - pick 29 (18 receptions, 225 yards, 1 TD) Tennessee Titans bring down Phillip Dorsett Dorsett was described as a wild card pick when selected by the Colts last year and based on the evidence of his rookie season he could retain the work in progress description for at least another season, although much will depend on off-season business.He missed a handful of games in the middle of the season, but his final line of only 18 receptions has to go down as a disappointing return for a player that was meant to be a big threat because of his speed.Dorsett will likely become a third receiver next year, in the expected absence of veteran Andre Johnson, but he needs to work on his chemistry with Andrew Luck and be more consistent running routes. If the Colts yet again target a wide receiver in the draft (it would seem unlikely) he could find himself on the outside looking in, very early in his career.Danny Shelton (Cleveland - DT) - pick 9 (19 solo tackles, 17 assists, 0 sacks, 4 tackles for loss) Danny Shelton of the Cleveland Browns makes a tackle ESPN recently announced their best draft pick per team, and Shelton won the honours with Cleveland - that might just tell you something about the Browns and the way they build for the future.Shelton is a huge run-stuffer, who was a tackle machine when playing for the University of Washington. Sadly none of that translated to the professional ranks and he spent plenty of time running around getting his hands on absolutely nobody.Zero sacks, zero impact. And as for the ESPN rankings, you have to wonder what running-back Duke Johnson, who at least showed signs of ability in his first season, thinks about their Shelton pick.Dante Fowler Jr (Jacksonville - LB) - pick 3 (no stats) #3 pick Fowler dressed to impress at last years draft There is always one bad-luck injury story coming out of the NFL Draft, and this year it was Jacksonvilles turn to taste the misfortune as they lost a potential defence-changing player before he even managed a snap.In fact the only snap he heard was that of his anterior cruciate ligament in the Jaguars rookie minicamp not long after he had his named called out at the draft in Chicago.Jacksonville had hoped to turn Fowler into a defensive lynchpin, and those hopes will remain in place for 2016-17, when you have to at least pray the 21-year-old gets to experience his first NFL game. Without him, they ranked 31st out of 32 in points allowed and 29th in pass yardage. Things cannot get much worse for Fowler or the Jags…they will hope. Also See: Free agency updates Six who stole the show An ode to Beast Mode Super Bowl talking points ' ' '