Herman accepts blame for underachieving
‘Buck stops with me,’ says coach of 6-5 team not producing despite success in recruiting
AUSTIN — Last month, in the wake of a loss to Oklahoma and a gut-churning 50-48 home win over Kansas, Tom Herman spent portions of his time with the media trying to talk anxious Longhorns fans off the ledge.
After all, Texas was still No. 15 in the Associated Press poll and 5-2 heading into a road game at TCU. Playing for a Big 12 title remained a realistic vision. A slew of injured starters were slowly making their way back. The pitchforks-andtorches mob hadn’t yet massed in full.
Herman also spoke of how “fantastically” the program had recruited the last couple of years and how well the staff had developed those top-three classes. The third-year coach wanted everyone to believe “the sky is not falling,” though it did look ominous.
Most importantly, he was confident in the close-knit relationships among the players and their unit leaders.
“It all circles back to coaching,” Herman said on Oct. 21. “Players that have great relationships with their position coaches, their coordinator, their head coach, players that have a tremendous amount of buy-in usually do the right thing at the right time.”
Texas (6-5, 4-4 Big 12) is 1-3 since that news conference, the only win coming over Kansas State via walk-off field goal.
Those August aspirations died a cold November death in consecutive losses to Iowa State and 14thranked Baylor, leaving fans disgruntled and Herman searching for answers.
The Longhorns have mostly failed to “do the right thing at the right time” during this downward spiral.
Over its last four games Texas has averaged 7.8 penalties for 79 yards, dropping it into a tie for 119th in the nation in penalty yards per game.
Some of those errors have been as reckless as you could imagine, particularly a pair of personal fouls issued to senior linemen Zach Shackelford and Parker Braun in the fourth quarter against Baylor.
Herman said the entire offensive line would be punished accordingly during Monday’s practice.
“Everybody in the building is frustrated, but the manifestation of that frustration can never be detrimental to the team and to have that happen is unacceptable,” Herman said.
Of everything the 44-year-old coach touched on Monday, his admission that the staff had failed to properly develop the players and help them realize their full potential was both the biggest red flag and a stunning reversal from what he said weeks earlier.
“No, no, we haven’t, I haven’t, the players haven’t,” Herman said. “We’re all in this together, but at the end of the day the buck stops with me.
“A big charge of mine in the offseason is to find a way to get these guys better developed and put them in better positions to succeed and also then comes the part where the players gotta decide they want to take the steps that are necessary to be developed.”
Texas has collected the Big 12’s top recruiting class in consecutive seasons, per 247Sports’ composite rankings. Herman’s first class featured quarterback Sam Ehlinger and was No. 2 in the Big 12 behind only Oklahoma.
Over those three years, Texas brought in a total of four five-star players, 39 four-stars and 28 three-stars.
Nearly 90 percent of Baylor’s recruits during that period were of the three-star variety, as were 59 of TCU’s 71 signees. Both of those teams outclassed Texas this year.
Even Kansas, which has signed three four-stars and 43 three-stars since 2017, looked like the better team for most of its 2-point loss at Royal-Memorial Stadium.
“We’ve got a saying around here and I learned it from coach (Urban) Meyer and it stuck with me because I’ve been on staffs where position coaches aren’t getting the response from a player that they want and they say, ‘Oh, that friggin kid, that kid, that kid, that kid,’ ” Herman said. “No, that coach. You’re the adult. You’re the one that does this for a living. So we’re never going to blame the players.
“It’s our job. We recruited them and their personalities, so it’s our job to find the right buttons to push, if you will.”
Change is coming this offseason. And it should given the disappointing results..
No one is safe save Herman, who in just the span of 11 months has gone from “the man who brought Texas back” to explaining why he’s still the best option to lead this program.
“I’m not shaken,” Herman said. “Obviously in big-time evaluation mode of everything throughout our program. It’s my job to make sure that we play to the level that is expected at the University of Texas.
“Am I the right man to do it? I believe I am, yeah.”