(Photo courtesy of the San Antonio Express News)
Back in early November, when the winds of change were really starting to blow in regards to a shift at the top of the Texas football program, I was having a conversation with one of the top decision-makers in the entire university about then Houston head coach Tom Herman and the bottom line about his candidacy.
"We've tried it the other way and I think everyone is on the same page about what we need to do," the high-level person said. "We need a guy that is great with quarterbacks and not someone that has to go find someone to be great with quarterbacks. I think we learned our lesson in that regard. The way I see it, there's no one in the nation that we could sign that would be better in terms of developing quarterbacks than him. If he can do the same things here that he's done at Ohio State and Houston, I think he has a chance to be our next DKR."
A few weeks later, Herman got the job.
Fast-forward to the month of August and Herman has made a name for himself in quite a few realms. He's Herman the Recruiter and Herman the Sledgehammer of Old Locker Rooms. Oh, and let us not forget Herman the Aligner.
The man has accomplished so much in first nine months on the job and has had his hands involved in so many projects that it's easy to forget with less than a month to go before the season starts that he got this job because of one nickname in particular ... Herman the Quarterback Whisperer.
Over the course of the last half-decade at both Ohio State and Houston, it really hasn't mattered what you've given him in terms of pieces, just give him some clay and he'll create a mold in the form of a star.
In 2012 and 2013, he turned Braxton Miller into the most feared player in the Big 10. When Miller went down in 2014, Herman turned J.T. Barrett into the best offensive player in the Big 10. When Barrett was injured at the back end of that year, Herman shrugged his shoulders and helped Ohio State win a national title with Cardale Jones. As if that wasn't enough, he arrived at Houston and took a player in Greg Ward that some people at UH weren't convinced was even a quarterback and turned him into an all-Conference juggernaut.
That brings us to the quarterback position at Texas in 2017.
No person covering the Longhorns in the media has been quicker to shout for patience with the development of Shane Buechele coming into this season. After all, we're still talking about a player who needs to prove he can beat good teams, play well on the road and put a string of games together where consistency isn't a concern. On top of that, even players like Colt McCoy have suffered from the dreaded sophomore slump as a starting college quarterback.
Still, while all of those reservations are 100 percent fair, it's also fair to mention that most sophomore quarterbacks don't have The Whisperer supervising their developments.
Considering the make-up of this team and the overall talent level in relation to the rest of the conference, Buechele probably only needs to make modest improvements to put the Longhorns in a position to compete at the top of the league. If he can make the same level of leaps that Herman's former pupils were able to make, the sky would seem to be the limit for this team like it was for the Buckeyes and Cougars when Herman was leading the offensive charge.
With less than four weeks to go until the season-opener, it's impossible to know what to expect from Buechele, the expected starting quarterback, unless ... unless ... you believe Herman is every bit The Whisperer that his reputation suggests.
If that's the case, maybe we should know exactly what to expect.
No. 2 – A little birdie ...
Here's a look at a few comments from the weekend after talking to a couple of sources in and around the Texas football program.
* "We will have to see what it means, but Buechele looks as confident right now in his own skin than I remember him looking at any point this spring. Everything has a quicker pace. He's a serious competitor, but he's still a quiet competitor. I think as his confidence has grown, the rest of the offense kind of feeds off that."
* "Don't sleep on Kyle Porter. No back on the team runs harder and no back on the team does what Stan Drayton asks for more than he does."
* "Collin Johnson is going to have all-Big 12 numbers if Buechele plays all 12 games and can stay healthy. He's the guy (Buechele) looks for, that's (Buechele's) guy."
* "One of the former NFL Longhorns that has been around a lot lately told another former player that that the battles between the receivers and the defensive backs reminds him of when he played here."
* "I'm hopeful that our offensive line is going to be good enough."
* "Taquan Graham is better than anyone we have (on the defensive line) outside of Malcolm and Poona. He's going to take someone's job before the season is over.
No. 3 – This stood out ...
It's not official, but you get the sense that this football team is becoming Shane Buechele's to rule.
From The SundayPulpit: Tom Herman on Buechele
“I heard him scream, which is really cool. In enjoyment and in disapproval, hearing his voice is really cool. I think even the players told him your voice is really powerful. It can have a dramatic effect on the way that we respond, whether it’s to success or to failure. What you say and how you say it has an effect. I think he’s taking that to heart and done a really good job. It’s not forced, either. He’s just expressing what he was feeling inside, where before I think he kept it all to himself.”
