Dear Tom,
The University of Texas football program doesn't need you to head-butt your players in a failed attempt at motivation like some high school strength coach that can't handle his meds.
What the University of Texas football program needs is for the "offensive innovator" that it believed it was hiring nearly three years ago to start doing the job he was hired do.
On a day when the Longhorns couldn't run the ball or block or get open or accurately throw the football, the team needed more from its head coach than head-butts.
It needed what Baylor head coach Matt Rhule provided his team - coaching befitting of a guy sitting on 20+ million remaining on his contract.
In a 24-10 loss to the Bears on Saturday in Waco that wasn't as close as the score suggests, Herman's program was exposed as being behind Rhule's three seasons into his job. It's not that the Bears were unbeatable with unbeatable talent, it's that the Bears didn't beat themselves, which is something the Longhorns have seemingly specialized in this season, even in games they have won.
Penalties? Yup, there were a lot of those for the Big 12's most penalized team. Sacks? Yup, the Longhorns entered the day with a Big 12-worst 27 sacks allowed and that number is now up to 31 and amazingly isn't up to 35. Complete ineffectiveness that reminded of the worst of the Charlie Strong era? Just look at the Texas offensive drive chart:
1. Punt (10-38)
2. Punt (4-25)
3. Punt (6-18)
4. Punt (3-3)
5. Punt (6-30)
6. FG (2-68)
7. Punt (4-21)
8. Downs (5-36)
9. INT (7-26)
10. Punt (8-13)
11. Downs (9-28)
12. Touchdown (5-55)
The team's best damn drive of the game until the last minute occurred when it gained 68 yards on a play at the end of the first half that Baylor basically mailed in.
Herman was supposed to be the offensive guru that pulled the Longhorns out of an offensive wilderness, but as this offense has regressed to the point that it basically consists of Sam Ehlinger running around like a chicken with his head cut off. I'm wondering what Herman brings to the program on the field if the offensive side of the ball is going to be abject failure, as it was today and has been for much of the second half of this season?
Today is on Herman. This season, which currently stands with a 6-5 record, is on him. The headaches that every Texas fan is dealing with this evening that makes what Herman likely has them feeling worse than he did after the head-butt drill? That's on him, too.
More than anything, today felt like the day when Herman ran out of ideas, which is a hell of a realization for everyone wearing burnt orange when you consider Texas administrators married themselves to Herman with an extension that is still worth 20+ million going into next year that they didn't need to give him.
That's the only thing going on in the Texas football program that isn't on Herman.
(Other thoughts on the loss ...)
* Sam Ehlinger didn't play all that well, even if he did play his guts out, but I don't know how to point fingers at a guy that virtually zero help outside of Devin Duvernay.
Final numbers: 22 of 37 for 200 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception. (99.5 game rating)
* Ehlinger took way too many hits in that game. WAY TOO MANY HITS.
* It's hard to blame Todd Orlando's defense for much of what happened today, especially after limiting Baylor to seven points in the first half. At some point, your offense has to help your defense and that never happened this afternoon.
* Texas came in allowing a Big 12-worst 27 sacks and after allowing five more today, it is now allowing a Big 12-worst 32 sacks.
* Baylor's Denzel Mims was the best wide receiver on the field today.
* Texas jumped offsides on fourth down... again. Even though they called it on Taquan Graham, senior captain Malcolm Roach was part of that crime as well.
* The biggest play of the first half might have been Ehlinger saving Texas from having to take a safety, which would have made it a 9-0 game, by gathering his balance after being nearly clotheslined by a free rusher in the end zone. That he also completed a 15-yard pass to Malcolm Epps in the process made that one of his best plays of the year.
* Sometimes it's better to be in the right place at the right time than it is to be good, and that was certainly the case in the final five seconds of the second quarter when then entire Baylor defense seemed to take the play off, as Keaontay Ingram took off for 68-yard to set up an inexplicable 48-yard field goal for Cameron Dicker. For Baylor to have played so well against the run all half, only to just give away a monster run like that must have driven Matt Rhule up the wall.
* Of course, Ingram hurt his ankle and missed the rest of the game after that carry. Of course. That's the 2019 season in a nutshell.
* For the second straight game, the Longhorns really, really missed Collin Johnson.
* Texas was about as conservative on offense as it could possibly be in the first half, but it's hard to be wide-open when you can't run the ball, can't block and can't get open. Basically, just point the finger at everyone on that side of the ball.
* DeMarvion Overshown continues to be a bright spot. A big bright spot. I said it last week and I'll say it again, in 12 months from now he has a chance to be a legit every-down impact player.
* On the others side of the ledger, senior guard Parker Braun was not a bright spot, especially getting thrown out of the game. Good grief.
* Devin Duvernay had four catches for 12 yards in the first half. That pretty much says everything about the first half, doesn't it?
* Texas has started slow all season. Take a look at these first quarter stats. Good grief.
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