Originally, the plan was to give everyone a little War Room break this week considering the New Year's Eve timing of events, but there's no way we could leave everybody hanging 48 hours following the Alamo Bowl win over Colorado without addressing the Tom Herman-sized elephant in the room.
We can't just ignore the uncomfortable quiet in the air, can we?
So, let's just discuss things from the last 48 hours.
a. It's been really, really quiet at the top. I can't tell you that nothing is happening behind the scenes, I'm just telling you that it is quiet as a mouse on the night before Christmas. We've collectively reached out to a number of high-level sources and there isn't the slightest bit of action that anyone wants to talk about.
I'd love to tell you what you want to know, but the final pieces of the puzzle haven't quite been revealed.
b. That nothing has happened shouldn't be a huge surprise, as the expectations from key sourcing has always indicated that nothing would likely take place until after the college football season, which means it's possible that it might remain quiet for the next week or so.
c. Many within the BMD section of things still believe that there will be a change, while there is other sourcing that believes that Herman will be the coach in 2021. It might be all white noise to some degree, but in the name of transparency to you guys, I don't want to leave out the fact that there's conflicting chatter all over the place.
d. If the final decision is Chris Del Conte's to make, there continues to be a sense behind the scenes that Herman will return in 2021. Sourcing close to the athletic director's office has made it clear the market for making a new hire isn't desirable and the costs are so elevated that only a slam dunk situation would change Del Conte's position on the matter. It's definitely safe to say that he isn't an agent for making change for the sake of making change.
e. No one believes that Texas will let Herman go and then go through an interview process. If change is made, it will almost certainly mean that his replacement has been secured. There has been and continues to be an appetite to minimize risk.
f. It's not an accident that Del Conte hasn't so much as said a peep since his... ahem... vote of confidence for Herman a few weeks ago. The next time we hear from Del Conte, he'll likely either be naming a new coach or he'll go on the record with a media outlet that he likes to take a second stab on a.... ahem ... vote of confidence.
g. With all of the public discussion of Notre Dame's Brian Kelly in the last couple of weeks, it probably can't be underscored enough that he shares the same agent as Herman. It's hard to imagine a world where a deal with Kelly could be worked out (if that could even happen) before something happens with Herman. In fact, one of the only things that my highest-level sourcing has confirmed in the last week or so is that no contact with Kelly has been made. While his situation at Notre Dame is something that Texas thinks it could potentially exploit in a hypothetical pursuit of him, to suggest that the approach towards him would be tricky is an understatement. As Anwar Richardson mentioned in the Orangebloods Modcast on Thursday, it's hard to imagine a world where Kelly's agent wouldn't lay out all of the lack of support he'd perceived Herman hasn't received in the last few month (among other details). With Notre Dame playing Alabama on Friday, any approach towards Kelly is contingent on his season ending, which could be less than 24 hours away (depending on when you read this).
h. In talking with Alabama sources on Thursday, there's no buzz of Texas targeting Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian on their radar. According to the folks on the Alabama side of things, Sarkisian would almost certainly have an interest "if Michigan or Texas came calling", but he's already the highest-paid assistant coach in the country ($2.5 million per year)and there's a growing sense that it's not out of the question that there could one day be a head-coach-in-waiting situation once the soon-to-be-70-year old Nick Saban decides to hang up his whistle.
i. The Texas staff is on vacation until January 11th. The very next day is the beginning of the annual NCAA Convention, which will be held online in 2021. The event is scheduled from January 12-15th.
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