Who cares if he's a little odd in his behavior? Successful coaches can be maniacs. Look at Harbaugh, Saban, Belichick, etc. This isn't the type of job that attracts a 9-5 family man. Ultra-competitive people are really, really weird. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't. I'm excited to see what happens here. But expecting a coach at this level to be "normal" seems like grandstanding similar to what we saw from UH fans when he left for UT. This business isn't normal and to project your white-collar norms onto it is silly.
He never got close to the field. It's tough because he gray shirted his first year and didn't get anything out of last year. Good for him. That gives UT only two scholarship QBs and a walk-on, Josh Covey. Also, did we already talk about Michael Huff being hired to be an assistant DB coach? I saw that the other day and it was news to me but maybe I just forgot about it.
I don't think we have. He's already making a positive impact on the recruiting trail, especially with the kids at Lamar.
Y'all still here defending a program who lost to Kansas in a choke job of choke jobs, and possibly the worst football program (Kansas) in Div 1 is hilarious. Win a bowl game first, then we'll talk x's & o's lol...
Actually, Herman has been pretty candid that other than off-season conditioning issues with the DL and zero depth at TE, the players seem to be in good shape and motivated to learn. He's gushed repeatedly about the level of talent he inherited and their instant buy-in to the new coaching staff. None of the entitlement and discipline issues that Strong dealt with during his transition are being complained about now. Coach Strong may have lost too many games, but the program is in much better shape when he left than when he arrived.
Herman also confirmed that he is recruiting former LSU QB Brandon Harris, which makes sense now for depth and ability to red shirt Ehlinger if need be. All signs point to Harris transferring to North Carolina though since he has already stated he wants to start. And Huff was one of my favorite players so good to see him back with the program.
Who is defending the program? Did you even read this page or did you just copy paste this? I hope we can get another QB in here. I really want Sam to sit a year. I guess I was wrong about Herman giving Heard a try at QB. Agree about Huff. I'm glad to see a connection to Duane Akina who was the architect behind DBU. He wanted to stay but Charlie fired him anyway and had the nerve to use the term DBU for a consistently bad secondary. I mean Alina's just not Charlie Strong quality. He had to retreat with his tail between his legs to Stanford to help with 3 winning seasons and a PAC 12 championship. What a scrub.
Holdovers got to be sticky situation, especially when you're trying to completely overhaul a program. With that said, Strong did manage to pick the one head scratcher in Bruce Chambers.
We'll see how things work out with his recruits. I think his juniors and sophomores haven't developed to where juniors and sophomores should be. They look like freshmen a lot of the time and I think that is a result of them being played too early and not learning behind veterans which was a Charlie choice. Burt and Jefferson took major step backwards and I don't think many starters actually got better last year than the year before. I think there is also a maturity development problem that's a result of Charlie trying to be everyone's best friend. A lot of people thought it was very odd to hear the players tell the coach, "We got you" when Charlie's job was in jeopardy. That's just silly and you would never hear that from a decent program. They then went out and shat all over the field. There are a lot of players that showed a lot of potential out of high school but that was not a team of good players last year minus the offensive line and a single running back. I know Charlie cleaned up discipline problems with the team but he also cleaned out clear leadership that was their in his 1st year and hasn't replaced it at all in the last two. He inherited a program that also had a lot of highly rated players out of high school but he didn't leave the program with players that matched any of their potential. Charlie inherited a team that was 1 game away from the conference championship and left it with one of the worst teams in the conference with the most embarrassing loss in the big 12. I think Herman can help mold these guys but it's going to take longer than the Spring. I have hope we can have a winning record next year but they have 0 chance of beating USC at the Coliseum. I guess every other game is winnable but this was an incredibly inconsistent team for a reason and you can't just fix that in a single spring. People need to manage their expectations. Herman inherited a lot of 4 and 5 star players out of high school. He didn't inherit players that have shown real consistent talent while they've played in college.
Would love to see them implement this upcoming season. This and winning would greatly improve DRK's atmosphere IMO.
My expectations are 8-4. I think last year's team should have won 7 to 8 games, but they cratered under the pressure of their coach's job being on the line. You may worry about the development of players, but I see the issue as one of pure execution. Recruiting was better under Strong. Strength and conditioning was better. When the players executed what they were coached to do, it worked. But they didn't always execute, and that to me was a confidence issue. It's hard to be confident when your coaches are stressed about keeping their jobs. Coach Herman fixes that issue while boosting every other positive change Coach Strong made after taking over for a dynasty-level coach. The stage is set, no reason be pessimistic.
I wouldn't put it past Tom Herman to beat USC at the Coliseum. He has out coached and prepared every elite program he has gone against as a head coach. He arguably has more depth/talent than he had at UH. I don't think anything should be expected, but I will not be surprised at all if he finds a way to beat USC.
