Houston announced Sunday that it had fired coach Major Applewhite after two seasons. Applewhite was 15-11 at Houston and succeeded Texas coach Tom Herman at the school.

“We’d like to thank Coach Applewhite and his family for their commitment to the success of the Houston Football program over the last four seasons including the last two as our head coach,” athletic director Chris Pezman said in a statement. “After a thorough evaluation of our Football program, it is my assessment our future opportunities for success are better addressed by making this very difficult decision now.

“While the immediate future may be challenging, our future at UH is very bright. We’ve made many sizable improvements over the past five years, and I look forward to enhancing our future success through the hiring of our next head coach. At this time we have already begun the search process for our next head coach and will not comment further until the search is concluded.”

Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel noted in an excellent column on Saturday that Applewhite’s job status was tenuous. Thamel noted that Houston wants to go after West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, whose buyout drops to $1 million on Dec. 31.

Houston finished the 2018 season at 8-5. The Cougars lost 70-14 to Army in the Armed Forces Bowl. The game tied the record for largest margin of victory in a bowl game and the most points scored by a team in a bowl game.

It was apparently embarrassing enough for Houston to decide to make a coaching change. Had Applewhite stayed as Houston’s coach he would have needed an offensive and defensive coordinator in 2019. DC Mark D’Onofrio was fired and OC Kendal Briles went to Florida State.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter

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