Texas Football: Tom Herman is on the brink of collapse

Near disaster all over the place isn’t making life easy for Texas football head coach Tom Herman heading into a pivotal Big 12 game this weekend.

Things have gone from bad to worse both on the field and on the recruiting trail for fourth-year Texas football head coach Tom Herman in the last couple of weeks. About the only bit of good news for Herman and his squad was getting a win out of the bye week back on Oct. 24 at home over the slipping Baylor Bears, by the final score of 27-16.

While that was a big win for Herman and the Longhorns to snap a two-game skid and get back on track heading into a big one this weekend, it didn’t stop the bleeding that is now happening on the recruiting trail. The Longhorns lost their first two commits in the 2022 recruiting class in the last 18 hours alone, and more bad news could be on the way on the trail in the near future.

Just within the last day, Texas lost the commitment of the elite five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers and that of four-star Lancaster wide receiver Phaizon Wilson. It might not be all that long before they see four-star Memorial cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau re-open his recruitment either.

At this point, Guilbeau is the lone remaining commit in the Longhorns 2022 recruiting class.

And while the 2022 class teeters on the brink of complete and utter failure to retain any sort of commitments, the 2021 class doesn’t look too promising either. Any prospective Texas commits in the 2021 class likely aren’t thrilled about what they’re seeing right now. And it wasn’t all that long ago that the Longhorns lost the commitment of their second-highest rated prospect in the 2021 class, highly coveted four-star Denton-Ryan athlete Billy Bowman Jr.

So is there any way that Herman can pick up the pieces from here on out?

Really the only way it seems that Herman could save his job for any extended period of time at this point is by handily defeating the No. 6 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys on the road in Stillwater on the afternoon of Oct. 31. If Texas does beat No. 6 Oklahoma State, it at least gets some level of respect and positive attention coming back on the Forty Acres.

There’s not really any of that coming right now for the Longhorns.

It’s hard to see any immediate turnaround for the Longhorns on the recruiting trail heading into the 2020 Early Signing Period as long as Herman is head coach. Really the only thing that could turnaround the image of this program in the eyes of a lot of key recruiting targets would be a change at head coach (and a good hire at that).

Could it be someone like Urban Meyer or PJ Fleck that the Longhorns can get to soon replace Herman (or someone else that would be a good solid hire)?

We don’t know the answer to that question yet. But hopefully Texas can come out with a respectable performance on the road on Oct. 31 against Oklahoma State, with kick off time set for 3 p.m. CT.