Following the Texas Longhorns’ 10-win season and Sugar Bowl victory during the 2017 season gave fans a glimmer of hope that Texas was in fact back in 2018. Fast forward to the end of this year, where the Longhorns’ faithful now have more questions than answers. Many including myself felt that Texas was taking a step in the right direction under the leadership of Tom Herman but it was a step back to a 7-5 campaign with an opportunity for win number eight in the Alamo Bowl.
Following the season finale against Texas Tech, the staff was shuffled a bit with the dismissal of Todd Orlando as defensive coordinator and the reassignment of Tim Beck. Herman and the Longhorns’ brass is looking to shock the system and hopefully bring Texas back to being a top program once again.
The Longhorns were coming off a top three recruiting class according to 247 sports, so along with the double-digit win season the future was bright for the burnt orange. Unfortunately the wheels fell off by their standards. So should the Longhorns take a page out of their rivals book? In 2015 the Sooners brought in former Texas Tech quarterback and coach Lincoln Riley who eventually took over as head coach, this might be a move that Texas could use to compete with the Sooners.
Graham Harrell has been a name tossed around and it makes sense. The former Texas Tech quarterback has been working his way through the coaching ranks following a brief career in the NFL. Harrell is the hot name with so much uncertainty at Southern California with the current staff. He made waves when Graham took over the offense at the University of North Texas where he took a bottom program and made them a top offense in his last two seasons before heading to USC.
This would be a move that could give Texas an opportunity to improve their offense from 15th in total offense. Not exactly terrible numbers but with the Oklahoma Sooners being near the top in all of college football, improvements can only help their cause to dethrone Oklahoma. Now the game is a bit of sit and wait to see how the Harrell and USC situation unfolds but Coach Herman needs to make a strong effort to bring Harrell back to the Lone Star State.