Tom Herman - My Education as a Head Coach

[J.B. TexasEx]

Here's an interesting peek under the tent from Tom Herman himself about what goes into being a first-time head coach at UH. My favorite favorite paragraph is this one,

People make a big deal about the system you run. But I've learned though the years that your system has to marry your talent. One of my proudest seasons is when we went 12-0 in my first year at Ohio State in 2012. Philosophically, we wanted to be balanced. But we couldn't throw the ball. We had a good line, a beast at tailback in Carlos Hyde and a freak at quarterback in Braxton Miller. It was one of my proudest achievements in coaching. We didn't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. And that's how we're going to approach stuff at Houston. You start with a vision of, "Here's who we are. Here's our beliefs. Here's how we play." What our vision may be is going to be entirely dependent on the players we have.

http://www.campusrush.com/tom-herman-houston-cougars-head-coach-education-1336562958.html

 

[BevoBlake]

That's how you build a winner. I've never much been a fan of the "system QB" or anything like that. Adjust and adapt.

 

[Randolph Duke]

And this philosophy is at the core of my disdain for Shawn Watson since Day 1 and, by extension, part of teh problem with Charlie Strong for allowing him to even be the OC at Texas, let alone remain there for as long as he did.

Watson runs one style of offense - his pro-style, West Coast offense. When he has the exact players he needs, it runs reasonably well, but college football by its nature doesn't afford teams the exact talent pool they desire. I simply do not understand how Charlie Strong (or any college coach for that matter) can fail to select a coordinator on either side of the ball that doesn't have a demonstrated ability to evaluate the talent available and scheme based on what they have. Either recruiting issues, injuries and lack or depth or the stupidity of 18-24 year old male athletes will kill any system in college football. The main criteria for any prospective college coordinator is an ability to scheme around available resources and it is the fault of any head coach who hires any coordinator who can't scheme around available resources.

I don't see what Tom Herman said as being anything shockingly innovative or visionary.

 

[TXHorns99]

The problem is it's easy to say, hard to do. All of these coaches are very strong type a personalities who think their way is the only way. Only those coaches that can truly put their ego to the side & get out of their comfort zone are going to be able to field great teams consistently, especially early in their tenure when they don't have "their" players. Hell, look at Mack's tenure, it wasn't until he got out of his own way and let Vince be Vince (no more square peg in a round hole) that the team took off and the Natty was brought home.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

I don't see what Tom Herman said as being anything shockingly innovative or visionary.

 
Nope, just good old-fashioned common sense which doesn't appear to be very common these days.
 
To your point, RD, most casual CFB fans know a great percentage of the highly-talented #TXHSFB players grow up running some variant of the spread offense. Charlie hired an OC, Watson, who was only willing to teach one scheme - West Coast. This loyalty, inflexibility, and lack of objectivity may prove to be his undoing.
 
The proverbial square peg, round hole. Watson and perhaps CFS, it seems.

 

[Randolph Duke]

NCAA scholarship limits (and travel squad numbers) placed restrictions on the number of available athletes. The university placed limitations on what players could be admitted. Coach Strong placed character restrictions on which players would be allowed to remain with the program.

And Shawn Watson placed restrictions on what scheme he was willing to run with those players that were able to pass through the other filters. WTF!? How is it a surprise that with all those filters, Watson didn't have the players needed to run his dream scheme.

At some point, it has to be recognized that the only way a college football coach can have long term success is to learn how to scheme with the players available. Maybe Perrin should sit the coaching staff down and make them watch Star Wars over and over, until they begin to understand that they need to accept a perpetual underdog mentality and find a way to prevail. Coach Strong needs to set the "We're Texas" mentality aside and drill it into the coaches that everyone in the world of college football considers them losers and expects them to give up and get humiliated down the final stretch of the season.

After the sorry showing of the team over the past two years, the coaching staff doesn't have the right to let their egos be in control of any of their decisions.