The end of an era, and the birth of a new one. The writing has been on the wall for some time now and today it was finally made official by university officials. The Charlie Strong Texas Football era is over and it looks like his successor has all but officially been decided. Tom Herman you now have the floor in Austin.
I last wrote about shoveling the dirt on Strong’s tenure as the head coach at Texas, so I won’t be spending time on the past. It is time to focus on the present and the future and with Strong being out of a job that means all eyes are now squarely on Herman. By this time most are probably pretty familiar with Herman’s resume. National championship as the offensive at coordinator and won it with his third string quarterback, instant success at Houston in 2015 with a 13-1 record that included a Peach Bowl win over Florida State, and followed that up with a 9-3 season that included wins over Oklahoma in the opener then a beat down of Lamar Jackson and Louisville last week.
This is where everyone screams and hollers about Houston losing to Navy, SMU, and Memphis this year. This is where I say Navy may very well win the conference this year and win 10 games, Memphis was a ranked team just last year and won 8 games, and the SMU game… well yeah that was a bit of a WTF moment, but Houston was really banged up in the middle of the year. Even if that is your sticking point, the man just went 22-4 in two seasons in a place that isn’t used to winning as much as they were. They surely aren’t used to boat racing the likes of Oklahoma, Florida State, and Louisville in a two year span. They surely are not used to landing five star studs like Ed Oliver, and they are not used to almost stringing together consecutive 10 win seasons (never has happened in their history). Here’s another question for those that are in doubt, who would you hire given the state of the market right now? Chris Petersen was and is probably never is leaving the Pacific Northwest, Les Miles was a non-starter, and the Sabans, Meyers, and Dabos of the world are not leaving their current gigs. Any and all realistic options for the position came with flaws. Texas was going to have to gamble a bit, but they are gambling on the most attractive and most sought after name on the coaching carousel. Go up the road and ask the folks at LSU if they would take Tom Herman as their head coach right now. Anyone in that building who says Ed Orgeron was their guy from the start is flat out lying, and I love Coach O a ton. The LSU brass wanted Tom Herman and now they are having the roll the dice a bit themselves on a guy who had a less than stellar first stint as a head coach at Ole Miss. So I ask you, would you trade places with LSU right now and be comfortable making a similar hire?
With Tom Herman you get a coach and staff with established Texas roots who could potentially rescue you from the recruiting purgatory you are currently stuck in due to the fact that the previous coach couldn’t show progress on the field this year. I’m not saying Texas is going to get ERRYBODY with the pending hire of Herman, but he no doubt gives you a shot in the arm down the home stretch and he is a very good recruiter who will now have the Texas brand behind him. I am particularly intrigued by the kind of staff Herman will put around himself with that increase in budget and resources, as he was already doing an outstanding job down in 3rd Ward with a much tighter budget. It’s been common knowledge for some time that Texas was his dream job, so I can’t imagine him being unprepared for making this leap to the big show after putting himself in the best position possible to reap the rewards if the job came open eventually.
In this business you are not always going to be able to find the perfect candidate for the job. There is going to be some risk involved on the behalf of the university no doubt about, but what is a sure fire alternative at this point? One thing I can say for sure is that Herman will be inheriting a better situation than his predecessor a few years ago and there will be much higher expectations to win quicker due to the fact that the roster has much more talent on it and an established starter at quarterback. If Texas wins 10 games in the 2017, the new coaching staff better make sure they send some thank you cards to Charlie Strong, because he was able to put more talent on the depth chart during his stint in Austin.
I know there many out there who have their doubts and I know there are plenty of people who still wanted Strong to stay all things considered, but Texas is where they are for reason. With a changing of the guard now isn’t the time to divide. Now more than ever everyone needs to come together and support the new coach, his staff, and the players. I know that will fall on deaf ears for some, but at this point the only direction to go is forward, and I think Texas fans in time will get excited to the brand of football coming to Austin.
