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Tom "the turtle" Herman [Lame Duck or greatest 5d chess player ever?]


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3 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Seeing what Oregon does, or figuring that we won’t send an Egypt blitz on 3rd and Orlando is not really pertinent to the conversation. Seeing OU run something that we haven’t seen ISU run doesn’t do a lot to prepare our team for ISU running it other than hopefully some sharp player or coach seeing a tell pre or post snap. It’s hardly the way that you’d prep for another team. 

The larger point being that the Utah win was fool’s gold. They may not have been motivated to be there. They were down some of their secondary stars (future NFL players if I remember correctly), and they weren’t able to prepare well for our Ad Hoc defense. 

And it’s why my excitement for CT’s performance is tempered for now. 

I mean I don’t think we are actually disagreeing all that much. I don’t think what I said translated well and maybe it just sounds stupid. But Texas emulating a formula to stop Utah is pretty smart. Utah seeing similar formula should have made them make adjustments to beat that. Whether they wanted to play or not is besides that whole point of preparation tho...and it’s possible we have played 3 bowl games against teams that didn’t really care. Who knows.

Again, I’m not anointing Casey a AP POY....I’m just not discounting his accuracy and lack of hesitation. There is no tape on him. And he will eventually make mistakes. But he also has almost no experience either so how could you expect anything less. 

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2 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Controversial post incoming.

Herman is gone. It was decided weeks ago.

Urban has turned down Texas twice after initially pitching himself for the job pretty aggressively. It is unlikely he’s coming, although there’s still the remote possibility that he’s been sending out misdirection information for awhile. I doubt it.

That leaves a new coach. Every potential coach out there has blemishes- Kelly, Campbell, Sark, Kubiak, etc. Herman has significant blemishes too, more than many of the potential replacements.

He’s disliked, has pissed off boosters and the admin, and there are rumors of improper behavior. He’s been inconsistent on winning and has made very many questionable decisions around game decisions, coaching hires, game prep, etc. Also recruiting is in deep shit.

However...........he’s also learning on the job. There are signs of his teams having the potential of being very good. The talent on the roster is very good. He’s had some solid upsets. He’s only had one partial season with the new staff.

While I’ve been as frustrated, if not more, than others this year and last year, I could see this guy having his shit together starting next year as a result of learning from all of his dumb ass mistakes.

Even though he’s gone, part of me wouldn’t mind seeing one more year, although I’m sure by the third quarter of the first game I’d be apoplectic again.

I could easily see us dismissing him, picking up Kelly or whoever and continuing to struggle, while he ends up at a lower level P5 program and just kills it. That would really really suck.

The caveat to all of this is his personal conduct and immaturity. If it’s really as bad as CTJ and other have indicated, then him going away is an easy decision.

This is a horrible take. Tom’s not learning at all. He’s making the same mistakes he made in Year 1 and hasn’t learned a thing. He was forced to make coaching changes to save his job and hired a good DC. That’s about it, and it’s hard to give him credit when it wasn’t his idea in the first place. 
 

He makes the same offensive mistakes, runs the same predictable offense that fails to utilize motion or misdirection nearly enough, plus the same shitty TE 95% of the time, he fails to give help to his weak RT even though a TE’s in the field, hampers Yurcich from running his offense, has no clue what his personnel’s strengths are and loses control of the locker room just every year. 
 

Herman is not progressing or growing as a coach at all and that’s why he needs to be fired. Our roster has gotten more talented. That’s about the only reason we’d be improved and recruiting is falling off hard. Tom will probably never have a roster as talented as this year’s team again. So no, there’s absolutely no reason to keep him and he’s not showing signs of learning or growing at all. 

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1. Majors at Center, Kerstetter at RT >>>>> Kerstetter at Center, Jones at RT

Majors clearly should have started to push Kerstetter out to tackle. Majors > Jones by a country mile.

2. Bijan goes 19 minutes without a touch in the 1st half.

Bijan opens the game with 2 runs for 35 yards. He doesn't play the second series as RJ goes 5 rushes for 8 yards. Bijan goes back in for 3 runs and 56 yards, 1 catch for 14 yards and his second TD. This g8ves Bijan 6 touches for 105 yards and 2 TDs. We are up 14-0 at 5:28 left in the first. Bijan wouldn't get his nect touch until 3:22 left in the 2nd quarter, Sam decides to hand off to Bijan who is tackled immediately.

3. Wiley doesn't play?

Wiley leads the TEs in explosive plays, run blocking grade, first down catches. He is 3rd string behind Brewer and Epps. He didn't play in the first half. I know that for a fact. I am not sure he played when the game was in question.

 

4. Kai Money ran more routes than Whittington and Smith in the first half. While the number of plays run may have been close, the play calling often put Smith/Whit in the position to block or decoy or run a sideways route. The one roure to Smith/Whit's strength was a drag route to Whit that he caught for two yards and ran for 37 more, 39 yard catch. Smith/Whit are never on the field together. Money doesn't get open and he doesn't block well. It's confusing to say the least.

 

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3 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

You realize that tendency is the glue that connects all game day prep and in game coaching decision making right?

