Are there any obvious red flags on Herman? The only red flag I see with Herman is the loss to SMU. You might argue his first recruiting class is a red flag... he certainly was unable to generate any excitement among recruits.
Maybe a rose colored flag but I think most objective posters will give him the benefit of the doubt. Post disgusting KU loss, the program had just come out of a 3 year losing abyss. Recruiting was pretty successful during that time despite the records. Like MB before him, Herman got the nod in late November and had about 6 weeks to establish a MAJOR HC change / transition, hire asst. coaches, assess the recruiting status to that point in time and then try to dynamically jump into the process and create recruiting magic, with a fairly limited number of scholarships to give out. Horns lost out on several game changing recruits but overall I was mostly pleased with what Herman got at the end based on needs. The bottom line is what he will do with existing talent and a few newcomers in 2017.
Quit worrying about recruiting! See what 2 top ten classes did for Charlie Strong! It's time to "coach-up" the players that are here. Remember, Gary Patterson and Bill Snyder have never had a top 50 recruiting class! Win and they will come!
Maybe gonna take a little time for the team to change personality a bit. Not a snipe at Strong, just he had his style, and got his kind of players who would probably crawl over broken glass and burning embers for him. Now, Herman is in, has his own personality and approach that may not work 100% with existing roster, and may take a year or 2 for Texas high school coaches and players and parents to buy into the new sheriff in town. But I'm not discounting Herman's ability to bend a bit his first year to accommodate expectations of existing players who were sold on Strong. Most probably will, with a little bit of work just beyond the Xs and Os stuff. Remember, Herman is firmly on record, however, that he doesn't see his job as regularly counseling players one on one --- that's the assistants and position coaches job per his statements on this approach. Patience, grasshopper.
Unfortunately, his kind of players wouldn't block or tackle for him. Hopefully, Herman will be more than just a friend. He needs to be their coach!
To OP, the only red flag for me were the losses to easy teams last year at Houston. That's it. Hiring Horny is an unknown imo. I have no idea about anything other than an analyst posted support of his head coach. Don't know what Horny's actual knowledge was or what his actual standard for protecting the weak from predators is. Have we gotten confirmation on lagaryon's issue? Was it grades? If it wasn't, pulling a scholarship is an issue for me. That's all for my part.
I expect Herman's teams to excel and I believe that he can be an elite coach at Texas. Perhaps very quickly. The red flag for me is an apparent and perhaps detrimental stubborn streak, and arrogance. The Horny situation and the infamous interview with the Houston sportscasters -- during which he was simply petty and unprofessional -- are two examples. To be fair and in my judgment, there are three elite coaches currently in the FBS, and Saban, Meyer and Harbaugh all have their issues. In fact, they seem to possess many of the qualities that Herman exhibits: Stubbornness and arrogance. If he wins big and soon, and does so ethically and in a manner that makes the university proud, I certainly won't complain. The standard is and will always be DKR, and there was only one DKR.
What blonthang said: Patience grasshopper Sheeeesh, the man has barely had time to move into his office, and some of you guys are already writing him off as a loser. He got an extremely late start in his recruiting effort and still got some pretty good players. I say give him a chance to get his system installed and get 4-5 games into the season. He has some tough games early, but by the time we get to the OU game, we should have a good idea of how his team is shaping up. I believe we are going to be real happy with Tom. I'm pulling for him and all you Debbie Downers can do as you wish. Hook you . . . .. and Tom.
^^^This is the key right here. CS brought in talent, but watching the play on the field has left many of us wondering how this talent was developed and trained. In-game coaching decisions were poor, decisions on asst. coaches have pitiful, no consistency and in his (Chuck's) 3 seasons, there were 3 different offensive schemes. The time to relieve an Coordinator or position coach of their duties in in the off season so a new system or development program can be implemented. Mid-season changes lack the consistency and are prone to errors unless these are simplified. Even then there has been a lack of consistent performance from week to week. So far, I like what I read about THs approach to conditioning, determining who plays, and the overall way he runs his program. I believe we are on the right track, but we'll know in 8-9 months.
Agree with Joe on everything except CS brought in talent. Until that talent produces on the field it is hard to say this is a plus.
Look at the bright side... We could have been playing against MJefferson and DForeman as well as PVahe and CWilliams.
Some people are adding words to my sentence. Yes I am concerned with the losing to poor teams because he went from being the hunter to the hunted the day he signed on with UT. I do not see any obvious red flags at the moment like I did with Brown (not beating FSU, but he turned out just fine) and Strong (DC and OC coordinators both flunked out of Big 12 prior to their arrival here). So I am very happy and optimistic about his arrival. I am just wondering if I am missing something. So far, I am happy that nobody has really pointed out anything obvious. So hook'em and I truly hope he becomes the new standard.
