TIME TOMOVE ALONG
Texas still isn’t back and after four seasons Herman should be out of chances to prove it
Not too long ago, Tom Herman answered questions about his job security by saying he had the support of “hundreds of thousands,” and when it comes to his status as head football coach at Texas, “the truth will prevail.”
Herman should be concerned that the truth will set him free.
He hasn’t been nearly as good as most thought he would be, and there is little indication that going forward he will be any better.
Because history says Texas is never supposed to be a bit player in the yearly drama of college football, at one point the “Texas is back” line was humorous.
The premature declaration was wrought for ridicule. Now, thousands of times over, it’s just not funny. It’s pathetic.
(Note: we used the word premature because, eventually, Texas will be back, right?)
“Texas is back” punchlines rank down there with stale cracks about Arizona’s dry heat and incessant references to “Houston, we have a problem.”
Considering Arizona is hot as hades, but does indeed feature a dry heat, the latter is a better match because of the inaccurate words so often attributed to Jack Swigert.
When players are put on the spot to defend their head coach, the program has, and has had, a problem.
“I don't think it’s ever fully on the coaching,” UT quarterback Sam Ehlinger said Friday, after the Longhorns’ 23-20 loss to Iowa State on Senior Day.
“That’s the million-dollar question everybody’s been trying to figure out for the last 10 years.”
Why UT hasn’t lived up to its potential in the past decade isn’t a million-dollar question. The number is much bigger than that.
Money has rarely been a factor in decisions made by the powers that be at UT.
Even with the global coronavirus pandemic putting a squeeze on cash flow, Texas isn’t going to go broke paying Herman, win or lose.
The question isn’t how much Herman is costing the university, but whether he is the right man for the job.
When he was asked that, his answer was less than inspiring.
“That’s not for me to decide,” Herman said. “I feel like where we have the program right now, compared to where it was when we took over, the future is very bright.”
In a matter of weeks, he went from the truth prevailing to that?
Yes, UT is better now than it was when Herman took over for Charlie Strong.
Depending on the week, the Longhorns have moved from the lower-middle of the Big 12 Conference to the upper-middle. Once, they took even a sneak peek at the top.
Therein lies the problem. In four years with Herman, Texas has been jumping in and out of decency as a program like it’s playing double-dutch.
When UT got on the Herman bus and paid the $6-million plus per year fare, it had no idea it was going to a double-dutch affair. (R.I.P. Frankie Smith.)
This even happens within games too, as was the case against the Cyclones on Friday. Inconsistency is the byproduct of befuddling coaching decisions, bad luck and poor execution.
Herman was supposed to be better than this. He was supposed to fix this.
He lost four games in two seasons at the University of Houston. Unless the Longhorns (5-3) go unbeaten the rest of the way, he will have lost at least four games in each of his four years at Texas.
That would make it an unimaginable 11 straight such seasons for Texas, dating back to 2009, the last time the Longhorns won a conference title.
The 2010s is the first decade Texas went title-free since it won the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1913.
How far have the Longhorns’ standards fallen?
Herman talked about sending UT’s senior class out with two of the best records at Texas in the last dozen years. As if that is something to brag about, after arguably the worst decade of football in school history.
A few poor Texas fans pointed to the fact that since Iowa State entered Friday’s game as the higher ranked team, there was some justification for the loss.
Kudos to Cyclone coach Matt Campbell, who clearly outcoached Herman, but we’re talking Iowa State.
If it isn’t bad enough that Texas doesn’t get to play Texas A&M on Thanksgiving anymore, losing to Iowa State, in Austin no less, ruined holiday leftovers.
With all the advantages UT has, it isn’t a blanket positive for Herman to be better than Strong was.
It is barely a positive at all. After losing four games only once in 12 years, Mack Brown had a four-year stretch with at least four losses, that was deemed too much. It was time for him to go.
Should Herman survive such a stretch?
Sure.
If you think Texas is back is a joke.