Texas’ 23-20 house loss to No. 13 Iowa State on Friday also can double as a Rorschach check on the way you view the tenure of Texas coach Tom Herman. Is he shut, so achingly shut, to the highest of the Huge 12? Or is Texas rising as this season’s definitive drama main a symptom of a program caught in impartial?

The loss dropped Texas to 5-Three and formally nudged Herman onto the recent seat, as he’s 30-18 in his fourth season in Austin. And the way you view this white-knuckle Texas season — identical to the newest white-knuckle loss — also can double for the way you view Herman.

There’s loads of proof that the Longhorns are on the cusp of competition within the Huge 12, because the game-tying 57-yard area aim barely lacking the uprights as time expired on Saturday reveals. If that had gone via and Texas found out a option to win in time beyond regulation, Texas nonetheless may have superior to the convention title sport and received the league. And Herman doubtless would have been secure.

However the optimists who see issues that means haven’t been vocal.

The flip aspect of Rorschach check is that this Texas season may also be seen via the prism of persistent missed alternative. The Longhorns have been beset by continual particular groups errors and entered the Iowa State sport ranked No. 120 within the nation in penalties per sport. From an ill-advised pretend punt to a failure to kick a area aim to go up seven with eight minutes remaining to baffling play-calling when making an attempt to finish the sport on its second-to-last possession, Herman left himself extensive open to sport administration second-guessers.

In the end, the case towards Herman at Texas is that there was little from this system the previous two seasons that has seemed to be elite. Simply because Texas has been shut — like within the LSU sport final yr — doesn’t imply it’s near the nationwide title competition its fan base calls for. And turning the momentum when issues go fallacious at Texas is akin to trying to bench press utilizing solely your pinkies, as each decommitment turns into deafening and each destructive second delivered via a megaphone.

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Texas went 8-5 final yr and is on its option to one other middling season. And, in the end, it will likely be as much as athletic director Chris Del Conte, who didn’t rent Herman, to decide on his coach’s future. “Del Conte is feeling the strain,” mentioned a high-ranking Texas supply.

Texas head coach Tom Herman, heart, patrols the sideline throughout the second half towards Iowa State. (AP Photograph/Eric Homosexual)

A choice on Herman’s future is not going to come with out consternation. He’s owed greater than $15 million if he’s fired, and the whole potential payout to the workers is sort of $24 million. That’s an enormous quantity throughout a pandemic, particularly for a group that had a official shot for the league title on Thanksgiving weekend.

Herman received the Sugar Bowl over Georgia after the 2018 season (10-4) and has finished so much to improve and modernize this system after Mack Brown’s tenure wheezed to the end and Charlie Robust’s by no means actually received going. The recruiting division has been upgraded and the ancillary components of this system – analysts, social media, graphics, video – really feel like a high-end Energy 5 program. The soccer, for no matter purpose, has but to catch up.

So how does Del Conte view Herman? He has been comparatively silent on the subject, and if any second cried out for vocal help it might have been within the buildup to this sport. Smoke about Texas trying to rent City Meyer has been floating via Austin for weeks. There was a simple option to clear the smoke.

Del Conte, who didn’t return a telephone name Friday night time, additionally didn’t vocally again the Texas gamers throughout the “Eyes of Texas” controversy earlier this yr. He selected the choice of the boosters that the track, which has racist origins, nonetheless be performed after video games. In different phrases, he sided with the cash over the group. Maybe he knew which he’d want extra come December.

It’s clear that Meyer can be Texas’ goal it it moved on from Herman. It’s not almost as clear if Meyer would have curiosity in returning to the sideline, as he has thrived in his new function as an analyst for Fox and nonetheless must make a well being resolution. Bear in mind, it was an enlarged congenital arachnoid cyst in Meyer’s head that helped result in his retirement, and whether or not he desires to take the well being threat that accompanies teaching would weigh massive on any resolution.

If Meyer doesn’t need the job, there’s no simple reply as to whom Texas would rent. And that is Del Conte’s greatest drawback. That is an establishment that covets large names, because it lengthy lusted after Nick Saban. However Saban by no means went, partially due to the dearth of alignment in management that has undercut Texas soccer the previous decade. There’s no promise issues line up the subsequent decade, both.

Individuals bear in mind Mack Brown made it to 2 BCS title video games, successful in 2005, however neglect he received the Huge 12 simply twice in 16 years. Bob Stoops received it 10 occasions in 18 years.

Texas head coach Tom Herman argues a name throughout the first half towards Baylor. (AP Photograph/Chuck Burton)

If there’s one factor we’ve realized from the tenures of Robust and Herman, it’s that Texas calls for a lot from its coach that this isn’t a job that provides coaching wheels. And which means if Texas desires to improve from Herman, the Longhorns should lure a sitting Energy 5 head coach. (The one coach corresponding to Meyer who’s presently sitting out is Bob Stoops, and it’s unlikely the person who constructed the trendy Oklahoma juggernaut would try and dedicate the subsequent decade to taking it down.)

Do you attempt to again up the Brinks truck for a longtime Energy 5 coach like Oregon’s Mario Cristobal, Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, Penn State’s James Franklin, Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck or Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald? It is a notably fraught yr to rent a kind of coaches, as all however Franklin and Fleck can be taking part in significant video games on the weekend of Dec. 18, which is 2 days after Signing Day.

If Texas decides to maneuver on from Herman, wouldn’t it do it earlier than Signing Day on Dec. 16? It’d be nearly unimaginable to have a coach in place by then, which implies with a change you’re primarily giving up on having a aggressive recruiting class. (Texas is presently No. 17.) Or you need to both ignore or mislead recruits by letting them know Herman can be there. The clock is ticking for readability.

There are different choices. Would Matt Campbell leap down from Iowa State? It’s unsure, as he has all the time been projected as extra of a Midwestern match. What about Luke Fickell, who has introduced Cincinnati to historic highs? Might Texas rent three straight former City Meyer assistants? Might it inquire about Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian? If the Meyer mannequin hasn’t labored, maybe the Saban mannequin would? Might an NFL identify like Invoice O’Brien or Dan Quinn be an possibility? After Meyer, there’s actually no apparent reply.

To say Texas is certainly going to fireplace Herman is hyperbole. Nevertheless it’s a lot simpler to ascertain that situation than to attract up one with Herman returning, tip-toeing on skinny ice for all of 2021 because the face of the game’s sizzling seat. “That’s not for me to determine,” Herman mentioned postgame when he was requested whether or not he was the precise individual to guide Texas. “The place we now have this system in comparison with the place it was after we took over — the longer term could be very vivid. I really feel nice concerning the trajectory of our program.”

Whether or not Del Conte feels that means or not stays a thriller. And till there’s readability from him, Herman will stay squarely on the recent seat.

Texas is again, proper the place we bear in mind it. It’s again the place it has been a lot of the previous decade — in flux and with everybody within the sport speculating on who’ll be the subsequent coach.

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