Sadly Herman has proven to be a liability, potentially damaging the program for years to come and in ways no one would have imagined.
I'm going to use a political analogy, without using politics directly--watch how I do this!
Lots of people will channel anger specifically at, e.g., Barack Obama or Donald Trump, as if that leader who is doing/saying things they disagree with is their problem, and if only he would be gone, all that unpleasant disagreeable opinion and action would be gone. I'll say, "your real problem is with the 180,000,000 who agree with him, who won't be gone when he's gone."
The problem here is the players and the generation. (Look at the band, too.) Herman is 45, so he graduated from HS in about 1993. He's the same age as Angelina Jolie or Charlize Theron. He's trying to lead an organization of young people who all just cast their first vote for president a few weeks ago, and who have been told via media this year, that the most important problem of our time is race relations. They have been taught that Pilgrims are bad, the Alamo is bad, Columbus was bad, Thomas Jefferson was bad, bombing Japan was bad, etc. They mostly have no idea that half the nation or more thinks that's all nuts.
So, when you simply want to say, the Eyes of Texas is bad, that seems like an easy add-on to the enormous pile of past American or Texas culture that is already on the bonfire of cancel. They probably had no idea in the world anyone would even notice that a school song would be important to anyone, since they have seen huge iconic cultural item after item tossed on the fire.
Even when Herman is gone, this will remain the mindset of our players.
On this board, we are dominated by people who like tradition, want the comfort of knowing that some things don't change, that things we valued will be valued by the next generation. UT traditions are part of that for us. It ties not only into sports, but is grafted onto our shared education, our college experience, and our pride in the state of Texas and what it stands for.
We should be realistic that we are not getting that back, even when TH is gone.
Other schools won't notice it that much, because TCU or Tech, or even OU, don't have deep culture and tradition tied to their football. (A&M will take this pretty hard when it hits them next.)
So, while I--as you--won't likely forgive TH for pushing us over the edge on this, he really only was one small last straw, and the problem (for me--they wouldn't see it this way) is the players and how they have been raised.
. He's got to be the only coach in history to give up 550 rushing yards or more in a game working for and then against the same head coach.
