HOUSTON -- The search for Houston's new head football coach is under way following the firing of Dana Dimel, who led the Cougars to seven wins in three seasons.

Dimel, who was fired Sunday, will finish out the season Saturday against Louisville. He has a 4-7 record this season and is 7-26 overall, including an 0-11 record last year -- the first winless season in Houston history.

Athletics director Dave Maggard indicated that information-gathering on possible candidates has begun.

"The process has already started," he said in Monday's Houston Chronicle. "It means that it can be an assistant coach, a head coach, whoever we feel can do the job at the University of Houston."

Maggard said an advisory committee will be formed, and noted that a timely search for a successor is important because of the approaching recruiting period and because "most institutions are now at or nearing the end of their season."

There will be no "box" of required background or experience for candidates, Maggard said, but there is one important factor: "We must be able to recruit in Texas and especially in the Houston area because of the great wealth of talent."

The Cougars ended a 15-game losing streak with a season opening victory over Rice, but they were plagued by inconsistency throughout the season, especially on defense.

"This is not a market that we can have the kind of program that we've had in the past few years and we need to elevate that," Maggard said. "We need to have greater expectations."

Defensive lineman Kade Lane, one of the first players to hear the news Sunday night, said he was "kind of shocked and surprised. I thought he would be around at least until after next year. I wasn't expecting it to be like this, but I'm not going anywhere else."

Running back Joffrey Reynolds said Maggard shouldn't be blamed for trying to improve the team.

"There are a lot of games we lost that we should have won, so I can see where he's coming from on that," Reynolds said. "The athletic director knows where he wants this program to go and how he wants it handled.

The Cougars blew a 28-6 second quarter lead and lost to Alabama-Birmingham 51-34 on Oct. 12. They had to go down to the final minutes to beat winless Army 56-42 to snap a 14-game Conference-USA losing streak.

Houston's most recent loss was 32-14 to South Florida on Saturday.

Dimel's successor will be the fifth head football coach at Houston since Bill Yeoman's retirement in 1986. Dimel led Wyoming to a 23-12 record before taking over at Houston.

The ranks of former Cougars who are coaching and might be interested could include Tommy Kaiser, an assistant with the NFL's Buffalo Bills, and Texas Tech running back coach Art Briles.

University of Miami defensive coordinator Randy Shannon also has been mentioned.