Texas Football: Herbstreit says that program has ‘unrealistic expectations’

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit stated that he feels like Texas football fans have “unrealistic expectations” for their program on College GameDay on Dec. 5.

The ESPN College GameDay cast gave their various takes on the coaching situation surrounding the Texas football program this week. Fourth-year Texas head coach Tom Herman is sitting on one of the hotter seats in the entire country at this point of the 2020 college football season. And it doesn’t really sound like it matters how Herman’s team performs down the stretch this season.

Namely it was the former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback and current ESPN college football commentator/analyst Kirk Herbstreit that gave the most notable take on the current state of the Longhorns program and Herman’s hot seat. Herbstreit stated that he thinks that the Longhorns fan base has “unrealistic expectations” out of a lot of their head coaches and just the overall program standards in the modern day.

Some of Herbstreit’s counterparts did contradict his statement, at least citing that Texas should be able to take care of business against teams like the TCU Horned Frogs and even usually the Iowa State Cyclones. A lot of the ESPN College GameDay crew is correct in saying that the Longhorns have more than enough resources to be able to beat the likes of TCU and Iowa State on a regular basis.

Another note that the College GameDay crew agreed upon in regards to the current state of the Longhorns program, and with Herman’s situation in particular, is that it would take an Urban Meyer or Nick Saban-level coaching hire to bring back the necessary level of confidence to the Forty Acres. That is part of the reason why the Longhorns fan base is so hopeful that the Meyer pursuit will work out in the end.

Of course there’s no guarantees that the Meyer hire happens. It would be great if this pursuit pays off, but it feels somewhat like when the Longhorns tried to hire Saban away from the Alabama Crimson Tide back in 2014. They wound up with Charlie Strong in that pursuit.

Moreover, Herbstreit is wrong in the opinion that Texas fans usually have completely unrealistic expectations. The brand and resources that this program has does make it a destination job that should usually sit them among the most prominent teams in the nation.

Texas holds a record of 5-3 (4-3 Big 12), coming off their disappointing Black Friday/Senior Day loss to Iowa State. They are currently taking on Kansas State on the morning of Dec. 5 on the road in Manhattan and are up early in the game.