Here is part of Chip Brown
@SabreHorn - see bolded part
"..... Herman has yet to have a losing record - going 7-6, 10-4, 8-5 and 5-3 - for a winning percentage of .625 (30-18). Despite a 3-0 record in bowl games, including a Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia two years ago, Herman is 1-4 against Oklahoma, 1-3 against TCU and has seven losses as a ranked team against unranked opponents - most in FBS since 2017. Herman’s failure to have his team standing together for the post-game playing of The Eyes of Texas following the TCU and Oklahoma games - which also happened to be suck-the-air-out-of-the-program losses - was a huge sore spot with UT decision-makers, despite any pleas to the contrary.
We’ll soon see if a push by big-money donors to target Herman’s former boss - Urban Meyer - as UT’s next head coach may have accelerated judgment day for Herman. Would Meyer, who won two national titles at Florida (2006, 2008) and one with Herman at Ohio State (2014), be the first choice of first-year Texas president Jay Hartzell and/or athletic director Chris Del Conte?
Del Conte didn’t hire Herman. Former athletic director Mike Perrin and school president Greg Fenves did. And it was Fenves - not Del Conte - who signed off on a two-year contract extension for Herman following the 2018 season, sources told Horns247. “Herman’s agent (Trace Armstrong) went hard after Fenves for that extension following the Sugar Bowl win (over Georgia),” a source close to the situation told Horns247. “Del Conte wanted to wait on it. But he was overruled (by Fenves).”
Thanks to the extension, Herman is set to go from earning $6 million in 2020; to $6.25 million in 2021; $6.5 million in 2022; and $6.75 million in 2023. His contract buyout is $15 million - $5 million for each of the three years left on the contract after this season. Del Conte backed Herman after last year’s disappointing 7-5 regular season and shelled out more than $16 million in guaranteed salaries to Herman’s seven new assistant coaches, including new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and new defensive coordinator Chris Ash. Roughly $10.1 million remains on those guaranteed contracts.
It’d cost more than $25 million to buy out Herman and his assistants. It’d probably cost Texas $10 million per year over five to seven years to land Meyer, who is 56, sources told Horns247.com. A source close to Meyer told Horns247 that Meyer might be ready to get back into coaching. That source said Meyer is comfortable and enjoying working for FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff (which has its last episode on Dec. 19), but added, “He’d only consider Texas, USC and Notre Dame.”
Herman had to make hard decisions on Friday. Now, it appears to be the UT administration’s turn. "