Texas Longhorns fire Tom Herman as football coach

Despite a statement of support in December, the University of Texas decided to fire Tom Herman

Tom Herman has been fired as head coach at the University of Texas.

The decision was announced Saturday.

With our football season coming to a close, our vice president and athletics director, Chris Del Conte, has evaluated the UT program’s strengths and weaknesses and where the program is relative to our goals. While we have made measured progress during the past several years under Tom Herman’s leadership, Chris has recommended to the university president, Jay Hartzell, that UT make a coaching change to get us on track to achieving our ambitious goals. President Hartzell and the chair of our Board of Regents, Kevin Eltife, concur with this recommendation and have approved the change. We thank Coach Herman for his service and dedication to our student-athletes, our program and our university.

Herman went 32-18 at Texas and 7-3 this past season, which culminated with a win over Colorado in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Tuesday.

Athletic Director Chris Del Conte also released a statement:

Sometimes the devil is in the details of what isn’t said. Del Conte had made a statement during the season, seemingly supporting Herman. The question was it never said he would be back for 2021.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about the future of our Football coach. My policy is to wait until the end of the season before evaluating and commenting on our football program and coaches. With the close of the regular season, I want to reiterate that Herman is our coach,” Del Conte said.

“When I look at our Football program right now, I see tremendous young men and promising talent. Our student-athletes are developing, and they play their hearts out. This has been an unprecedented year for all of us, and we’re all disappointed that we didn’t meet our expectations. Like the many fans that follow and support our program, I can’t help but think what would have been in 2020. There’s still more work to be done, but I’m excited to watch our players and program move forward.”

ESPN reported on the financial situation: Texas will owe Herman about $15 million to buy out the last three years of his contract. The Longhorns will owe about another $10 million to buy out the remaining contracts for his assistants, which are guaranteed, multi-year deals. In May 2019, the university’s regents approved a two-year extension for Herman that runs through the 2023 season. The last two years of the deal would have paid Herman $6.5 million in 2022 and $6.75 million in 2023.