Texas Football: 3 players that were drastically underutilized by Herman

Texas football fans got used to the idea of former head coach Tom Herman overachieving at times and largely underachieving at others. Texas could never quite consistently live up to the hype on the field under Herman. And the theme of always playing and up and down to the competition really started to get tired by the end of last season.

That is largely why the Longhorns wound up replacing Herman with the former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator/reigning Broyles Award winner Steve Sarkisian back on Jan. 2, 2021. The hope now is that Sark and the Longhorns can elevate this program to another level compared to the heights Herman took it to.

Herman was certainly an improvement in terms of success in the win column compared to fellow former Texas head coach Charlie Strong. He finished his time four years as the Texas head coach with a record of 32-18 (.640 winning percentage). And last fall was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back when Herman and the Longhorns registered a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12).

Former Texas football HC Tom Herman had his faults with player development

One of the endemic problems that Herman faced during his time as the head coach was the lack of player development. Texas had a few different coaching staff that Herman placed around him during his time on the Forty Acres, but nothing was able to get him over the hump consistently.

Improving player development is something that Sark hopes to do starting this fall. Texas certainly has the weapons to be among the best teams in the Big 12, if not the entire country, but executing on that talent seems to always be the issue within the past decade.

Here’s a look back at three Longhorns players that were drastically underutilized during Herman’s time as the head coach.