There have been some mixed feelings (to say the least) but at the end of the day this hire makes a lot of sense and is right on track for where Oklahoma is heading. Obviously I'm taking the opposite stance of my friend and colleague, JTE and the portion of the fan base he represents but give me a second to attempt to be the voice of reason. While I realize that a large portion of the fans wanted this hire to be a homerun that came in the form of a young up and comer who was energetic had a ton of potential.
However, that's not the hire that Bob Stoops needed to make at this time. This staff isn't in the position to make a risky hire and while guys like Tyrone Nix are attractive to those outside the program things like chemistry and stability are much more important inside the program. Kish already has good chemistry with Mike Stoops due to a previous working relationship at Arizona and the fact that he's not a "up and comer" means there's going to be some stability because he won't be leaving anytime soon for another job.
Just because he's not labeled as an up and comer doesn't make Kish a bad coach. Keep in mind that OU didn't hire him as a defensive coordinator they hired him to coach linebackers and his track record shows that he's pretty good at it. Kish's linebackers at Arizona were among the most aggressive in the Pac-12 and were tackling machines who were fundamentally sound. The guy can coach the position and coach it very well.
Another knock against Kish is that he doesn't have recruiting ties in Texas. I'm really alright with that because the Sooners have several coaches with recruiting ties in the state of Texas. What they don't have though is several coaches who have recruiting ties in the state of California. Kish does!
The Sooners had already landed the Cali-Trio two years ago and have now added verbal commits Derrick Woods (Inglewood) and Taylor McNamara (San Diego) to this year's class. Oklahoma has a foot in the door in California and a guy like Kish who has a good recruiting reputation and is well know on the west coast (especially in California) will only solidify their footing in one of the most important states for recruiting.
Tim Kish may not have been the popular hire but let's give him a chance to actually coach and recruit before we label him as the wrong hire because he just may be the right guy for all the right reasons.