You hated Strong and you now appear to be on the path of hating Herman. Might be a good time to find a new team.
I didn't hate Strong and I don't hate Herman. I don't love or hate people I have never met. Why would I love someone whose only connection I have with is they were hired to coach the football team of the school I attended? Why would I hate that person?
Your "love/hate" metric is insipid. I'm not looking for a head football coach to kiss me on the cheek or to make me swoon.
In the cold, harsh realities of a competitive business where results matter, it is reasonable to maintain one's objectivity and not get clouded with feelings of "love" or "hate." Instead, let's just use more rational parameters of whether they have met expectations, exceeded expectations or failed to meet expectations.
For all he did, Charlie Strong largely failed to meet expectations. I don't hate him for that. In fact, I wish him well. He was just a bad fit for the UT program. I have my opinions on why that was so, but those are for another time.
So far, I feel Tom Herman has unquestionably failed to exceed expectations. I publicly stated I give his performance so far at Texas a grade of C-. No love, no hate, Just totally unimpressed.
His move to bring the stench of the Baylor rape scandal into the program to such a degree that his first question of his NSD presser was about Horny makes me question whether Herman is mentally playing checkers or chess. That whole issue was a self-inflicted unnecessary distraction that should have never happened and, once his error was realized, it should have been eliminated immediately. Herman needs to focus on getting the program turned around. He doesn't have time or energy to waste defending the clouded judgment and bad decisions of his buddies that he hired on staff because he knew they couldn't get hired anywhere else and he felt sorry. Everyone should be accountable. Screw up and you are gone. Horny screwed up. Wake up, Tom.
Successful coaches don't create needless distractions, they eliminate needless distractions asap and they stay on message so when they are front and center, such as a NSD presser, they are delivering the message they want to deliver, not being raked over the coals for what everyone including Tom realizes was a dumb move.
Again, sheer stupidity from the start. He just doesn't want to have to admit he made a dumb mistake in hiring Horny. His ego is getting in the way.
As for the recruiting class, at best he met expectations. There is little about this class to signify the Tom Herman era is kicking off with a lot of strength. In my mind, Herman should already be able to recruit in the state of Texas. Obviously, he isn't as strong of a recruiter in-state as I thought.
No love, no hate. Just nothing I can point to that makes me believe Tom Herman is in full stride and that giving him "total control" is paying benefits.
I'm disappointed in his creating unnecessary distractions, I'm disappointed he hasn't done a better job of eliminating unnecessary distractions, I was less than impressed he allowed himself to be quoted with the "Iowa State" comment the way he did, I though he was already a stronger in-state recruiter.
I'm looking for Herman to exceed expectations. Not just meet expectations, but exceed them. Tom Herman wasn't hired or given "total control" to fail to meet expectations. He was hired to turn the program around. And the lack of momentum or excitement attached to the program coming out of NSD leaves me looking for signs the program has turned around.
If Herman fires Horny, I'm not going to "love" him. If he gets better at delivering quotes and eliminates stupidity such as how his "Iowa State" quote was reported, I'm not going to love him. If he starts recruiting better I'm not going to love him. If he wins a national championship I'm not going to love him. It's not a "love/hate" thing for me.
I just want to respect his leadership and support him. I'm looking for him to start delivering so I can begin to do both. Like I said, so far I give Tom Herman a C-.
