The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I don't really care about bowl games, never have.  They're just exhibitions.  Winning is always better than losing, but winning the Camping World Bowl or somesuch isn't going to move the needle for me.

I also don't give a rat's ass about recruiting rankings.  Our current staff, and multiple previous staffs, have proven more than capable at squandering talent with lack of development and bad schemes.

A 10-win season next year would be great-- but I don't really see a path to that. That's the part where I need someone to cheer me up.  How do we get there?  What coaches can we realistically hire to do that?  

A 10-win season next year would be great-- but I don't really see a path to that.

Of nominal interest will be the coordinator hires.  If we are able to bring on some P5 coaching experience, I may lift an eyebrow.  I just don't see why any of them would make that move at this juncture.

If we end up elevating a new cast of coordinators to P5, then I fear we are just going thru motions while waiting out the inevitable.

Football coaches are guys with families and careers. Fans get all het-up when the team isn't winning and want them fired, just because that's the only thing they feel they can control. It just doesn't work that way.

Unless Texas goes 2-9 or something next season, Tom Herman isn't getting fired. At some point, the Texas brass gets into the same trap you're talking about. Firing the head coach within 4 seasons, several times, means no one wants to move their family to Austin. How many programs are the equivalent of Texas in complexity and pressure? Hardly any. Those that are there have a FEW successful head coaches. Those guys aren't looking for another job - ever! They might once they get stale, but Texas won't want them then. In short, Texas has to face facts that it's going to get a head coach with an incomplete resume. Mistakes will be made. Growth will be needed.

That's what you're currently seeing out of Tom Herman. Growth. He just cut loose a large part of his security blanket. These coaches gave him stability as he left a small commuter college to become head coach at one of the most pressure packed places in the world. They helped get him established, but now clearly weren't working. He fired his friends, not necessarily to save his own skin, but because it was clearly the right thing to do. You want that business decision making from your head coach.

Now comes the critical part. Getting the right guys hired. The stability hire initially was understandable. That's over now. Time to hire experts that can grow the program. In the next week or so, we'll see how much pull Herman still has.

Unless Texas goes 2-9 or something next season, Tom Herman isn't getting fired.

That's an uninformed statement.

No. It's completely informed. I know this as a rock solid, indisputable fact. I have evidence to prove it.

Of course it's as uninformed as everything else around here!

Texas fans want the coach fired when we don't win games by enough points. That just ain't the way it works. Realistically, the way it works is that there's about 7 guys who donate money. When they want the coach fired, he's fired - not before. I'm not one of those guys.

The team underperformed this season, even when accounting for injury. All the head coach can do is take steps to fix it. If he hadn't, you'd be complaining that he should have. Since he did, you're complaining that it was out of desperation, and the ship is still sinking.

Things may or may not work out in the end. However, right now, Tom Herman is doing everything he should be doing. Now, let's wait and evaluate who eventually shows up to work as his assistants.

didn't LSU hire a new offensive guy that changed the system, found a QB and elevated the team immediately?

I'm just saying there's a chance

For sure.  I think Texas already has enough talent to compete in the B12.  Maybe not to win NCs right now, but definitely enough to beat the likes of TCU and ISU.  Games against LSU and OU were even competitive.

The Baylor game was NOT competitive, and it looked to me like the team was pretty lost and leaderless that game.  I thought the coaches had lost the team at that point, and then especially after going down 14-0 to Texas Tech a week later, but the way the team fought back and then completely obliterated the roaches in the final 3 quarters, showed me they've still got some guts.

Anyway, I do think that the RIGHT new coaches could help quite a bit.  I have no idea who those might be, but I'm also not paid $5M/year to figure that stuff out...

That just ain't the way it works. Realistically, the way it works is that there's about 7 guys who donate money. When they want the coach fired, he's fired - not before.

I'll have to file that one under "opinion" also.

Man, the lecturing is getting deep around here, perhaps assuming we're all t-shirt fans?