Texas Football: Is it a mistake to keep Tom Herman for 2021

News dropping on Dec. 12 shows that the Texas football program looks to keep head coach Tom Herman in his current position heading into next year.

The news that seemed more likely after the pursuit of the former Ohio State Buckeyes and Florida Gators three-time National Championship winning head coach Urban Meyer ended for the Texas football program arrived on Dec. 12. A Horns247 report that was published on the afternoon of Dec. 12 indicated that fourth-year Texas head coach Tom Herman will remain in his position heading into next offseason.

Texas was supposed to face head coach Les Miles and the winless Kansas Jayhawks on the road in Lawrence on Dec. 12. That was already pushed back from the originally scheduled date of the Texas-Kansas game from last month. But novel coronavirus related issues on the Longhorns side this time caused the game to get canceled.

Herman and the Longhorns got to finish up this regular season slate with a record of 6-3 (5-3 Big 12), with their final game resulting in a dominant 69-31 win over head coach Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats back on Dec. 5. Texas likely could’ve reached the seven-win mark this regular season if they were to able to actually face the Jayhawks this weekend or next.

However, the news that Texas athletic director Chris del Conte decided to ultimately keep Herman around as head coach heading into next offseason is a bit surprising that it came this early. It felt like the Longhorns were going to wait out this process a bit longer heading into the 2021 offseason.

Texas still has their bowl game to play this season, likely to be something like the Texas Bowl or Alamo Bowl, as long as they don’t opt out. That could be another meaningful game for this team, despite the raw number of opt outs for the remainder of this season (i.e. safety Caden Sterns, offensive tackle Sam Cosmi, running back Keaontay Ingram, etc.).

So was this the right move for the Longhorns to keep Herman around heading into next offseason?

It is a bit better news that the Longhorns are keeping Herman around knowing that the race to land Meyer has ended. There’s not really any other home run hire that sticks out at this moment for the Longhorns.

The only flaw to this process, as it appears now, is how early CDC announced this news. There could be more head coaching candidates that stick out come January or February 2021. Even from the NFL ranks, more coaching candidates could’ve surfaced. A more patient approach to this review for Herman and the Texas head coaching job would’ve been nice.

Nonetheless, if Herman does win the Longhorns bowl game to round out this season, and the results on the recruiting trail pick up in the near future, it won’t be the worst thing that he’s around heading into the 2021 season. A lot of pressure will now fall on Herman to turnaround the results on the recruiting trail that have largely faltered of late in his 2021 and 2022 classes.

Herman now holds a record of 31-18 during his four years as the Longhorns head coach. That’s not too great, and he had really high expectations for this team this season. But this season wasn’t the worst result in the win column either. Hopefully patience will win the day with the Herman coaching situation.