I have a hunch that Herman may be much more effective understanding the game than we nor I give him credit but I have no confidence he can see the big picture as a head coach. In the second half of last year the offense was terrible so he supposedly took over calling or approving plays resulting in a huge improvements. We ended the year with Orlando getting huge props with "everyone" thinking he was a defensive genius even though statistically the D was not good while in general the offense got better. My theory is that Herman continued to give all or most of his attention to the offense thinking Orlando's genius would protect on D. The offense exploded early on while the defense fell apart. Even with injuries we should have easily been better than 126th on D which is when I believe Herman moved his focus to defense. As a result he couldn't possibly be both the offensive and defensive coordinators so the offensive wheels have now fallen off with the defense improving. I dont believe we can replace both coordinator bad hires in one year so Herman has to go with his strength which is offense. Fire Orlando this year, hire the best D coordinator in the nation and support Beck with play calling. At the end of next year replace Beck with the best O coordinator in the country. My concern is that we will see a couple sacrificial lambs but Herman is too loyal or stubborn to make the changes necessary thinking he can affect the change needed. I dont think he can see the big picture buried in all the $hit he is working hard to fix.
The problem with that is that, every week, the offense is getting less and less effective. The D has not been that bad the past few weeks. They are holding teams to below their average on yards and points. However, TH has already played the "I'm gonna call the plays from now on" card.
@Vol Horn 4 Life, interesting and plausible theory. Long term, if Herman is going to put his effort on one side of the ball, the other coordinator needs to be damn good and able to manage his side of the ball on his own. Orlando is a mixed bag (has been his entire career), and I do not think he is actually bad. However, it is clear Orlando is not great or as good as Dick Tomey, Greg Robinson, or Gene Chizik (I would include Muschamp, but it is clear he is kind of a cancer off the field and screws up team/staff cohesion). Those guys were pretty consistent. Orlando is not. I think Beck is far worse than Orlando and am for firing him, but your way could work as well if we hire a great defensive coordinator. Either way, there has to be a shakeup with the assistants. I would keep Herb Hand. I do think he has done a great job with the offensive line. I am not convinced the sacks are really his fault as much as the overall play calling and bad decisions from Ehlinger resulting from poor QB coaching.
Yes I read your post but, right now, Orlando is holding up his end. The problem is the offense. TH cannot fire Orlando, hire a new guy, and just assume all is now well on that side of the ball and devote all his time to the offense. TH needs to get out of the play-calling bidness and get back to the HC bidness.
I don't know whether TH really is a good enough coach to cure the problems on whichever side of the ball he focuses on. But, even if he is, my question is: why do we at Texas seem to have more than our share of problems finding outstanding assistant coaches? Mack had that problem increasingly through his tenure; Charlie had it; and now, apparently, TH has it, too.
The offense getting worse is inexplicable to me. Yes, thin at RB and CJ being injured has affected the production. However, it is more about gameplay. Nothing to tight ends, nothing over the middle and way too much slow play calls kill this offense. We are only lucky Sam hasn’t been seriously injured with this coaching.
I think that you are giving him too much credit. I don't believe any one on that staff is doing a lick of coaching.
To fix this Herman has to hire a great OC and let him install his ( new OC's ) system and keep his ( Tom's ) sorry hands off. Orlando is fine to keep, but require he ditch the 3-3-5 bull**** he ran most of the season. Orlando's defense looked respectable vs ISU and Baylor; because he blitzed with common sense and brought four and tried to stunt some....Keep Orlando and fire Beck and leave the new OC alone to run the offense. Just stand on the sideline and chew your gum and blow bubbles..period !!!! My choice for OC would be Briles or someone just as good if you don't like baggage. I personally am so sick of the **** I have seen on offense, that I am willing to sell half ya'lls souls to the devil to get someone with some serious football sense in here to fix this thing....
Hey, I am down for Briles. I don't care if we hire the dang devil himself to get out of this hole we are in.
I think you’re giving Herman way to much credit. At least on defense there was the excuse of injuries. As players have come back there appears to be progress. I would question the assignment of any credit to Herman for this development. On offense, remember, this is supposed to be his wheelhouse. Armed with a very capable QB, perhaps the best OL we have had in a decade and talent like Duvernay and others, we shouldn’t have needed a rocket scientist — or a Mensa — to achieve proficiency on that side of the ball. Our putrid performance is almost inexplicable and to a great extent I blame Herman. Obviously defenses know what we are going to do (and believe me, that is the issue) and scheming to stop us. The fact that we have been unable to adjust is an indictment of Herman and Beck’s lack of competence. Frankly, it’s stunning.
We used to run wheel routes, throw back to the QB on reverse. Several plays to keep the D honest. I haven't seen us run an original play in over a month. That 4th and 2 that Ingram dropped against LSU was a great call. Bad execution but he was wide open. Where are these plays we ran in the 1st half of the season. Beck's gotta go.
The offense didn't adjust all season. The 1st half of the season teams were set on not letting CJ beat them. Then they realized DD was the playmaker, and with CJ going down meant there was no playmaker once teams focused on stopping DD. Beck did nothing to adjust. I don't know who the playmaker will be next year with both DD and CJ gone. Ingram is decent, but not a difference maker. Even Kansas has Pooka. Will Whittington ever be healthy? Will Robinson keep his commitment? Will the OL improve? There's certainly a lot of Q's to answer on the offense, but the OC never did anything to take advantage of the teams strengths and other teams weaknesses. At least Orlano has a bit of an excuse and they have played better with guys getting back on the field. At least there's a glimmer of hope even with the poor scheme. If I had to make a choice of which one to let go it would have to be Beck.
