Tom Herman stays on for 2021, Will Ehlinger stay with him?
Updated Wednesday, December 16, 2020
AUSTIN – Tom Herman, head football coach of the Texas Longhorns, is off the hot seat. For a few months. The way he was treated by the director of athletics, he cannot feel very secure. Chris Del Conte let him twist in the wind like a pinata before issuing a terse statement of limited support.
“I want to reiterate that Tom Herman is our coach,” the statement read. “There has been a lot of speculation about the future of our football coach. My policy is to wait until the end of the season before evaluating and commenting on our program and coaches.”
Del Conte made no mention of next season but only promised that Herman would coach the 6-3 team in a bowl game. A scheduled tenth regular-season game was cancelled because of a Covid outbreak among the Kansas Jayhawks.
Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman is the most reliable source of all that pertains to the Longhorns, and he reported that Del Conte told him Herman’s job is safe through the 2021 season.
Del Conte admitted that he tried to hire Urban Meyer, but the three-time national champion decided to remain as a Fox studio analyst, citing health concerns.
He resigned as coach at Ohio State because of persistent headaches caused by a cyst that has not been removed from his brain.
One of many mistakes Herman made this year was publicly complaining that his recruiting efforts were adversely affected by rumors that the eyes of Texas were looking toward the 56-year-old Meyer.
In a sense, Herman put himself on the hot seat. Then Del Conte kept him there by neither confirming nor denying the veracity of the rumors. If he wanted to hire Meyer, as apparently he did, he should have insisted on a quick decision.
Herman is no doubt correct that his job insecurity affected recruiting. He had three straight top-10 talent hauls before falling to No. 17 this year.
He now has the look of a lame duck, knowing the university was willing to spend $25 million to buy out the contracts of Herman and his staff.
You have to wonder about priorities in this pandemic world. Is Tom Herman such a terrible coach that a college will spend that sort of money to cast him aside?
How about Auburn firing Gus Malzahn? He’s 6-4 this season, and he’s beaten Nick Saban three times in eight years. Auburn is spending $40 million to buy out Malzahn and his staff. The attitude at most Power 5 programs seems to be National Championship or Bust.
For the 45-year-old Herman the pressure will be intense to have a fast start in the next season. And he’d better be able to beat Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma.
Herman will have a talented team. And it’s possible he won’t have to find a quarterback to replace the versatile Sam Ehlinger, who in his four seasons has thrown 93 touchdowns to 27 interceptions and has added 33 rushing TDs. The NCAA has granted all players an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic causing so many cancelled games.
Ehlinger has indicated intentions to play in next month’s Senior Bowl, where he could show his NFL worthiness. Herman says he’s an ideal leader, and at 6-3, 225 pounds he has the size and mobility for the pro game, though he lacks the prototype power arm.
With or without Ehlinger, Herman should be able to construct an effective offense based on the running of Bijan Robinson, a true freshman who in his last game, against Kansas State, carried 9 times for 172 yards and 3 touchdowns. Robinson was rated the No. 1 running back of his recruiting class.
The Longhorns are 21st in this week’s Associated Press Poll, so they’re headed for one of the backwater bowls. But bowl performance is one of Herman’s strengths: he’s won all three of the ones he’s coached at Texas. He desperately needs to change the momentum of his program, and that will be a good place to start.
