Joel Klatt doesn’t sound impressed with Tom Herman

Joel Klatt is clearly not a card-carrying member of the Tom Herman fan club.

Tom Herman has to recruit better for FOX’s Joel Klatt to fully respect the job he is doing at Texas.

Even though the Texas Longhorns have won their last three games and are still alive to get to the Big 12 Championship game and play in the Cotton Bowl Classic, Klatt was especially critical of the Texas coach when he appeared on The Herd with Colin Cowherd this week. Klatt may not have cared for Texas when he starred for the Colorado Buffaloes, but this take is damning nonetheless.

“It’s a problem,” said Klatt. “It certainly wasn’t the case when Mack (Brown) was winning a lot of games. They’ve gotten a lot of good recruiting classes but they’ve lost that luster in the state. It’s not just Oklahoma and Texas A&M. LSU and Alabama have been getting in there.”

“Ohio State….Tom Herman came out and said it’s hurting us in recruiting that there are rumors about Urban Meyer in Texas. You don’t address that. Tom, you don’t address that. Go out there and win games, keep your job and you’ll be fine. I don’t quite understand, Texas A&M has really hit the recruiting trail hard and Lincoln Riley is an excellent recruiter.”

Frankly, Texas should have “popped” by now under Tom Herman

Herman has been in Austin since 2017 after having spent two years leading the Houston Cougars in the AAC. Though Texas had a 10-win season and a Sugar Bowl victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in 2018, the Longhorns have not been a viable College Football Playoff threat since the four-team tournament started back in 2014. Herman should have Texas humming by now, not stagnating.

What Klatt hits on that is so important is recruitment. Texas is not the program of the arch rival Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12, but the Longhorns should not have teams like the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers poaching away top talent in-state. Texas needs to only really be worried about Oklahoma and the Texas A&M Aggies for that and that is it, but here we are.

Klatt’s criticism of Herman comes off Texas losing 2022 quarterback Quinn Ewers‘ commitment in late October. Texas also lost 2021 quarterback Jalen Milroe to Alabama after being committed for over a year, as well 2021 athlete Billy Bowman flipping his commitment to Oklahoma. With Bowman and Milroe committed else and Ewers leading towards Ohio State, you cannot have that.

While it is understandable for Herman to be compared to Mack Brown because what Texas coach is not these days, not getting it done on the recruitment trail has led to rumors of his mentor Urban Meyer coming in to replace him. For Herman to even address those rumors publicly is the look of a head coach whose seat is getting warm from the big chair. Herman just needs to win.

Texas is still not back and there are no guarantees that Herman will be the one to get them there.

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