Top 5 most ridiculous coaching buyouts in college football
3. Tom Herman – Texas Longhorns
Rounding out the top-10 highest-paid coaches at 8th on the list is University of Texas head coach Tom Herman. Herman found a ton of success at his previous stop, Houston. While there, he competed for many conference titles, and he even had an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff.
While Herman’s Houston program made the most out of nothing, he has not had immediate success at Texas so far in his first season. Also one of the more ridiculous buyouts in the nation, Herman stands to be paid $20,416,667 in the event he is fired by the beginning of December. After seeing much higher buyouts throughout the USA TODAY list, at first glance it doesn’t seem as if Herman’s buyout is too high. In fact, for a coach of the University of Texas, the buyout is on par or a little less than most people would venture to guess.
The fact of the matter is that Herman got the buyout that only a proven coach should have received. Herman, while an up-and-coming coach from a smaller program, he has yet to be in charge of such a large program. Texas is a top-5 job, which means top-5 pressure. At Houston, boosters might have given him a little elbow here and there, but at Texas, they will straight shove you around if you don’t please them, the players, your staff and the University.
Herman and his agent pulled the wool over Texas during contract negotiations, because he doesn’t have the clout that even a Dabo Swinney or a Jimbo Fisher carry with them. Of course, the aforementioned coaches hadn’t proven anything when they had been hired either, but they have won since then. Herman hasn’t won anything yet, and he has even lost when he shouldn’t this year. For his buyout to be $20,416,667 before he gets through a year of coaching a massive hotbed of football activity is unbelievable. The university will hopefully get some relief from one of the more ridiculous buyouts in the nation once the season is over. Will Tom Herman prove that he can win at a big-time program like Texas? To earn his buyout money he must.