Texas Football: Did the K-State win do anything to help Tom Herman?

Texas football head coach Tom Herman likely did help his case a little bit with the dominant win over Kansas State. But it might not matter at this point.

A big 38-point win over the Kansas State Wildcats and head coach Chris Klieman was a good way for fourth-year Texas football head coach Tom Herman to rebound from a tough loss last week. Texas entered the weekend with a record of 5-3 (4-3 Big 12), coming off a really disappointing three-point loss at the hands of head coach Matt Campbell and the No. 13 ranked Iowa State Cyclones back on Black Friday/Senior Day.

Where Herman and the Longhorns really needed to respond was with some degree of offensive consistency. Offensive explosiveness largely went by the wayside of first-year offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich in the last few games. Texas scored 20 points in the loss to Iowa State, and 17 in the Nov. 7 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers.

However, most of the questions that are still going to be asked after this dominant Longhorns 69-31 win over Kansas State on the road on Dec. 5 surrounding Herman will be with the longevity of the program. It’s really nice to see this much of a sign of life from Herman and the Longhorns, especially in a bounce back scenario in a place that is usually difficult for them to play in Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan.

With the dismantling of Kansas State in store, Herman and the Longhorns move their record on the season so far to 6-3 (5-3 Big 12). Although the shot for Texas to get a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game is still all but gone.

The signs of life we saw from true freshman running back Bijan Robinson, sophomore Roschon Johnson, redshirt freshman wide receiver Jordan Whittington, freshman safety Jerrin Thompson, etc. were promising for Herman. There might be a path forward to him having a chance to stick around heading into the offseason if this momentum is parlayed into Texas winning out, including the postseason.

But with that, Texas would also have to dramatically pick up the results on the recruiting trail for more heat to get taken off of Herman. It’s not necessarily the immediate results this fall that are the problem for Herman. The 6-3 record is not great, but it’s not horrible either.

It’s the fact that Texas lost commitments from the likes of the elite five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers and four-star Lancaster wide receiver Phaizon Wilson in their 2022 class, and four-star Denton-Ryan athlete Billy Bowman Jr. in the 2021 class. Having the results on the recruiting trail crumble in the span of less than one month largely doomed the Herman tenure.

Good news for Herman’s job security would also arrive if Urban Meyer doesn’t want to come out of retirement and start coaching again, this time for Texas. There’s not really another home run candidate that Texas could have in store right now outside of Meyer. If Meyer isn’t interested, it might be enough to give Herman at least another year at the helm.

The hard part for Herman is that the decision of his job security is largely out of his hands right now. Positive results on the field do nothing but help him, but beating the Kansas schools likely wasn’t going to do enough to definitively save his job in any scenario.