The NCAA Football regular season ink is dry, and the dye is cast.
So who are they? Who are those teams that fell significantly short of meeting the expectations of their followers? Disappointment can and does come from a few angles. The program’s history builds in annual minimum standards. A new, and maybe highly paid, coach can further that. A good recruiting year or three can further that. Some teams are bad but somewhat expected. Some are disappointing and somewhat unexpected.
In part two we selected Florida St. from the ACC. As an intro as to why we wrote the following. Usually in year two of a new coaching staff’s run the ascent begins. After all, you have two years of your own recruits. You may have run off a few that you don’t want. The transfer portal can accelerate your personnel transformation. You have instilled the weight and nutritional training that you want to shape your team. Your culture is, or better be, in place. Your staff has had two springs and two falls to “coach em up.” If it’s a big time program money/budgets are generous to accomplish all of the above.
We sense a pattern. Today we examine the BIG 12.
BIG 12
Most Disappointing
Much like Willie Taggert at Florida St., year two for Tom Herman and company at the University of Texas was a disappointment. Though, year two at Texas wasn’t a disaster like it was in Seminole country. But, shouldn’t the flagship school in the third largest state in the union be better, even much better? Texas finished 7-5 overall. Their 5-4 in conference record was equal to three other schools and “good enough” to tie for third best in the BIG 12. Who had the same in conference record? Oklahoma St., Kansas St., and Iowa St. did. See what we mean? “Good enough” isn’t good enough.
The standard for years in the ACC has been Clemson. Florida St. aspires to get back to that. The standard for many, many years in the Big 12 has been Oklahoma. It should be Texas and Oklahoma, but it isn’t. Aspirational means you aren’t there.
But shouldn’t it take more than a couple of years to turn around a Texas program that suffered from past years of poor recruiting and poor coaching/management? Ask Baylor. In the same conference, with much the same schedule, Baylor went from 1-11 to 11-1 in those same two years. Oh, and Baylor popped Texas 24-10 along the way in doing so.
Tom Herman was a (or the) hot name in coaching two years ago as he used LSU to get more money out of UT. Now he needs to earn it. Texas beat no one on their schedule this year that Vegas viewed as the favorite in the game. All of this occurred after a ten win season in 2018 and with a returning, accomplished QB. That’s underachieving. That’s disappointing.
Herman just fired his OC and DC. Wasn’t Herman the offensive guru at THE OSU and Houston? If so, what happened at UT? If not, did he make a hiring mistake or three along the way? It says here that he only has 12 more regular season games to figure that out. There’s another team in Texas that UT doesn’t like getting more pub than them. It’s Texas A&M. They have a year two coach in Jimbo Fisher. If ole Jimbo outshines Tom Herman in year three, Texas will headbutt Herman much like Herman did a helmeted player in game 12 last week.
The University of Texas is the runaway winner as the most disappointing team in the BIG 12.
Also Considered
TCU went 3-6 in conference and 5-7 overall this year. Gary Patterson is 118-65 overall in 18 seasons leading the Horned Frogs.
TCU needed to replace a some talent from 2018 (particularly on D), some of which now plays on Sunday. They also needed a new QB. But a program run for 18 years by the same leader clearly needs to plan against and prepare for just that.
TCU’s bar is lower than Texas’ bar. However, Patterson himself has raised it. Gary Patterson is 118-65 overall in 18 seasons leading the Horned Frogs. In 2017, TCU and Coach Patterson reached their tenth 11-win season since Patterson began coaching for the program. That is the fourth most 11 win seasons since 2001 in all of college football.
In 2018 the program finished 7-6. Therefore, the 5-7 campaign this year is underwhelming, and now qualifies as a three year slide.