John Harris discusses what's next in Houston following firing of O'Brien

Key notes from John Harris interview

• Yesterday was a tricky day. I've known Bill O'Brien for a long time, and I wanted him to do well here. When you want to be a coach, it's something you do for life. You're around the players and enjoy the Xs and Os. To stay in the coaching business, something you need to do (and I would make sure to do this if I ever went back into coaching) is make positive relationships with everyone in the building. You have to be the positive face of the franchise in everything you do, regardless if you're talking to the staff, the players or the maintenance crew. You have to represent the program and everybody else in the program. You're the way the program is perceived. If you want it to be seen positively, you have to do that in everything you do. It's not something I did as a young coach. As a leader of a program and organization, you have to understand the importance of your role at all times. Interpersonal relationships are the biggest key to success.
   
• There were times that Bill O'Brien did good, but there were times that it wasn't so good. There's a joke about offseason Bill vs. in-season Bill. If you wanted something or needed him to sign off on something, you wanted to ask offseason Bill. You didn't know which one you'd get? He would get angry at times with things that would refer to the team but wasn't the most important thing. We joked about it, but it was true. That cannot be the case. In-season and offseason Jimbo Fisher have to be the same. In-season and offseason John Harris have to be the same. It has to level itself out.
   
• Last year, I talked with a buddy of mine who is a sideline reporter for the Buffalo Bills. We were talking about a playoff game. He asked me, "John, what do you think?" I told him, "The Bills are a 7.5 or an 8 at all times. With us, I drive to the stadium wondering if we're going to see a 3.5 or a 9 Texans. We go up and down all of the time." In that first half, we were not very good. In the second half, we played probably the best we've ever been. That's emblematic of who Bill is. He's inconsistent, so we played inconsistently. Whoever comes in will have to find that level, and we'll have to play at that level all of the time. The players mimic that personality. We have to find that level in everything we do.
   
• A thousand shots on the rock may not break the rock, but 1,001 might be the lightest shot taken to finally break it. The loss on Sunday and the way it happened was the final blow. It wasn't even a big hammer blow. When the schedule came out, and everybody talked about how tough those first three games were. Then we looked at that fourth game with Minnesota and thought that's when the season would take off. It didn't. Everything leading up to that game piled up. The loss to the Vikings finally broke the rock.
   
• I guess that the Texans will want somebody of an offensive nature to help Deshaun take the next step. The other thing that they'll look for, but something that is hard to find, is a defensive-minded coach who will hire a top-notch, young offensive coordinator who will stay out of the way and let them do their work. I've seen different approaches to that, and I've seen offensive coaches let defensive coordinators run what they want and get out of the way. I rarely see it the other way around, though. I think we'll likely see a defensive-minded coach come in and hire a defensive coordinator.
   
• If I were a GM, the first interview I would grant would be Anthony Weaver. People respect him. He's a hard worker. People always say he didn't do anything as the coordinator. The people say the same about Mike Vrabel. As a head coach, you're not calling the plays. You're leading the men. I think it's going to be interesting with the personality that comes in here. They've still got 12 weeks to finish this season, so we'll see if Romeo Crennel has enough juice to get this team going first.
   
• When Kellen dropped back to pass, it looked like it was difficult for those guys to get open. Yes, they got open at times, but it did not look easy. They were challenged with guys on them. With Alabama, if Mac Jones wanted to take a five-yard throw, he took a five-yard throw. If he wanted a 50-yard throw, he took it. There's a big difference. I've seen that with the Texans a lot. Like why are we so easy to cover, but they're so difficult to cover? What is lacking? People mentioned defensive backs. There's probably something to that. The guys I see playing for Alabama are playing in Saban's difficult defensive scheme, but that scheme has a lot of answers. When they matched up good receivers with good defensive backs against LSU last year, Alabama struggled. Joe Brady didn't reinvent the wheel last year.
   
• Does A&M's pace have to be faster? What about their play-speed? When I say "pace," I mean time between plays. I don't think you need to be Kevin Sumlin, NASCAR fast and make little mistakes because you're moving too fast. It's about rhythm and finding a good pace. With play-speed, it felt like the execution of the plays were slow. That has to be at a whole different level. That's what puts pressure on defenses or opposing offenses. Does it come from the players' twitch? Decision making? All of that plays a role. In the Aggie secondary, I kept seeing Jaylen Waddle exploit the seam. Demani Richardson kept jumping on that. It just didn't need to happen. That proves my point: Waddle does things so quickly and rapidly, and because he does that, he puts so much pressure on the other side. You can't sit there and wait for him. More twitch is needed. More explosive players, obviously. Decision making needs to go to a different level.
   
• A&M needs guys who other teams know they're not going to stop. Alabama has a few guys like that. Johnny Manziel was that kind of guy. Mike Evans was that guy. When was the last time A&M had a guy like that on defense? Myles Garrett kind of was, but he was kind of quiet. Leon O'Neal wants to be that guy. Von Miller was probably that last guy. Everyone was scared of Von. Everyone was scared of Johnny. Maybe they're not the best player or athlete on the field, but he would make whatever play he wanted at that time. A&M needs one or two of those kinds of players. Jaylen Waddle and Dylan Moses are those kinds of guys.
   
• When you have an offensive that is like that, it changes things. The right side was a mess for A&M on Saturday. Think back to that 2012 group. In the middle of that group was Patrick Lewis. He was the toughest. He was the leader. Nobody was going to cross him. That's what A&M has to find. When you do, combined with the talent there, it will create opportunities.
   
• Cut down on some discipline issues, find some mother-bleepers and go get Florida this week.
   
• Cover-one and double #84. That's what Bill Belichick would do. I don't think Florida's wide receivers are that good, but Kyle Pitts is amazing. I don't care what you do, but take away #84. Make those other receivers beat you.