Texas Football: Finebaum has a blunt take on firing of Tom Herman

Among the more prominent voices around the media landscape this week you could find Paul Finebaum giving his opinion on Texas football and Tom Herman.

The reaction around the college football media landscape to what happened on the coaching carousel over the weekend was certainly interesting to follow. And the biggest bit of news from the coaching carousel that transpired last weekend came out of the Texas football program. Texas announced that it would officially part ways with now former fourth-year head coach Tom Herman on the morning of Jan. 2, and replace him with the current Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator and Broyles Award winner Steve Sarkisian.

And a name that is always interesting to hear around the media landscape in the college football world is Paul Finebaum. On Jox 94.5 FM radio early this week, Finebaum gave his take on the Longhorns head coaching news that shocked so many (monologue thanks to 247Sports). An overview of what Finebaum had to say largely had to do with how he felt administration came to this thought process.

"“I just think it shows you the absolute disgust at Texas for Tom Herman,” Finebaum said Monday on WJOX FM. “I can use a line of parallels here, and people can imagine it any way they want. But Texas went shopping for Urban Meyer. Had Urban Meyer said yes, Herman would have been gone three weeks ago. They couldn’t get Urban Meyer. Herman sat there and fumed. We even had an interview with a guy who claimed that Herman was trying to get the South Carolina job, which sounded like a stretch."

Here was some of the most significant bits of what Finebaum had to say, both on the firing of Herman and the hiring of Sark last weekend.

"“He is by no means on the level of Urban Meyer or Nick Saban or Ryan Day or Dabo Swinney. But I think they realized they had to make a change. Even though Herman won his last two games, it is not going to satisfy anyone out there. Sark was the hot name. He was the cool guy of the month.”"

Herman didn’t finish with the worst result during the 2020 season. He led the Longhorns to wrap up with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12), winning five of their last six games to round out the campaign. And they dominated the Colorado Buffaloes in the Alamo Bowl, by the final score of 55-23, in San Antonio back on the night of Dec. 29.

It was the well known inconsistencies both on the field and on the recruiting trail, and the overall drama that came with Herman on and off-the-field, that led to his ultimate demise. A lot of his coaching staff appears to be on the way out now too.

Sark was definitely a surprising replacement to Herman for a lot of fans on the Forty Acres. Although he is potentially about to lead the Crimson Tide offense to win the College Football Playoff National Championship Game next week over the Ohio State Buckeyes, there were other candidates out there many might’ve felt would be better hires.

The total record that Herman finished up with during his four years as the Texas head coach was 32-18. He did go undefeated in four tries in the postseason, but that was ultimately all for naught since he didn’t get any Big 12 Titles or appearances in the College Football Playoff.