Texas Football: Desmond Howard thinks Herman can’t connect with players

Texas football head coach Tom Herman didn’t have the public court of opinion in his favor over the weekend. Did that change at all after the K-State win?

There’s not a whole lot that fourth-year Texas football head coach Tom Herman can likely do before the end of the 2020 season to completely secure his job heading into the offseason. Really the only thing that comes to mind would be managing to get the commitment of the elite five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers back to his 2022 recruiting class from the Ohio State Buckeyes.

It also doesn’t help that Herman and the Longhorns had another bad loss on the recruiting trail earlier this fall for their 2021 class. Texas saw the commitment of the highly coveted four-star Denton-Ryan athlete Billy Bowman Jr. go from their 2021 recruiting class to that of head coach Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners a little more than one month ago.

More and more media chatter from around the college football landscape is coming Herman’s way. His hot seat likely cooled off for a bit of time after Texas dominated the Kansas State Wildcats on the road on Dec. 5, by the convincing final score of 69-31.

One of the latest voices from around the media landscape to throw their opinion into this discussion is the former Michigan Wolverine and ESPN college football personality/analyst Desmond Howard. On the set of ESPN College GameDay last weekend, the entire crew talked on the matter of Herman’s hot seat and what the program can do from here on out.

Each of the members of the College GameDay crew had a rather interesting take, but Howard’s was different from the rest. He stated that “Herman can’t connect with his players”, citing a reason to the lack of player development and overall success on the field for Texas of late. Here’s more on what Howard stated on the matter (monologue thanks to 247Sports).

"“When Herman came in he said ‘it was my way or the highway.’ And when I spoke to former players, they said that’s the problem,” Howard said on Saturday’s edition of the program. “He cannot connect with the players. There’s a gross disconnect between the head coach, Herman, and the players. That’s what you’re experiencing. That’s what you’re seeing.”"

There is clearly some sort of disconnect between Herman and his players, and even his targets on the recruiting trail. The recruiting results, success in the win column, and player development, are doing a big better under Herman’s direction compared to how things were under former Texas head coach Charlie Strong.

But Herman’s overall record in his fourth year as Texas head coach doesn’t inspire much confidence about the state of the program. Texas currently sits with a record of 6-3 (5-3 Big 12) after beating Kansas State last weekend. Herman’s career record as Texas head coach sits at 31-18.

Next up for Herman and the Longhorns is the regular season finale battle against the winless Kansas Jayhawks and head coach Les Miles, on the road in Lawrence on Dec. 12. That game was originally scheduled to be played last month, but was pushed back due to novel coronavirus related issues.