Herman’s attention to detail unwavering
AUSTIN — P.J. Locke might have told the same story a dozen times at Big 12 media days, always with a grin and just a hint of shame. He had his new coach to thank for the added attention.
Situated a few feet away from his star defensive back, Texas coach Tom Herman implored the sea of reporters mobbing him to “go down there and ask P.J. Locke about the time he left his water bottle in the players’ lounge.”
“That’s as favorite of a guy as I’ve got on my team,” Herman added, “and that was not a very fun meeting.”
Texas’ new coach is deadly serious about H2O intake under the cruel summer sun.
Hanging in the men’s restroom at the MoncriefNeuhas Athletic Center is a hydration chart displaying
a spectrum of urine colors. Fall below “championship hydration levels” and you earn the rank of “selfish teammate.”
Herman has mandated his players have access to their water bottle and foam roller kit at all times, regardless of situation or circumstance. It’s one minor facet of this new regime’s obsessive attention to detail.
“Everything matters,” Herman said. “Carrying your water bottle around matters.”
About two months ago, Locke’s bottle slipped out of his bag. Herman discovered it in the lounge and demanded Locke and safeties coach Craig Naivar meet him at 4 a.m. the next morning.
After thoroughly undressing both player and coach, Herman unveiled Locke’s punishment: 200 yards of up-downs; janitorial duty in the weight room; and, of course, abundant hydration.
‘It was an eye-opener’
Following that atonement, Locke “started his day” alongside the rest of his teammates at 5:50 a.m.
“It was crazy, it was an eye-opener,” Locke said. “He met with me about a water bottle. Literally chewed me out, saying I’m a leader on my team, so if I do it it’s OK for everybody else to do it. I just had to take accountability for it, take the butt chewing. The next day I hooked a shoestring up to my water bottle and had it around my neck.”
Nothing is too small for Herman. He has adopted a micro approach to rebuilding this waning program, a brick-by-brick method designed to drastically reform UT football.
“Does that matter? Yeah it matters,” Herman said of Locke’s misplaced totem. “We told you, you have to have your water bottle on you at all times. You don’t have your water bottle on you at all times it means you’re defiant, it means you’re saying to me you don’t believe in what we’re doing or you think you’ve got a better way of doing it.”
The buy-in has been almost universal because the old way simply didn’t work.
Linebacker Naashon Hughes is one of three holdovers from the Mack Brown era, a rarity that experienced firsthand a winning Longhorns team.
“It’s water bottle and foam roller kit,” the redshirt senior said. “It’s everything in the foam roller kit as well. It’s 24/7 you have to embrace a new challenge each and every second you’re there. From hydration to water bottles to foam rollers, taking care of your body, icing up, just things like that 24/7.”
Herman is trying to embed these ideals in all of his players, from green freshmen to cynical seniors.
“The guys that win championships are the ones that invest every minute of every day that they have into winning that championship,” Herman said. “That’s a foreign concept for a lot of these guys, but it’s one that I think they believe. All you’ve got to do is look to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, or Columbus, Ohio, and you see these programs with sustained success that do it a certain way and that way works.”
From his very first team meeting, Herman has straddled the line between love and fear. Tilt too far in one direction and the experiment might explode.
Maintaining a balance
So far, Herman has maintained his equilibrium.
“It’s definitely been a good balance,” left tackle Connor Williams said. “You can definitely feel the love that he brings every day. But then again, there is definitely a fear to be held with him.”
Fear, when channeled properly, can work. Look at Bill Belichick and Gregg Popovich and Mike Ditka, occasionally gruff leaders who nevertheless inspired devotion.
“Everybody embraced the new coaching staff,” Hughes said. “There wasn’t any resistance, because what’s the resistance for? Why would you fight anything if somebody is trying to help you. I think everybody basically understood that and went to the new coaching staff eager to learn.”
It’s been four seasons since UT fielded a winning team, more than a decade since Vince Young’s magical night in Pasadena. It’s felt like an eternity since Texas football mattered.
Herman’s Longhorns appear willing to do whatever is asked of them to matter again, even if it means tracking water bottles and paying the price for losing them.