College Football

Tom Herman Out at Texas

Published Jan. 2, 2021 12:50 p.m. ET

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The University of Texas announced on Saturday morning that it had fired head football coach Tom Herman. 

Said Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte in a statement: "After much deliberation and a great deal of thought, as I looked back at the totality of where our football program is and in discussing its future, it became apparent that it was in the best interest of The University of Texas to move in a different direction."  

Herman spent two years as the head coach at Houston, putting together a 22-4 record with the Cougars before assuming the same role for the Longhorns program.

And despite four consecutive bowl wins, Herman was not able to guide Texas to a Big 12 title in his four years at the helm, and he finishes with an overall record of 22-13 in Big 12 play and 32-18 overall. 

In addition, Herman was only able to defeat rival Oklahoma once in five tries over the course of four years. 

Texas finished the 2020 season at 7-3, earning a huge win over then-No. 6 Oklahoma State back on Oct. 31, but suffering losses to an unranked TCU squad on Oct. 3, an unranked Oklahoma team on Oct. 10, and then-No. 13 Iowa State on Nov. 27.

The details regarding Herman's release became a little more intriguing on Saturday when reports began to fly that Alabama offensive coordintator Steve Sarkisian would take over as head coach of the Longhorns program. 

Sarkisian has overseen the Tide's offense for the past two seasons, helping Alabama to a 23-2 record in that time. 

In addition, with Sarkisian overseeing the offense, the Tide averaged 47.2 points per game in 2019, and Alabama is averaging 48.2 points per game this season.

Prior to landing at Alabama, Sarkisian spent five seasons as head coach at Washington from 2009-2013, amassing a 34-29 overall record before taking over the head job at USC, where he once served as offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll during the Trojans' glory days in the early-to-mid 2000s.

But Sarkisian's time at USC was marred with controversy, and he was fired on Oct. 12, 2015, after just 18 games (the Trojans went 12-6 in that timespan).

While the news about Sarkisian's potential hiring is not entirely official, it looks all but certain that he will have his third crack at a college head coaching job, and Twitter has already had its say about the moves made on Saturday in Austin, Texas. 

This is a developing story.

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