Texas Football: 6 potential coaching replacements for Tom Herman

5) Texas football HC candidates

The qualified G5 candidate: Luke Fickell, Cincinnati HC

You’ve got to figure that it won’t be long before the Cincinnati Bearcats rising star of a head coach Luke Fickell gets a big time Power Five head coaching job. While that could be with the Longhorns, CDC might want to look a different way than with the qualified Group of Five candidate. That’s how the Longhorns hired Herman in the first place.

Herman was the former Houston head coach that nearly took them to the heights of College Football Playoff contention, and beat the likes of solid Power Five teams like the Florida State Seminoles and Oklahoma.

The difference between Fickell and Herman is bigger than most would think, though. The former of the two produced more consistent results during his time as the Cincinnati head coach in recent years than Herman did at Houston. Fickell has Cincinnati in the No. 7 slot in the latest AP Poll. It’s not out of the question that the Bearcats could sneak their way into the College Football Playoff conversation in the next couple of weeks.

During his four years as the Cincinnati head coach, Fickell has pretty consistently improved this team. He has a career head coaching record with Cincinnati of 34-13, and they currently sit on a record of 8-0.

Most of Fickell’s time in the college football coaching ranks, prior to landing the head coaching job with the Bearcats, was spent as a positional coach and/or defensive coordinator with the Ohio State Buckeyes. His rise to fame isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon.