Reports: Urban Meyer tells Texas he won't unretire to replace Tom Herman as Longhorns' coach
If Texas decides to part ways with Tom Herman it will not be because Urban Meyer has said he’ll come to Austin.
According to multiple reports Sunday night, the former Florida and Ohio State coach has told Texas officials that he’s not going to return to coaching in 2021. Meyer has been serving as an analyst for Fox since he retired from Ohio State and had been considered Texas’ top target if it fired Herman.
Rivals site Orangebloods.com cited a source that said “It’s over” regarding any Texas pursuit of Meyer.
Texas is currently 6-3 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12 after beating Kansas State on Saturday. Herman’s job status became tenuous after the Longhorns lost to Iowa State on Nov. 27 and UT was eliminated from Big 12 title contention.
Meyer retired from Ohio State after the 2018 season. He said at the time of his departure from Ohio State that he believed he would not coach again.
Tom Herman is a former Urban Meyer assistant
If Texas decided to part with Herman it needed to find a coach who was a clear upgrade from the former Houston coach. And in a pandemic-impacted coaching market, there were no current coaches with that cachet.
That’s one of the reasons why Meyer was seemingly atop Texas’ list. Meyer, 56, still has plenty of coaching career left if he decided to return to college football and Texas has never been a school to not dream big. Remember when Nick Saban was mentioned in connection with the Texas job?
Meyer replacing Herman at Texas would have been slightly awkward. Herman was an assistant coach for Ohio State before he was hired at Houston after the 2014 season. He spent two seasons at Houston before he succeeded Charlie Strong at Texas.
Herman is 31-18 at Texas
The rumors about Meyer have been so strong for so long in Austin that Herman was even asked directly about them in a press conference on Nov. 16. And he dismissed them as you would expect.
Herman’s teams have been above .500 in each of his four seasons with the Longhorns. But that hasn’t been enough for many Texas fans who expect Big 12 titles and national relevance. Oklahoma has won the Big 12 title every season so far in Herman’s tenure and is playing Iowa State for the 2020 title.
Without Meyer coming to Austin next season, will Herman stay as the team’s coach? It’s a very distinct possibility. If Texas wants to make a coaching change there’s now no obvious candidate to succeed Herman. The best bet for the Longhorns may be to see what 2021 has in store before deciding if a coaching change is the right move for the school.
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