I've never mentioned a mid major coach. For that matter I havent mentioned getting any coach.
Its about Ws and Ls. His offense ranking is an irrelevant number.
Herman is on the hot seat at Texas 4 years in while recruiting extremely well. Why? Some of that is due to be 1-4 against OU. But moreso because he's losing to teams he shouldn't be losing to.
His results at Texas would be a lot tougher to get at UT.
Texas hasn't bolstered his stock after Houston. It was higher before he took the job.
Fair points and fair argument that he has underachieved. He was 6-3 in year 4/covid. He's probably 9-3/10-2 on a regular schedule there this year. Not dominate but very good. Much better than what we're currently getting.
Yes, he is on the hot seat for the reasons you have outlined. Is that because he is a bad coach? Does politics play in it at all? We don't know.
I do know this though. There is not a guaranteed elite coach out there. No former good coach like a Saban, Meyer, or Spurrier we can go get.. There isn't a clear cut high potential coach in the lower ranks imo and even if there were are they elite or going to fall flat on their face too? We don't know. TN has fallen flat on its' face 3x's in a row now hiring coaches that can't even get TN to a solid foundation and consistent winning seasons. Got guys going 4-8 and 3-7 man. We can't do that again. We've lost a generation of TN fans almost now. The diehards are becoming apathetic. We need to find some semblance of on field success.
We all want the same thing; to be great again. We are Vol brethren and united in that goal. However, it is my opinion the program can't afford another absolute failure. I would personally rather hire a coach with a higher floor than a hot coordinator or lower ranks HC. So when I objectively look at the available options of an established HC who has had some success we could potentially get, I see a guy in Herman that was wildly successful in the lower ranks as a HC. Has worked under great offensive minds like Meyer. Has consistently put out great offenses everywhere he has been. Is young with room to grow as a HC. Sure, he has not met the expectations of Texas. But if his floor is 7-8 wins per year and, as a young and growing HC, has the potential to learn from his mistakes at Texas and become a 10-11 win coach I like that risk vs reward better than our other options. I dont want us to just ne competitive, I want wins too, but we have to become competitive first and I think he could do at least that based on his track record.
Gus is a better coach than Pruitt too. He wouldn't be my first choice but we could do a lot worse. Maybe the firing humbled him and he's ready to make some changes on his offense? If so, get him a great DC and let's go because his floor is higher than most of the other options as well and that is what we need most, the highest floor coach we can find.
