Texas Football: ‘Health issues’ kept Urban Meyer from coaching return

With the pursuit of Urban Meyer looking like it is over for the Texas football program, the considerations for head coach Tom Herman do change a bit.

There are likely multiple reasons why the Texas football program and athletic director Chris del Conte were not able to ultimately get traction in pursuing Urban Meyer to be their next head coach. The former Ohio State Buckeyes and Florida Gators three-time National Championship winning head coach was considered to be the grand prize of a potential coaching search if Texas is to part ways with Tom Herman in the near future.

One of the most hotly discussed storylines around the college football landscape late in the 2020 regular season is the Herman hot seat. The fourth-year Texas head coach at least got a solid win over the weekend, on the road on Dec. 5 over the Kansas State Wildcats by the final score of 69-31. But that doesn’t do much to overshadow a rather bleak outlook for the future of this program under Herman’s direction.

The shaky and inconsistent results both on the field and on the recruiting trail likely have the patience wearing thin not only of the fan base, but of the administration and regents too. Texas currently holds a record of 6-3 (5-3 Big 12), but doesn’t really have a shot to get a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game.

The 2021 and 2022 recruiting classes also likely won’t shape up to what they once looked to be. That blame does fall directly back on Herman’s shoulders.

However, all of these reasons amount to the chatter of a potential Texas coaching search looming large. But the bad news that surfaced for the Longhorns over the weekend that the pursuit of Meyer looks to be ending means that any search would have to stray to a different path.

According to a report from hookem.com, the sources cited for the main reason why Meyer didn’t want to return to the college football coaching ranks was “health issues”. Here’s a bit on what the report had to say on the matter.

"Urban Meyer, the three-time national championship winner, has informed Texas officials that he is not pursuing another coaching position because of health issues, a university source with knowledge of the situation told the American-Statesman on Sunday night.However, “no decision” has been made about whether to move on from UT’s current coach Tom Herman, the source said.Texas officials are still “sorting through” their options, the source said."

It is important to note the part of that report that “no decision” is set about Herman’s future with the program as of yet. All of the noise coming from this discussion of late would objectively suggest that nothing will happen that decides the fate of Herman until next offseason.

Piecing together an actual coaching search that yields promising results would take time for CDC, hence there’s no need to rush things right now if Meyer doesn’t want to come out of retirement. It will be interesting to see how Herman rounds out both this recruiting cycle and the 2020 season.

Next up for Herman and the Longhorns is a road matchup with the winless Kansas Jayhawks and head coach Les Miles on Dec. 12. Texas was originally scheduled to face Kansas last month, but the game was delayed due to novel coronavirus-related issues.