No. 4 – Texas Football Tweet of the Weekend...
No. 5 – Buy or Sell …
BUY or SELL: Herman will have this team's mental game turned around so that no matter what happens against USC, the team will not devolve back into its confused and defeated "comfort zone?"
(Buy) The Texas football program is turning a corner right now. It will not go back.
BUY or SELL: Kyle Porter rushes for over 1,000 yards this year?
(Sell) I don't know if this team has a 1,000-yard back on it this year, but I think the committee on hand should do a solid job.
BUY or SELL: All things considered (coaches, coaching, S&C, alignment, players maturing, new players, everything), this team is 8 points per game better than last year’s team?
(Buy) The Longhorns were +0.4 last year in point differential per game. The 2017 Longhorns will be better than +8.4 for the season.
BUY or SELL: By the first game of 2019, Shane Buechele, Sam Ehlinger, Casey Thompson, Cameron Rising and Roschon Johnson will all be on the roster?
(Sell) That's a loooooooong time from now. Something will give by then.
BUY or SELL: Mo Bamba averages 14 points 8 boards and 3 blocks?
(Buy) Pass me some round-ball Kool-Aid.
No. 6 – Facts of the Day...
Saw this on Twitter over the weekend and felt like it was worth sharing.
No. 7 – Jerry Jones ... check that ... Hall of Famer Jerry Jones ...
We now live in a world where Jerry Jones owns a gold jacket and has been forever immortalized as a football icon.
I feel like this is surely a sign that the apocalypse is upon us.
Don't get me wrong, I fully understand Jones' impact on the sport and his place is justly earned as a person you can't tell the history of the NFL without mentioning him a time or two. You can strongly argue that he's had as much of an impact as anyone in the league in the last 25 years.
Still, if you take me back to the day that Jerry and Jimmy held that sham of a press conference that ended their partnership with the Cowboys and tell me that the end result is that the Cowboys wouldn't win another championship outside of the one that the team won on cruise control with a sham head coach, you'd have a very hard time of convincing my 1995 self that Jones deserves to be anywhere close to the Hall of Fame without a paid ticket.
How has this happened? How did Jones get the last laugh when he hasn't come within two games of a Super Bowl in the last 20 years? How is Jerry Jones in the Hall of Fame, but Jimmy Johnson is only on a boat?
I suppose nothing says the last 20 years of the Dallas Cowboys quite like Jerry Jones wearing a gold jacket for things almost exclusively unrelated to his team's success on the field in every single one of my adult years.
No. 8 – Confession time...
I am as ill-prepared for a fantasy football draft as any in the last 25 years. I just haven't had the desire to dive in yet. I've even forgotten my draft slot. I think I'm 9th.
No. 9 – Game of Thrones Review: Season 7, Episode 4...
These are my stream of conscious on Sunday night's episode of Game of Thrones:
*SPOILER ALERT!*
*SPOILER ALERT!*
*SPOILER ALERT!*
a. Bron is never going to get his castle, is he? He knows it's time to get out, but there'snot much you can do when the house won't let you cash out your chips.
b. Oh geez, Jamie is going to have the gold taken from him, isn't he? I'm on the look out for the Axel Foley banana in the tailpipe move for the rest of the show.
c. Bran has the bedside manner of my best friend's ex-wife. He's colder than the winter that is coming.
d. Damn, Arya made it home. Such a big moment in the show.
e. Why do I get the feeling that we're headed for a scene with a naked Jon and a naked Dany that results in something close to the final scenes of the movie Lone Star? Never seen Lone Star? Put it on your list if you haven't seen it.
f. Arya is a baaaaad girl.
g. Ok, I need to pause for a second... we're about to see the Dothraki in action... deep breaths.... deep breaths...
h. Holy ****!!!! Is that Dany's music? Here comes the fire!!!!!!!! Run, Jamie, run!!!
i. Someone give Bron a castle. Holy hell, what balls on that man.
j. Jaaaammmmmmmiiiiieeeeee!!!!!!
*END OF SPOILER ALERT!*
*END OF SPOILER ALERT!*
*END OF SPOILER ALERT!*
No. 10 – And finally …
T-minus, 26 days and change, folks.
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