Herman is an asshole, but he can generally coach football. His being an asshole is how he got his guys at UH thinking they were better than they were. And he won games as a result.
I thought at the time he was a good X’s and O’s hire for UT and he would immediately make the team better. He did. I’m surprised he wasn’t more successful on the field. He obviously did not win a lot of good will, which is why he’s unemployed.
They are unquestionably a better program than they were 4 years ago.
The inconsistency was maddening, I believe he lost 7 games to unranked teams while being ranked.
Terrible decisions. Not as bad as Strong, but not a good game coach. Did not put his players in position to win. Asshole to his players, which is why you see former players celebrating.
Sark did bring up that he’s never run an offense that didn’t have a 1000 yd rusher. I’m sure Bijan took notice.
Maybe he won’t leave him on the bench for an entire quarter or give him only 4 carries in a half.
Choose Your Own Coaching Adventure: Should you give your best player the ball, or leave him on the bench?
Y’know … I’m gonna have to disagree with you there. He was just too cute; always gambling on both offense and defense, meaning that he won a few games he should have lost (notably while coaching UH) but also lost games he should have won. With UT’s talent, he should have ditched the “cute” and just beaten people.
Of course, his excuse-making and arrogance in his regular pressers were probably the real killer for him, but I really do not give him credit for being “generally” a good football coach.
Exactly my point about his gambling style. Just play football!
Seems like this is a growing trend in college football, especially on offense.
I think Shaka Smart is safe at UT for now.
The growing trend of saying “The book said to do X.” is one of the stupidest in all of college football.
That was Tom’s favorite excuse for leaving points on the field.
It permeates society, not just football. It’s about not having to be accountable. “It’s not my mistake, I was just going by the book.” “The survey said to do it that way.”
I don’t think Herman is a bad coach. But yes, he’s arrogant. He thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room and he goes out of his way to try and show it, usually to his detriment. He’s an asshole to his players, he made no attempt to build any allies at Texas, and he committed the John Mackovic Memorial Cardinal Sin of Texas Coaches in failing to foster any real relationships with Texas HS coaches. That part is maddening. For all of his talk early on about what he learned from Mack Brown, Herman completely ignored the first thing Mack did when taking over in 1998. He also followed Strong’s lead in hiring a pretty mediocre staff from the outset despite all the resources in the world available to him.
His teams - and his program - lacked discipline and accountability, and it started at the top. I don’t wish the guy ill, but I am very happy he is gone.
Sarkisian isn’t a slam dunk hire, but I think he can do very well.
Totally agree, drewcifer
These things, far more than his record, are why he’s gone.
I’ll just note that if a guy like Sarkisian has indeed gone through a process of recovery, then he is somewhat less likely to be consumed by arrogance. I would think.
I don’t want to completely disregard the record, but yeah, you’re correct. He probably gets one more year if not for those things. Of course the recruiting misfires of late will have long-term ramifications, but we’re poised to have our best draft class in a decade and the cupboard isn’t bare next season.
If Sark can even just get to the Big 12 title game then he should be in pretty good shape moving forward. You figure he probably gets the new coach recruiting bump as well, which could maybe make up for the past cycle.