Texas Football: CBS Sports talks Tom Herman’s place on the hot seat

Texas football head coach Tom Herman is by no means in an easy position right now as he looks to keep his team’s winning streak alive down the stretch.

The hot seat discussion that seems to constantly surround fourth-year Texas football head coach Tom Herman is getting a bit of a break in this de facto double bye week for his team. At the same time, with so much down time for Texas in mid-November, that discussion could start going to weird places.

And in some ways, it already has.

In his weekly press conference, Herman was seemingly phased with all of the chatter going on around his hot seat and the Urban Meyer coaching rumors. He discussed that situation for a lengthy bit of time, carrying his press conference around five or 10 minutes longer than it usually goes on a normal week this year (whatever that looks like in 2020).

Moreover, CBS Sports recently gave their take on the status of Herman’s hot seat with the Longhorns in the midst of this double bye week for the Longhorns. The good news for Herman in this update on the hot seat head coaches around the college football landscape this week is that he wasn’t in the worst category of them all. That couldn’t be said one month ago today.

The worst rating that a head coach can get on CBS Sports’ hot seat scale is a 5. That rating means, in their opinion, that a head coach is in a win now or get fired situation. Herman was at least bumped down to a 4 on this CBS Sports rating scale (which translates to a “start improving now” mantra, or else).

Here’s more on what this CBS Sports piece had to say on the matter of Herman’s hot seat this week.

"Holding steady is good news for Herman. After losses to TCU and Oklahoma, the walls were closing in. Since then, the winning streak will likely be four after this week’s game against Kansas. The Longhorns (5-2) are still in contention for the Big 12 Championship Game. That’s the biggest thing. As long as there is a chance Oklahoma’s five-year stranglehold on the conference can be broken, Herman is safe. But if he loses once more between now and Dec. 19, all bets are off. Preseason rating: 4"

It is interesting that in the footnotes of their details on the Herman hot seat situation that he now holds the same rating as when the Longhorns were entering this regular season more than two months ago. That does make sense since, despite the Longhorns three-game winning streak that they currently sit on, this team ranks lower in both major polls than it did heading into the season.

Texas was supposed to take on the lowly Kansas Jayhawks and head coach Les Miles on the road in Lawrence this weekend. But novel coronavirus-related issues on the Kansas side caused the game to get delayed until Dec. 12, the weekend before the Big 12 Championship Game.

The Longhorns currently carry a record of 5-2 (4-2 Big 12), after beating the West Virginia Mountaineers at home back on Nov. 10 in their last game, by the narrow final score of 17-13. Texas also has triumphs over the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Baylor Bears dating back to Oct. 24 that helped them build their three-game winning streak they still sit on.