Staffs will go back and try to find any film at all, coworkers and or opponents of an interim coordinator’s tendencies and preferences. Utah may have had some idea of what Naviar likes to do and what our various player strengths and weaknesses were. But they didn’t have charted data for down, distance, hash or pressure for what Naviar trotted out. And that shit matters. 

How often do we see some backup QB get inserted into the game, particularly against us, and watch them gut our defense for a quarter to a half? Pretty f’ing often to my mind. And it’s because the damn coaches are paralyzed. They don’t know what to do. We start playing a lot of base and guessing with blitzes because we don’t know their tendencies. 

Much the same with Casey Thompson. He looked great last night. We now definitively know that he can pass the ball quite well. Fanf’ingtastic. Now let’s see how he does once teams have a book on his tendencies, favorite concepts, and pet plays and players. Several teams will have the ability to make him play left handed. CU was guessing that we’d lean on the run and we burned them for it repeatedly. 

Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. The talent disparity is sufficient or the coaching staffs are insufficient. But there are plenty of data points suggesting that coaching without then ability to prepare and chart tendency is kinda hard. 

It'll help that defenses will be terrified of Bijan. He's going to make any QB's job easier. Assuming we give him more than 12 touches a game. 

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20 minutes ago, Texasrocks said:

It'll help that defenses will be terrified of Bijan. He's going to make any QB's job easier. Assuming we give him more than 12 touches a game. 

A strong rushing attack helps any QB. And Casey’s legs will get some attention of their own. Still, there’s going to be someone who shuts down our OZ attack and forces Casey to do it with his arm. I have little confidence that Hermdog will have many counters to punish defenses for doing that outside of throwing man run around like a headless chicken until the secondary breaks down.  

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I think Herman could be a really good coach at the right school. Texas is not that school. His ego probably wouldn't let him accept this, but Houston was probably the perfect job for him. He was motivated enough to knock off OU and FSU and Houston wasn't a big enough school that losing to SMU and Navy was a shock. A school like Kansas or Vandy would probably also work out well. He'd be an underdog for most of his games and probably win enough that fans would forgive the annual losses to the LA Techs of the world. And the fact that he's an asshole. I doubt his ego will let him settle for that though. So he'll probably get a G5 job, do well, get another top tier job, and fail again.

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7 hours ago, Orange&White said:

He benched the best player on the field for 5 series after he had gone 6/90/2TDs. It took an embarrassment from a National Football commentator and a flood of twitter trash talk to get back to Tom during halftime to do what was blatantly fucking obvious to everyone with a brain. The guy is a fucking idiot and I am not wholly unconvinced that he wasn't trying to throw the game last night and got called out in the locker room at halftime because he was making it too obvious.

This is the quote of the month, maybe the YEAR! 100% correct, and Jesse Palmer of all people!  Are you kidding.  It took Jesse Palmer?  This really happened, right? What exactly does that say to the next 5 star recruit? This and the Ewers situation screams don't even think about going to Texas, at least while Tom is in charge.   I don't care what position he plays.  

Six carries 90 yards 2 Tds sounds like the eighth grade super stud playing against a bunch of kids 20 pounds lighter than he is.  It sounds like John Walker vs. my alma mater, Round Rock High School, 21-0 at the end of quarter 1, and John had about 4 carries for about 100 yards!  Total domination, and you put him on the bench!? 

Does anybody in the media actually ask Tom for a justification for this?  What is his answer? 

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3 minutes ago, orangecat92 said:

This is the quote of the month, maybe the YEAR! 100% correct, and Jesse Palmer of all people!  Are you kidding.  It took Jesse Palmer?  This really happened, right? What exactly does that say to the next 5 star recruit? This and the Ewers situation screams don't even think about going to Texas, at least while Tom is in charge.   I don't care what position he plays.  

Six carries 90 yards 2 Tds sounds like the eighth grade super stud playing against a bunch of kids 20 pounds lighter than he is.  It sounds like John Walker vs. my alma mater, Round Rock High School, 21-0 at the end of quarter 1, and John had about 4 carries for about 100 yards!  Total domination, and you put him on the bench!? 

Does anybody in the media actually ask Tom for a justification for this?  What is his answer? 

They stick to their rotations. That's always his answer when he's asked. He's not going to change the way he runs the team.

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Tom Herman is determined to make his life more difficult and it makes no sense. There have been plenty of instances in his tenure where the offense goes away from something that is working. Usually that's schematic and schematic advantages can be fleeting. But when you have clearly the best player on the field by a wide margin there is no excuse to not make him the focal point of the offense.

I don't love, but can get behind the idea of the running back rotation for a couple of series. In a perfect world both backs are cooking and you don't need to run Bijan 20+ times to win. It was evident after four series last night that Bijan had it and Ro did not. From that point forward Ro should've only gotten carries to spell Bijan when he was tired. 

Colorado was never winning this game. Texas was just flat out the better, more talented team so it's so dumb that it was a seven point game at halftime when Texas could've blown the doors off of them early. Again, it wasn't going to make a difference last night, but it's shit like this that causes games that shouldn't be close to be closer and close games to be losses. Take the easy way out. It's totally ok!

