Should Texas football roll out the red carpet for Urban Meyer?

Former Ohio State/Florida head coach Urban Meyer is picking up some steam to replace Tom Herman as the Texas football head coach.

The once room temperature seat of Texas football head coach Tom Herman entering the 2020 college football season is now piping hot. The way that this Texas team played in the last three weeks of the season, and since the start of the Big 12 slate, doesn’t inspire any type of confidence that Herman and his staff are getting the job done.

But nearly all of this blame does deserve to fall back on Herman’s shoulders. A lot of the problems that the Longhorns are facing this year are ones that shouldn’t be all that difficult to solve just with more sound coaching. Poorly timed turnovers, lack of offensive rhythm, poor special teams play, and mixed effort from players on both sides of the ball, are all negatives that reflect poorly on the Texas coaching staff.

All of this discussion of Herman’s seat heating up on the Forty Acres began following the Longhorns upset loss in their Big 12 home opener at the hands of the TCU Horned Frogs last weekend. Texas was also very close to boasting a record of 1-3 (0-3 Big 12) at this point of the season if not for an incredible 15-point comeback win in overtime in their conference opener back on Sep. 26, in a win by the final score of 63-56 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Texas really didn’t look good at all throughout the last 10 quarters. They had their moments against TCU and Texas Tech, but the Oklahoma game looked really bad in almost every phase of the game on the Longhorns side. Texas had their fair share of opportunities to take control of this game, with Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley pulling his starting quarterback at one point, but they were never able to even come close to capitalizing.

With all of the struggles that the Longhorns had over the course of the last three weeks, the social media chatter already began concerning the job status of Herman. The patience has already run out with Herman and his coaching staff it seems.

But if the Longhorns are really going to consider replacing Herman if these struggles continue in the near future, then who would athletic director Chris del Conte look to target?

This is a really weird time both in the midst of the 2020 regular season and in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic to conduct a coaching search. One name that does pretty consistently stick out in this regard for the Longhorns is the former Florida Gators and Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer.

Starting back when the Longhorns nearly lost to Texas Tech, the chatter started on social media for them to part ways with Herman. And the name that keeps circulating around the Longhorns fan base is Meyer. If that could happen, it would be an interesting move.

But that is to say that Meyer even wants to consider a return to the head coaching ranks in college football.

It’s easy to see how the idea of a potential Urban hire for the Longhorns is catching on around the fan base. But we won’t know until at least a few weeks down the line if there’s even any more traction to the Longhorns parting ways with Herman.

It is true that all of the coordinator hires that Herman made during the 2020 offseason for the Longhorns haven’t done much to help. And it is even more salt in the wound that former Texas head coach Mack Brown is finding success with the North Carolina Tar Heels, and ex-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tim Beck is doing the same with the NC State Wolfpack in the same role.

There is no doubt that if the AD is already thinking about parting ways with Herman, that pursuing Meyer makes sense. But it is a hypothetical scenario right now since there’s no real indicators that Meyer wants to make a return to the college football coaching ranks in the near future.