The following is from a poster on YT. It's an outstanding analysis.
"This is a really odd situation. I'm not a UT fan, though I am involved in football in the state, so I have an outsider's perspective, and I think I can see the issue with that program. The last three coaches who've been in charge in Austin are all good coaches. Mack is a great coach. Not a good coach, a great coach. Merely good coaches don't win national titles, given how steep that mountain is. Mack was said to have lost it, yet here he is leading a top-tier program again at Carolina.
Charlie Strong has succeeded everywhere he's been. Except Austin. Tom Herman has succeeded everywhere he's been. Except Austin. Hell, he won a major bowl and spanked FSU and OU in consecutive games at Houston. And yet, the narrative is that Strong and Herman forgot how to coach the minute they stepped off the plane in Travis County. I don't think so. I think that after Herman is dismissed, he will re-emerge at a smaller program and pick up where he left off at UH, just as Charlie has done. Mack has gone back to what is really a marginal program at UNC and made it a winner again.
That leaves the eternal question: why are these quality coaches doing so poorly at Texas?There is only one reason that seems plausible to me. The culture around that program is so puffed up and self-congratulatory that the players don't believe they have to work and fight to excel in this game. There must be so many hangers-on, suckups, and $50 handshake men around the program that these boys think they've arrived the instant they step foot on campus. And that culture must be so powerful and pervasive that it overrides the messages they're getting from even tough coaches like Strong.
Usually we see this thing at the pro level, where players often make more money and are far less expendable than coaches. It's rare in college, because most HCs are dictators in their respective programs. Nothing happens at Alabama that hasn't already been approved by Nick Saban, and the most highly touted five star couldn't cut a fart without his permission. Not so at Texas. These players--all of whom seem talented--are being told by forces outside the coaching staff that they don't really have to listen to these coaches. Because the fact is they aren't listening to the coaches.
What Charlie has sold has worked everywhere else. Same for Herman. If you replaced Patterson with Herman at TCU, they would still be beating Texas 2 out of every 3. There is nothing wrong with Herman as a coach. It's the culture of that program.
The other thing that tells me this is going on is the perception of UT players in NFL front offices. They're known to be among the softest players of any college program, dating to the 1990s. The DKR-Akers players were tough, guys like Nobis, Jerry Gray, McMichael, and Campbell. The players since Dodds took over have been mostly pretty soft. And, having lived in Austin, it's not hard to see how that could happen. The town treats that program like a pro team, and all doors are open to the players. My wife worked at a state agency and saw several players get jobs there, jobs for which they weren't really qualified.
So until the athletic department clamps down on that nonsense and starts hardening their players for the rigors of major competition, this will continue. Get whomsoever you want as HC, but this is not changing until the culture turns around. I almost think that Saban shied away from the UT job and that blank check because he knew the problems endemic to it. And he knew he couldn't fix them all without more and better support in the AD."
