Former Texas football HC Tom Herman hired by Bears as analyst

It took a good while, but the next home for the former fourth-year Texas football head coach Tom Herman was found on March 1. After his departure from the Forty Acres back on Jan. 2, it took Herman nearly two months to find his next home among the college and/or professional football coaching ranks.

Herman actually will wind up taking his coaching talents to the next level, but in a much smaller role than he held with the Longhorns. He is reportedly set to become an offensive analyst/special projects coach under head coach Matt Nagy with the Chicago Bears.

This is an interesting step in the coaching career of Herman. It will be his first major job with an NFL coaching staff, which fits the bill for where a lot of his assistants/support staff landed earlier in the offseason. A number of former Texas coaches wound up under newly hired head coach Urban Meyer with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the last couple of months.

That aforementioned list of former Texas coaches to get hired with the Jaguars includes former defensive coordinator/safeties coach Chris Ash and head coach Charlie Strong.

Career of the former Texas football HC

Before landing this job on staff with the Bears in the NFL, Herman had really only coached at the college ranks. He landed his first major support staff job with the Longhorns in 1999. And between that time and now he served as the Houston Cougars head coach, Ohio State Buckeyes offensive coordinator, Texas head coach, and Iowa State Cyclones offensive coordinator, among other various roles.

Herman was the Longhorns head coach for four years prior to his departure roughly two months ago. He registered a record of 32-18 (.640 winning percentage) during his four years on the Forty Acres, and had a postseason record of 5-1.

During the 2020 season, Herman raked in a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12). The 2020 campaign ended with a dominant win over the Colorado Buffaloes in the Alamo Bowl, which came by the final score of 55-23.

But that win over Colorado in the Alamo Bowl didn’t wind up saving Herman’s job in the end. He was replaced by the former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator and the reigning Broyles Award winner Steve Sarkisian on the same day of his departure.

Herman landing this job with the Bears makes it nearly every one of the major pieces of Texas’ on field coaching staff last year that have now landed elsewhere. Former Texas offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich is the next Penn State offensive coordinator, which rounds out the major trio of coaches from the Forty Acres last year to get hired elsewhere.