Hold on there Jethro. UT is about as good at handling this coaching stuff as I am chainsaws. Strong is NOT out, he has the locker room it seems, it's only the bottom-line big-dollar boosters who are, and they need to STFU and BTFO. Last thing any team needs is 70 Jerry Jones wannabes trying to run the program. I don't know why Tom Herman would WANT the Longhorn job, unreasonable expectations every year, boosters peering over your shoulder all the time, some ready to stab you in the back the moment you don't exude a God complex, and now you have to out-recruit every school in the dying Big XII AND the invading SEC due to A&M. They say being president leeches years off your life, I don't know how Mack Brown isn't a zombie.
I recall how UT was in a bad way behind the scenes when Strong arrived, and while no the record isn't great, UT could have been where Baylor is, or worse. I hope he gets a good job at a school willing to let him work.
Unfortunately boosters believe that their donations are investments, not gifts, and they think that they are entitled to some power in the AD's office. When you couple that with today's "gotta win now" mentality where coaches now get 2-3 years to win or they're seat becomes white hot instead of the 5-6 years where they could fully implement their system and get their kind of players.
I think Texas's recent "struggles" can be attributed to a few things:
1. Just about every "elite" program in college football has had stretches where they have had down years (5-7, 6-6, etc). Tennessee is just coming off their worst 5 year run in 120+ years of playing football, Alabama in the early 2000s had seasons where they were 3-8 and 4-9, Michigan had the Rich Rod and Brady Hoke years, etc.
2. The pressure to win at a place like Texas is a lot greater than it is at Louisville.
3. I really think that the Texas administration greatly underestimated how much of a boost going to the SEC would give Texas A&M. I've followed recruiting for a long time and even though everyone recruits the state of Texas very hard, you realistically could always pencil in that most of the elite recruits were going to sign with Texas. When A&M joined the best and biggest conference in college football the recruits took notice.
You can also group TCU joining the Big 12 and the job Tom Herman has done at Houston in with the rise of A&M.
Tom Herman is going to get to name his price and pick what ever job he wants. It appears that at least LSU and Texas are going to be open, and I read an article on ESPN that Oregon and Notre Dame could become open as well and that even Texas A&M might fire Kevin Sumlin just so they can have a shot at Herman.
Personally I would like to see him stay at Houston, I think at the very minimum he could be college footballs equivalent of Mark Few at Gonzaga, but if he can recruit well enough they would have a very nice road to the playoffs every year.
Its funny how things can look bleak and a day later things look much better. Saturday afternoon us Tennessee fans were upset about losing the SEC East, but now we aew happy that if we can win Saturday against Vanderbilt at Neyland Stadium West (that what we refer to Vanderbilt Stadium as), and a couple other results go our way we could end up in the Sugar Bowl.
