Texas Football: CBS ranks Tom Herman among hot seat HC’s

Texas football needs to likely reach at least nine or 10 wins this season to keep the pressure off of head coach Tom Herman.

The 2020 season has adjustments that are very much up in the air for the Texas football program in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Head coach Tom Herman has the very difficult task of trying to keep his team united through everything that is going on since the end of the 2019 campaign. There was already a lot of pressure on Herman’s shoulders to exceed expectations this year, especially compared to the partial letdown of last season’s record.

The Longhorns rounded up last season with a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12) after beating the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl by a convincing score of 38-10. As a preseason top 10 ranked team with Big 12 Title hopes, finishing up with a nearly .500 record in Big 12 play and just eight wins was not a result that was desired. Texas was coming off their first double-digit win season in a decade and a Sugar Bowl win over the Georgia Bulldogs last year. All that led to was a season that nearly placed Herman on the hot seat.

Early this offseason, the Texas coaching staff saw a lot of key changes that gave Herman one final shot to succeed on a consistent basis. Most importantly he replaced former offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tim Beck with the ex-Ohio State passing game coordinator Mike Yurcich. And he replaced former defensive coordinator Todd Orlando with the ex-Rutgers head coach Chris Ash.

There were a number of other changes made among the analysts and position coaches, but hopefully all of that will come to fruition as early as this coming season.

Moreover, the potential hot seat for Herman could become more of a prevalent storyline this year depending on how Texas starts the 2020 season. And this was something that Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports wrote about earlier this week. Dodd ranked out the level of hot seat for some of the coaches that fit into this bucket in the FBS.

Herman was actually pretty far up on the list of head coaches that are facing a potential hot seat scenario this fall. Here’s what Dodd had to say in this CBS Sports piece regarding this matter.

"If speculation were tires, tread would be worn bald asking if Texas is “back.” The answer, once again, is no. After beating Oklahoma and winning the Sugar Bowl in 2018, the Longhorns slid to 8-5 in 2019 behind Baylor and OU in the Big 12. With the Sooners showing no signs of slowing down, this is a key season for Herman. He has a quarterback who has made Heisman Trophy lists in Sam Ehlinger. Recruiting continues to thrive. That’s the issue: When is all that talent going to carry the Horns to national title contention?"

It can be odd to find Herman with a hot seat meter that is similar to someone like South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp and Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin. But the likes of USC’s Clay Helton and Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason were mentioned to be on a hotter seat heading into the 2020 season than Herman.

Realistically if Herman gets the Longhorns back to the Big 12 Championship Game this year, there’s no reason why his job shouldn’t be safe heading into the 2021 offseason. But if Texas finds itself in the midst of another eight win campaign, the narrative surrounding his job status with be much darker.

Texas is set to open the 2020 season at home on Sep. 5 against the South Florida Bulls. If all goes as planned for the impending college football season, then Herman needs to get a hot start to keep the pressure off for the rest of the year.