Ultimately, Tom Herman costs Tom Herman his dream job as UT’s football coach
Tom Herman was handed the keys to a Ferrari, and he never could master its power.
As a result, the University of Texas took away those keys to its most prized, and expensive, machine.
Despite winning all of his bowl games, the terrible fit that was Tom Herman at the University of Texas has ended, the school announced Saturday morning.
The University of Texas issued the following statement: “With our football season coming to a close, our vice president and athletics director, Chris Del Conte, has evaluated the UT program’s strengths and weaknesses and where the program is relative to our goals. While we have made measured progress during the past several years under Tom Herman’s leadership, Chris has recommended to the university president, Jay Hartzell, that UT make a coaching change to get us on track to achieving our ambitious goals.
“President Hartzell and the chair of our Board of Regents, Kevin Eltife, concur with this recommendation and have approved the change. We thank Coach Herman for his service and dedication to our student-athletes, our program and our university.”
Thanks, coach. You’re the best. Now leave. And here’s your $15-million check to go away.
This one is on Tom Herman, and his continued inability to read the room.
He tried to bully people in Austin the same way he did when he was the head coach at the University of Houston. That act is not going to fly unless you are beating Oklahoma, or making the college football playoffs.
In his four seasons in Austin, UT beat OU once in five tries. Herman never won the Big 12 title, nor did Bevo sniff this silly playoff system.
But Tommy owned the Alamo Bowl.
This announcement is weeks after Chris Del Conte issued a statement, and then clarified it to the Austin American-Statesman, that Herman would be the coach at UT in 2021.
So either CDC is lying, which although his profession is renowned for championship liars, fibbing is typically not his thing. Or, he was “advised” to find someone else.
At Texas, a few phone calls from “friends of the University of Texas” can change minds.
Chip Brown of OrangeBloods.com is reporting that University of Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will be named the new head coach at Texas.
Sarkisian was the head coach at Washington from 2009-13, where he was 34-29. He then left Seattle for USC, and was 12-6 in one season and a half.
He was fired midway through the ‘15 season because of a detailed history of alcohol abuse, which was going on long before he was the head coach in L.A.
Alabama coach Nick Saban hired Sarkisian in 2016, and he has slowly rebuilt his reputation.
But Saturday is more about Tommy Boy than Sark’.
Herman was a reach of a hire from Day 1. The only reason he landed this job was because Texas could not find anyone better, and Charlie Strong simply had to go.
Endorsed by former his former boss at Texas, head coach Mack Brown, Herman never had Mack’s political touch.
If you are not going to win, and you are going to routinely lose to TCU, Iowa State and Oklahoma, you better have friends. But Tommy Boy never made enough friends in Austin.
Too often he acted like Nick Saban, or Bob Stoops, but forgot he didn’t have their resumes.
CDC does not like firing people, especially in this climate when layoffs and furloughs happened in his athletic department, but he also likes having his job.
So he did what he had to do, because he likely thought Texas had maxed out its potential under Herman. Or someone told him to do this.
Herman was handed the keys to a Ferrari, but he never quite could figure out how to pass anybody.
This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 11:45 AM.