The HC has to trust the coordinators and he can't trust either right now. I believe Herman is a better OC than DC which is why I think dumping Orlando is the right move.
We have Larry Fedora on staff(consultant). Fire Beck and make Fedora the offensive coordinator. We should have made this move after the TCU game ala Diaz/Robinson. Just saying it worked when Mack made this move. Fedora would have had this offense score over thirty a game.
I think Phil thought what I thought... That your post may have indicted defense too strongly. Are you suggesting TH has personally helped the D improve the last few weeks...not Orlando? Because the defense has definitely been the stronger unit in games vs OU, TCU, Iowa St. and Baylor....all losses.
“Stunning” is exactly right with Regard to the offensive game plan or lack there of. It’s almost as if Beck and Herman just gave up once defenses had us scouted. All it took was for Ou and TCU to diagnose us, and they threw their hands up and mailed it in on the rest of the season. As if they had nothing to work with which is not the case! Lots of teams do more with a lot less.
Yes, that's my theory. He took his eyes off the offense and focused his attention on our awful D. I could be completely wrong, but I find it odd how he was the play caller and the offense was pretty good. Now suddenly when the defense improves the offense is terrible.
I expect a harumph here ... but why not? It amazes me the number of people on the coaching staff. This is the same game with the same constraints as a 1A HS squad. The HC is very much in all facets of the game. In fact, the college game gets an additional 12 minutes of play time. The HS coach has to make adjustments quicker! Performance should be the key ... and right now both coordinators, and by allowance the HC, are doing almost as good as a '78 Vette in the quarter. (175 hp in a Vette??? good grief)
The offense looked ok against weak teams LaTech and Rice..LSU defense wasn't very good either...OSU defense wasn't great...... OU exposed us, and KSU defense was good. TCU defense was a bit better, and ISU defense was good. Baylor defense was very solid...THAT is why you saw a decline in the offense. The defense was two fold in that injuries exposed a very bad scheme. The defense looked better due to Orlando changing his alignments and blitzes and adding stunts instead of always bull rushing his DTs.......Doesn't matter... Herman is the HC and should make sure both units are operating well. He didn't.... Time to cut him loose.
Yep. Tom Herman is starting to look like fool's gold and 2020 is a tombstone season for he and his staff. I've got more faith in Orlando than Beck going into next year and while I wouldn't argue against replacing both, I think it would be too big an overhaul and disrupt continuity. Herman needs to do something significant because there will be no excuses next year. I'd go after a Joe Brady / Kendall Briles young gun type that can really light a fire under this offense.
Think about this. Starting with OU, Texas has had the least potent offense in the Big 12. That, with probably the 2nd most talent. The job that “Herman” (yes, Herman) & Beck have done is simply inexcusable and unexplainable. Even if VH4Life is partially correct (and I don’t believe that he is) that wouldn’t explain the putrid output we saw at ISU & yesterday. Again, defenses know what we’re going to do and they are prepared to stop us. I believe that our MENSA coach — for whom I now have some sympathy because he’s a lost soul — is by his own definition insane... Think about that.
We have the head coach, the coordinators, position coaches, analysts, quality control, strength staff, and grad assistants. I'm sure I left out more, that's just what I can think of off the top of my head. Just sayin'.
There has never been a head coach that is equally great at both the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side. With that said. When we hired Charlie Strong, I expected to see our defensive side of the ball to be our strength and our offensive side to be where we hired a great OC to guide us. When we hired Herman, I expected to see our offensive side to always be great and our defensive side to be where we needed a great DC to guide us. In both I was completely wrong. Neither have been up to the task at either side of the ball and so we are in need of a new coach yet again. With all due respect to CDC, he is right to not throw the baby out with the bath water, but when the baby is dead, you bury it, you don't give it a bath. I'm reading rumors Juwan Mitchell didn't play yesterday because he got into a fight with Yancy McKnight. I read this on another site, anyone else know if it is true? If it is, then it sounds like TH is losing his team.
I'm not ready to say he definitely has, but 3 idiotic post-snap penalties on our OL in the 4th quarter also suggests that it may indeed be the case that he has. Did any of them remotely look like they feared the consequences of unnecessarily hurting their team like that? Did Herman even react to any of it? Well, maybe Belichick, but I doubt we're getting him to come here....
much better? no. Not as bad as the 3 games post OU. But my goodness, it just about HAD to improve if it was going to change. In Waco we reverted to the primary 335 ... look at jamison on their 25 yard touchdown run with Lovette (I think) ... LOST. Cluedo ... and unwilling to take the legs out of the pulling guard. He looked like a pinball retreating almost as fast as Lovett was running forward. That has been typical. Pursuit angles almost ALWAYS in lag. LEAD ... LEEEEED pursuit. And rarely do I see a Texas player WRAP UP the ball carrier. several of our "stops" were by failed execution &/or offensive penalties putting them "behind the sticks" It makes ZERO sense to me to have 3 down linemen "because they throw the ball with 4 & 5 wide" ... and then vacate a zone big enough for your or me to hit a receiver. Orlando didn't do that AS MUCH Saturday, but it was still there. Remember when UH's Run/Shoot in '90 was the rage? They unveiled it a couple years prior and was just burying everyone with 50 points and 500 plus yards of offense ... until they met Texas with Shane Dronette/Co. They didn't run a 3/3/5 ... Texas base defense STILL had 4 down linemen and the ability to get pressure without a blitz. Til we put at least 1 more "on the ball," we're gonna continue to struggle methinks.
I didn't say "keep an eye on". Herman has basically been our offensive coordinator since last year. He can't do that on both sides of the ball.