"Execution" is a sports term that belongs in politics. It's BS. Charlie Strong used it after every loss. It's designed to somehow make you feel better about bad results. It's like saying we didn't play well because we didn't play well. Another way to look at is is that these guys knew what they were suppose to do but they didn't know how to do it which is just as bad as anything. The narrative of them caving under coaching pressure sounds good but that's not what happened. If you watch these guys play it's obvious that they aren't good. People in sports add so much fluff but it is what it is and you see what you see. This team was bad. Recruiting wasn't better. Mack was one of the top recruited in the country. He had the 2nd ranked class the year before he was fired. His last year was ranked lower which was an aberration. Sure, class rankings don't mean everything but that's all Charlie has. He doesn't have results. What makes you think conditioning was better? Shane has 6 months to put on muscle but he still was a twig when the season started. What did you see that make you think these guys were better conditioned? Maddog was good at his job. I'm not sure why people started to think he was the problem. "Confidence" is another word thrown around to mask the fact that people can just be bad. Sure, people can do better when they are confident but again, you don't look at the type of mistakes and play and say that those guys aren't confident. I DO think you can say their lack of maturity makes a difference though. My opinion is based on observation. Don't say I'm pessimistic because you don't like what I'm saying. It's lame. Regardless of what you think, I am optimistic about the team and I feel like they can have a winning season. I certainly have said how I think Herman will be better. My point is that he's not going to turn these guys into an Amazing team as fast as everyone wants because this team is not in good shape. I don't know man. I get what you're saying but USC is very very good and should he a favorite for the playoffs. They started to really roll once they moved Sam Darnold into the starting role and he was one of the top QBs in the country. I think they are capable of winning any other game but not USC. I mean, I hope I'm wrong. My friends and I have been talking about going to LA for the game. I think they could have a shot but it's the 2nd game of the season. They only have 1 game to try out all their new plays and figure out who the best players are. They are just playing USC a year too early.
Agreed that rankings don't mean everything and neither Mack nor Strong had the results either. But think you can definitively say that Herman is inheriting a much better roster top to bottom than Strong did. Once again, no one has any idea if the results will be better but outside of DL and LB, I think Strong is leaving better quality players and depth in each unit than Mack did. What part of this team is not in good shape? Sure they haven't played well and think we both agree that some of that, maybe more, was due to coaching. But outside of TE, not sure which part of the team as an individual unit, or as a whole, is in bad shape.
Tom Herman won at UH with players that he did not recruit for the most part. We all assumed he was a good recruiter at UH but a number of the players he did recruit (Oliver etc.) have said they were going to UH regardless or didn't want to transfer. Which is both good and bad from a UT perspective, the jury is still out on his recruiting ability; but there should be little question that he knows how to coach players and run a program very well. The players that Herman inherited at UH performed far better after he coached and prepared them. I see no reason that he cannot do the same at UT. Herman has himself alluded to the fact that he has more talent at UT than he did at UH. Granted the in conference schedule at UT is tougher, but it he still isn't playing teams like Alabama. He has already beaten Oklahoma. I really wouldn't be shocked if Herman has UT competing for a major bowl in year one. He prepares extremely well for elite opponents and he will have his team believing that they will win. He also is a very bright man and has alluded to the fact that he knows that he has to win right away, even at the expense of recruiting. I personally think he is right, if UT wins he is going to get recruits regardless.
Mack did have the results. He put a lot of guys into the NFL and won more games in a 10 year span than any other team. However, he couldn't beat OU. A lot of coaches only get to a championship game with 1 team. He got there with 2 completely different teams. I know I'm probably biased but I really think they would have won the 2nd one if Colt didn't get hurt. They were still within a touchdown in the 4th quarter. However, I guess you could say happens in football and they should have been better prepared. Still, getting to a 2nd championship with different players is not common at all. That is an example of recruiting the right kids and developing them. Things just fell a part in the last few years. Also, I don't believe Herman is inheriting better players than Strong. I think that sentiment is based on the huge emotional pickups of the number of 4 and 5 star players Strong recruited in the last two years. If you didn't know the stars of any of these players that then you wouldn't think this team is talented. I DO believe that these guys are probably better than they have played because of my complete lack of faith in Strong's ability to develop players. That's lost years of eligibility for a lot of these guys and not an easy fix. Strong inherited a team that was 22-14 for a for a winning percentage of %61 as oppose to Herman inheriting a team that went 16-21 for a winning percentage of %43. Strong also looked for any chance he had to bench Mack's seniors. I know that I'm a Mack guy but I feel like the numbers support that view. This team would have been much worse if not for Foreman's unbelievable play who committed well before Mack's firing. Props to Strong and his team for at least developing Foreman. The entire team is in bad shape. All of it. Offense, Defense and especially special teams. It's not just bad coaching decisions on the field. It's also very poor play, very poor technique and an inability to make plays. You can easily fix coaching decisions on the field but you can't sweep in and fix all the other stuff and you can't assume it's fixable at all. I was very pleased with the offense but they fell apart toward the end of the season. Maybe other teams finally learned enough from the tape but who knows. Ugh, we're losing Foreman too. Good lord. We have two guys who have been injured or on the bench most of their time here and a freshman that was very underwhelming. At least we have 2 more RBs coming into the fold. I don't know how much stock anyone else puts into Sagarin's ratings but I think it says a lot when Texas finishes #60, #56 and #53 in the last 3 years. Texas only finished that low 1 time in the 16 years before Strong. Guys, I'm hoping for the best but I think there are a lot of burnt orange glasses going around. Ignore #LetsRide. Look at the results and they speak for themselves. This team is bad. I think it's certainly possible Herman can still develop these guys and make this team much better but it's not going to be easy and shouldn't be looked at as being likely. It's like he is going to have 3 classes of freshmen. It gives me hope that he comes from the Urban Meyer world where he is going to start beating these kids from day 1 and not tolerate their ****. If he can make them mature and help develop their skill set to play against bigger and better college teams then this team could make a lot of improvement. He really comes down to how quickly Herman can change these kids and make them better football players.
Brando2101, I've been watching Texas football for almost thirty years now, and I'm really having a hard time figuring out what your angle is on all of this. Is your point that 3 years of Charlie Strong was worse for Texas football than the last 5 years of Mack Brown? Because I don't care what the results were, my eyes saw a younger but immensely more talented football team in 2016 that went 5-7 under Charlie than Mack's last team in 2013 that went 8-5.
Charlie Strong was the worst coach UT-Austin has ever had. He lost to Kansas in year 3 of his time there. End of discussion.
