Texas Football: Changes Tom Herman Should Make in the Offseason

If only the Texas football program had come even close to meeting expectations this season, head coach Tom Herman might be in a better spot right now.

Entering the 2019 season, the minimum expectation for the Texas football under third-year coach Tom Herman was that at a minimum this team would win 10 regular season games (which had not been done for a decade), and be in the Big 12 title game for the second year in a row. On the overachieving side were those who thought that the Texas Longhorns should win 10 or more regular season games, win the Big 12 conference championship, and possibly qualify for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

In neither scenario was Texas a five-loss team, having an offense that was regressing by the week, and having only one win over a ranked team.

And yet, that is exactly what happened.

Going into the Texas Tech game, the Longhorns are 6-5, and need this win in order to have a winning season. Should they lose this game and the bowl game, they would be 6-7, a record they have not had since the man that Herman was hired to replace was the face of the program.

Whether you are a fan of Herman (or perhaps at this point you are undecided), the way things are going is unacceptable given the tradition and resources that are available on the Forty Acres. The Texas job is not for the faint of heart; it is not enough to have winning seasons, you must win conference championships regularly and be in the conversation for the national championship consistently or you will not be around long.

In other words, what Lincoln Riley is doing at Oklahoma is also the standard at Texas, and Herman thus far has not lived up to the 6.75 million dollars that he is being paid each year. The team and fans deserve and demand better.

This is not to say that Herman is not a good football coach, because he is. I remind Texas fans (and I promise I am not trying to induce post-traumatic stress disorder in the reader) that before the arrival of Herman, Texas went 16-21 with Charlie Strong at the helm, which was three consecutive losing seasons.

Herman by contrast has gone 23-15 (as of the time of this writing), had a ten win season last, a New Year’s Six Bowl Win, and has not had a losing season since he has arrived. In addition, he has has two top 5 recruiting classes in the past two years and is likely to have a top 5 class in this cycle as well. While things could be better, I remind the reader that things have been far worse in the very recent past.

At any rate, at his weekly press conference, Herman mentioned that he had not lived up to his duties so far and that changes are likely to come in the off-season. So, what changes should happen?

A few things to keep in mind before answering this. Next season Texas will return a 3 year starter in Sam Ehlinger at quarterback, several key members of the offensive line (Sam Cosmi, Junior Angilau, Derek Kerstetter), as well as running back duo Keontay Ingram and Roschon Johnson.

With Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay moving on, Texas will not have a proven receiver, but it does return talent at the position with Jake Smith likely to take over for Duvernay and Brennan Eagles likely to move to Collin Johnson’s spot. Marcus Washington and Jordan Whittington are also likely to make their presence felt there as well.

On defense the Longhorns will lose hybrid defense end/linebacker Malcolm Roach and linebacker Jeff McCullough as well as swiss army knife Brandon Jones, but they return safeties Caden Sterns, B.J. Foster, Demarvion Overshown (who has made his presence felt lately), linebacker Joseph Ossai (who has been the MVP of the defense), and defensive tackle Deondre Coburn.

All of this is to say that this will be a veteran team that is in position to win from the beginning, rather than a team on a learning curve. And that is good for Herman, because if he does not win next year, there won’t be a year 5.

I would also add that this type of thing has been done before. In 2016 Notre Dame head coach went 4-8 (which is worse than Herman will do even if he lost the last two games). He responded by bringing in all new coordinators and coaches, and he went 10-3 the following year and 12-1 the year after that, which included a trip to the playoff. Herman can have similar (and perhaps better results) if he follows Kelly’s model.

The best route for Herman to go would be to hire Sean Gleeson from Oklahoma St. to run the offense and Dave Aranda or Lex Steele to run the defense. In the case of Gleeson, he has a top ten offense at Oklahoma St, is in the conference, and would be able to adapt his offense easily to the current personnel that Texas has.

For Aranda, he is a friend of Herman and has had (up until recently at LSU) very stout defenses and is an ace recruiter. With these two running the offense and defense, Herman could step back and look at everything, because in his current role he seems incapable of being the offensive play caller  and evolving the offense while subsequently making sure that the team remains disciplined and focused.

Will Herman make these types of changes, or is it all talk? We will find out soon enough.