The sad thing about this whole "we need Urban Meyer" thing is the tacit admission that we can't actually find an up-and-coming coach successfully ourselves, so we just have to go buy a proven one. Florida found Urban Meyer when he was at Utah. I have no idea what Dabo Sweeney did before Clemson. Ed Orgeron, Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley were coordinators before LSU/OU found them. We're basically just saying "we are not capable of succeeding that way" - and Strong and Herman are evidence of that. Texas A&M did the same thing, and its a pathetic reflection of the general state of Texas football that neither of the two big football schools can find success any other way.
Is it that we can't find them or refuse to hire them? Even with someone like Clemson DC Brent Venables, you get the impression Texas thinks it is too good (or too above the fray) to hire a coordinator. That also holds true for someone like UTSA HC Jeff Traylor, who I think will eventually be a power five head coach.
100% agree. I wish we'd broaden our horizons and look for those up-and-coming geniuses. To be fair, we kind of tried that with Herman and Strong, though they had small school head coaching experience as well. I loved when Ohio State got Tressel from Div II. But realistically, it probably works a lot less than it fails - we just forget about all the failures. Still, it's kind of sad that both Texas and A&M feel the only way they can win is through outspending everyone else. And we're just talking trying to win conference titles, not even national titles.
With the coaches that are great at talent development, it seems like you often unearth them in your own coaching pipeline. Given the ruinous state of our coaching pipeline for the last decade, that is a problem.
Eh don’t think anyone at Bama and Ohio State were complaining when they hired Saban/Urban. If you can go for a proven championship HC, the prudent move is to go after them IMO. Especially when the alternative has been failing you like it has us. And to be fair, this is not exclusively a State of Texas or even a college football problem. USC, Michigan, Nebraska, Florida (since Urban), Florida State (since Jimbo), Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, etc...have hired what 20+ something coaches and hundreds of millions dollars combined trying to find the one guy to get them back to the glory days. And think they have one conference championship to show for it? And the same goes for the NFL. If Pete Carroll or John Harbaugh were to suddenly become available, think they’d automatically be at the top of every vacant teams list. Hell there’d probably be a handful of teams who would fire their current coach if it meant getting them. Edit: I do want to add that I would love to have a homegrown coach take us back and that's why I loved the Tom Herman hire at the time. To me, he checked all the boxes. Ultimately the job proved to be too big and too soon for him.
To clarify, it's not the "we want Urban Meyer" aspect of it. It's the "if we can't get Meyer, then maybe just keep Herman because there's no one else proven" attitude - it's as though it's too much to ask to go find someone good if they aren't already a star coach. It reminds me, in a way, of the reporting of Mack Brown's recruiting towards the end just being based on public recruiting rankings instead of doing the hard work to try to identify the right guys.
The Longhorns are 6-3 but have lost their three games by like a dozen points.... a lot of close games and volatility in the games this year, they could be 9-0 or 3-6 fairly easily. I suppose if there are any concerns it is that the Big XII as a conference isn't very good..... if UT was better they could be running the conference.
Got it. Ya I would normally agree if it weren’t for the money that is involved with the change. As much as I want Herman gone, there isn’t a plan B that I really like. So I can definitely understand the thought process of CDC and those footing the bill if they decide to kick the can down the road.
Yeah, covid and the financial situation throws everything up in the air. But if you can go out and find a Jim Tressel at a D-II school or some young up-and-coming genius, UT has the opportunity to give him a a once in a lifetime opportunity. UT could pay less than they would a proven coach, and likely structure a deal in a favorable way (high incentives, etc) so they don't get stuck in another ugly contract. But the key is that they'd have to go find that hidden gem instead of just going with big names.
Forget about running the conference, how about just being in contention for the conference championship game. This was the weakest Big 12 we have seen in quite some time and we were knocked out with 2 games left to play. Not to mention we were playing at home and held a lead for 58:30 minutes.
This is the underlying problem. Whether they were 9-0 or 6-3 or 3-6 this year, they have never looked particularly good and are beating up on a disaster of a conference. You put this team against the big boys (Clemson, Alabama, ND, etc) and they lose by 40. The team was supposed to peak this year with their senior QB before taking a step back next year, and there's nothing in this team that suggests that their peak is anything above fringe-top-25.
One thing about Herman’s teams is that they never get blown out and actually play up to competition for the most part. Unfortunately it usually ends with some catastrophic mistake at the end. But you are absolutely right, this was supposed to be the year and Herman completely crapped the bed. Even worse, he blamed it on COVID, playing freshman, etc...
Urban on Colin Cowherd: "That itch to coach comes back all the time. It will when you did it this long...it would have to be the perfect situation, where I knew it wouldn't affect my health...I think I'm done. I think I'm done, but I can't say never." Insert "So you're telling me there is chance" meme. Lol.
A place in the big 12 that wouldn't affect his health is OK St, Texas Tech etc. where they will feel so lucky to have him and he won't be able to do wrong. As soon as he's hired by UT there will be threads in message boards to fire him. If he comes back it will be at a place with modest expectations.
Don’t think he’d come back just to come back, think he’d want a real shot at a national championship. He’s not really getting that at any place outside of one of the blue bloods where modest expectations are not the norm. Just my opinion but think he’s talking more about the assurances being made, autonomy to shape the program as he sees fit, being able to get his guys on board, etc...but of course the school and all the comes with it would also be huge factors.
