Tom Herman and Shane Buechele a perfect pair at Texas

Shane Buechele showed glimpses of stardom as a freshman, but Tom Herman’s arrival with the Texas Longhorns promises much bigger things

Any traditional college football powerhouse in the country is going to have high yearly expectations for the team. Success is the mandate, a mandate that Charlie Strong could not ultimately meet in any of his three seasons at the helm in Austin. However, only with the Texas Longhorns are you expected to win immediately upon arrival.

Simply finishing over .500 isn’t acceptable. Instead, it’s a success measured in New Year’s Six Bowls, College Football Playoff and National Championship contention. Thus, failing to even be a threat to reach that type of success that resulted in Strong’s dismissal. In turn, it’s that type of success that Tom Herman is now expected to achieve.

Through three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and then two seasons as the head coach of Houston, Herman has seen nothing but success. The 2016 season with the Cougars was the highest loss total he’d seen in five seasons–Houston lost three games on the year under Herman’s watch.

Despite the absurd expectations that come with taking the Texas job, Herman’s task with the Longhorns will certainly be his toughest yet. He takes over a defense that was consistently one of the worst units in the sport this past season, hoping to maybe stop someone in the 2017 campaign. But if there’s a singular reason for optimism, you need not look further than quarterback Shane Buechele and the fact that he’s now under Herman’s wings.

Buechele took over the starting job as a true freshman in the Longhorns’ season-opener against Notre Dame. Out of the gate, he got the Burnt Orange faithful buzzing. That opening contest saw him throw for 280 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another. Admittedly, the hype died down for Buechele with Texas as a whole continuing to lose and with D’Onta Foreman running wild to lead the offense. Moreover, they took a hit further when his final three games of the season–as the Longhorns fought for bowl eligibility, no less–saw him throw for just two touchdowns while giving up five interceptions. Unsurprisingly, Texas finished the season with three consecutive losses.

Coming off that poor form to end the year, though, Herman’s arrival offers tremendous hope as it pertains to the development of Buechele. The incoming head coach’ history as a quarterbacks coach offers immediate superficial assurance in that regard. What should stand as more assurance, though, is that Herman has displayed a track record of maximizing the talents of quarterbacks at his last two stops.

First with the Buckeyes, Herman’s offense allowed Braxton Miller to become an absolute star at the helm of the offense in Columbus. As a freshman with Ohio State prior to the arrival of Herman as the offensive coordinator, Miller struggled a bit. He completed just 54.1 percent of his passes, totaled a mere 1,874 all-purpose yards and totaled just 20 touchdowns on the season.

In Herman’s debut season on Urban Meyer’s staff, Miller’s production spiked tremendously as he completed 58.3 percent of his throws, accrued 3,310 all-purpose yards, and found the end zone 28 total times (15 passing, 13 rushing). While natural maturation and experience played a part, Herman’s impact on Miller’s success as a sophomore is unavoidable. Before first getting injured and redshirted and then moving to wide receiver for his senior season, Miller again improved and excelled under Herman. The junior amassed 3,615 all-purpose yards to go with 24 passing scores and 12 rushing touchdowns. Those numbers also came with Miller not being able to play in two games and with backup Kenny Guiton adding 19 touchdowns of his own.

With Miller hurt during the 2014 season, Herman didn’t miss a beat as he put J.T. Barrett in control of the offense. In his first season as the primary signal caller, Barrett finished with a 64.6 percent completion rate, 34 passing touchdowns, 11 rushing touchdowns, and 3,772 all-purpose yards. Again, this also came with the starter not being able to take every snap as Cardale Jones stepped in and succeeded to end the year as well, accruing 1,156 all-purpose yards and eight all-purpose scores in relief of Barrett on the year.

Finally, Herman made the move to Houston and was again blessed with a unique quarterback in the form of 5-11, 185-pound Greg Ward Jr. One season prior to Herman’s arrival, Ward’s sophomore season with Houston was a bit uninspiring as he amassed just 2,583 all-purpose yards and only 29 total touchdowns. Upon having Herman’s guidance, though, Ward’s production spiked massively with 3,941 all-purpose yards and 38 total touchdowns. Though Ward and Herman didn’t enjoy the same team success in 2016, the quarterback’s production was still jaw dropping. In just 12 games (as opposed to 14 in the 2015 season) Ward put up 4,075 all-purpose yards with another 32 total touchdowns.

That all leads us to Austin, TX and Buechele. Just because Herman had success previously with talented quarterbacks isn’t a sure sign that he’ll have success with the rising true sophomore. However, when you look at what Miller, Barrett, Jones, and Ward all offer as players, it’s promising for what’s t come with the Longhorns offense.

When you look at all four quarterbacks that have seen extensive work in Herman’s offense over the past five seasons, they’re all flawed and limited in terms of what the prototypical is supposed to look like. That Miller is a wide receiver on an NFL roster and that Ward is likely following his footsteps in that regard highlights that. However, what Herman was able to do was maximize what these players were able to do.

As fantastic athletes and dual-threat options at the helm of the offense, Herman put these players in positions to succeed. With zone reads to utilize the running game for both halfbacks and his quarterback, with screens to get the ball out to burners on the outside quickly, and with complex route trees down the field to open up deep throws, Herman put those quarterbacks in position to play to their strengths and not be limited because of accuracy issues (RE: Ohio State trio) or size (RE: Ward).

Lucky for Texas, Herman, and Buechele, the rising sophomore quarterback checks many of those same boxes in regards to strengths.

With Foreman and backup quarterback Tyrone Swoopes (who arguably was detrimental to Buechele because of the “18-wheeler” package under Strong) gone, this is Buechele’s offense now. He’s going to be the key reason why the Longhorns put points on the board and the one to blame when they don’t. However, Herman has proven to be able to cater to the strengths of young quarterbacks to help them develop and ultimately succeed.

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There are going to be questions still as Herman’s first year with Texas approaches. Extensively, what are his plans to remedy the defensive woes? There’s also the potential issue of him facing down the immense pressure that comes with the job, something he’s never been up against before. Even so, there’s always hope for a team in college football with a great player in a great offense that can light up a scoreboard all day long. With Buechele in Herman’s system, the Longhorns now have that.