Texas Football: 4 HC candidates next in line with Urban Meyer pursuit over

2) Texas football HC candidates after Meyer

Robert Saleh, San Francisco 49ers DC

Turning the attention back to the NFL for a potential head coaching hire for the Longhorns, a really interesting name that could be brought up is the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator and reigning NFC Champion Robert Saleh. As one of the hottest coordinator names in the NFL right now, Saleh wouldn’t be the worst candidate for Texas to consider.

The biggest connection that Saleh would have with Texas is the fact that he is on staff under 49ers head coach and former Longhorn Kyle Shanahan. The 49ers head coach already declared once that he doesn’t have interest in returning to the college football coaching ranks in the near future, which rules him out as a potential candidate.

Competition could come the Longhorns way if they wanted to pursue Saleh since there’s likely going to be at least a few NFL teams with head coaching vacancies of their own that will want to hire him. He’s currently leading an undermanned defense that ranks eighth in net yardage differential and sixth in total yards allowed.

Any defensive problems that Texas faced recently would likely be solved under Saleh. He would also be a big enough hire that it should make a positive impact on the recruiting trail and spark some immediate success on the field.

Prior to taking the defensive coordinator role with the 49ers four years ago, Saleh held different assistant/coordinator roles with the Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks, and Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL. He was also an assistant with the Michigan State Spartans, Central Michigan Chippewas, and Georgia Bulldogs, in college in the early-to-mid 2000’s.