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13 hours ago, Orange&White said:

The frustrating part of Tom is his complete bullshit attitude of thinking he is smarter than he actually is.

If that fuckface really watched the first two series of Bijan and then benched him for the next 5, while going 3 and out in each of those five series, and was still thinking it is the "smart" move to "rotate" backs, he is a fucking idiot of epic proportions. There is not one fucking iota of good coaching or even common fucking sense in that.

He had Bijan in the game on at least one of those possessions but chose not to get him the rock despite likely knowing Sam was pretty seriously dinged from getting hit in the first quarter.

12 hours ago, Eggo said:

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but Herman seemed to desperately be trying to show the cameras that he's a players' coach last night. None more revealing of this than forcing RoJo to stand there and show him the secret handshake for everyone to see how down-to-earth he is. Fuck that guy. Win something meaningful, bitch.

That was embarrassing. The fact that it involved smelling fingers at the end was even worse. Get him gone NOW!

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It wasn't that Bijan wasn't in the game. He was in the game for 3 of the 5 final, rather futile, drives of the first half.

It was that Herman/Yurich stopped calling the game with Bijan as the focus. They focused on the WR passing game (9 pass plays) or ran the QB read (2 plays, 1 Sam kept). 

 

That off tackle run to the left, that was 3 rushes for 85 yards 8n the first 3 drives, didn't make an appearance again until the 3rd quarter.

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5 hours ago, ATLLonghorn said:

Tom Herman is determined to make his life more difficult and it makes no sense. There have been plenty of instances in his tenure where the offense goes away from something that is working. Usually that's schematic and schematic advantages can be fleeting. But when you have clearly the best player on the field by a wide margin there is no excuse to not make him the focal point of the offense.

I don't love, but can get behind the idea of the running back rotation for a couple of series. In a perfect world both backs are cooking and you don't need to run Bijan 20+ times to win. It was evident after four series last night that Bijan had it and Ro did not. From that point forward Ro should've only gotten carries to spell Bijan when he was tired. 

Colorado was never winning this game. Texas was just flat out the better, more talented team so it's so dumb that it was a seven point game at halftime when Texas could've blown the doors off of them early. Again, it wasn't going to make a difference last night, but it's shit like this that causes games that shouldn't be close to be closer and close games to be losses. Take the easy way out. It's totally ok!

It is crazy how many coaches you see going away from things that work. They see safeties creeping forward or an extra LB on 2nd and 4 and cannot resist the inclination to outsmart a defense by throwing for example. I believe that the really good coaches fight that urge and recognize that at the end of the day if you are patient and have to horses the name of the game is still to demoralize your opponent and impose your will. Dictate terms rather than react to them. Having better players helps of course but perfect execution is another way to skin the cat. 

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Herman lacks the killer instinct to demoralize teams early. When he jumps out to a two score lead, he calls plays to prevent mistakes that could get the other back in the game. He calls safe plays or passes deep down field that is the same as a punt if intercepted. He trusts his qb to take care of the ball on power runs. Basically he turtles.
 

It’s almost like a prevent offense. After a few 3 and outs the opponent gains confidence and places doubt in the mind of his own team.  The momentum gained early is lost and never returns. 
 

Herman has the knowledge and ability to coach and teach the game. He doesn’t have the confidence in himself or his players  to keep his foot on the pedal and destroy his opponent. 
 

Texas needs a coach that will make their opponent quit. Set goals to score 60-70 points every game. Set the precedent every game that Texas is coming to kick your ass for four quarters non stop. 
 

When the back ups enter the game in trash time run the same game plan. Get your back ups game experience running the offense practiced all week. 

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6 minutes ago, BB65 said:

Herman lacks the killer instinct to demoralize teams early. When he jumps out to a two score lead, he calls plays to prevent mistakes that could get the other back in the game. He calls safe plays or passes deep down field that is the same as a punt if intercepted. He trusts his qb to take care of the ball on power runs. Basically he turtles.
 

It’s almost like a prevent offense. After a few 3 and outs the opponent gains confidence and places doubt in the mind of his own team.  The momentum gained early is lost and never returns. 
 

Herman has the knowledge and ability to coach and teach the game. He doesn’t have the confidence in himself or his players  to keep his foot on the pedal and destroy his opponent. 
 

Texas needs a coach that will make their opponent quit. Set goals to score 60-70 points every game. Set the precedent every game that Texas is coming to kick your ass for four quarters non stop. 
 

When the back ups enter the game in trash time run the same game plan. Get your back ups game experience running the offense practiced all week. 

You’d think someone getting paid $14k a day to coach football would understand all of this.

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You’d think someone getting paid $14k a day to coach football would understand all of this.

/s Ah, the smarts equals $ fallacy. You do realize that these guys are education majors, glorified PE Corches right? They were told there would be no maths! /s

TH can read Of Mice and Men, but that doesn’t mean he can comprehend it. Let alone keep the characters straight (explains the rotation issue). I also believe he fucks up Game Theory as well!
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