Texas Football: Was letting go of WR coach Drew Mehringer right move?

Changes to the coaching staff for the Texas football program continued on Dec. 1 with the firing of co-wide receivers coach Drew Mehringer.

The Texas football program made a bunch of splash moves on Dec. 1 to shake up the coaching staff. It seemed like coaching staff changes were just around the corner for head Texas football coach Tom Herman after a 2019 campaign that saw him go 7-5 (5-4 Big 12).

Texas already made the move on Dec. 1 to part ways with former defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. That was the first domino to fall in a string of important moves to alter the coaching staff.

The Texas Longhorns football program did part ways with a handful of assistant coaches that were interesting. Anwar Richardson of Orange Bloods posted on his Twitter timeline that Herman and the Longhorns made three big adjustments to the offensive coaching staff just hours after the announcement that they would be parting ways with Orlando.

Those aforementioned changes included the re-assignment of former offensive coordinator Tim Beck to a non-coordinator role, the firing of co-wide receivers coach Drew Mehringer, and fellow co-wide receivers coach Corby Meekins staying on staff with an off-the-field role. Those are three big names on the Texas coaching staff that will either be gone entirely or have far less significant roles.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the Longhorns had an award winning positional coach in Mehringer that was a star on the recruiting trail. It will also be interesting to see how the 2020 and 2021 signing classes shake out after the departure of Mehringer and the re-assignment of the duties of Beck and Meekins.

Mehringer received the honors for the Rivals Recruiter of the Year after his success for the 2019 recruiting class at his position. Texas signed a second consecutive top three ranked recruiting class in the nation for the 2019 cycle, and the ultra-talented wide receiver group was a big reason why.

But the Longhorns had a bit of a deceiving recruiting haul at wide receiver for the 2019 cycle. The two top rated signees Mehringer brought in are no playing in the receiving corps for the Longhorns just nine months after National Signing Day 2019.

Former Texas transfer, and USC Trojans freshman wide receiver Bru McCoy, left the Forty Acres just as quick as he landed here. And fellow former five-star wide receiver recruit Jordan Whittington was moved to running back in spring camp by Herman.

With Herman, Beck, and Meekins, at least all still on staff for the Longhorns, the recruiting at wide receiver shouldn’t be too far behind what it was before all these coaching changes were announced. Yet, there could be a negative impact that stems at least until the Early Signing Period or National Signing Day 2020.

The Longhorns did already lose the commitment of four-star defensive end Van Fillinger on Dec. 1 thanks to the firing of Orlando. But nothing dropped as of yet to the recruiting impact on the offensive side of the ball for the 2020 class.

We’ll continue to monitor for further changes to the Texas coaching staff after they finished the regular season with a record of 7-5 (5-4 Big 12). That came after the Longhorns dominated the Texas Tech Red Raiders at home on Black Friday to the tune of a 25-point win.