Tom Herman carries many lessons from Ohio State

HOUSTON – Ohio State fans have a fond memory of former offensive coordinator Tom Herman and his tenure with the Buckeyes. But like all things, everything comes to an end and Herman moved on to the University of Houston and took over his own program and led the Houston Cougars to a 13-1 season and a Peach Bowl victory over Florida State.

Herman has had success at multiple stops and was part of Ohio State's national championship team that reeled off an improbable three-game run with wins over Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon with Ohio State's third-string quarterback.

The 40-year-old head coach learned a lot of lessons under Urban Meyer and has carried them on to this next coaching stop with the Cougars.

"This is a bit of Columbus south if you will, or Ohio State south," Herman said as we sat down with him for an exclusive sit-down interview in the U of H football offices. "There is probably about 90-percent of what we do is based on what I learned from coach Meyer."

Herman is quick to admit that he and Meyer may not have identical personalities but their approach is very much the same and Herman carried many lessons that he picked up at Ohio State forward with him.

"I think the plan and the accountability and the alignment of everybody that touches your student athlete from your assistant coaches to your strength staff to your training room to your academic people, everybody that touches your student athlete, the message has to be the same," Herman added. "That was one of the biggest things that I learned from him, that alignment throughout the department of everybody that touches your football team."

Herman also learned that the team that is more mentally tough may also prevail on any given Saturday as well.

"Just the physical and mental toughness aspect of – there were probably four or five games last year that we won that we were not as good as the team that we played, we did not have as good of talent, case in point the Peach Bowl. I don't think that (Florida State head coach) Jimbo Fisher would trade any 22 of his starters for any of my 22 starters but yet we played a very physically and mentally tough football game that day and wound up winning the game," Herman said.

When Herman walked into the Houston program, he took over a team that went 8-5 the previous season and 5-3 in league play. It was not a program that was devoid of talent but goals of 13-1 may not have even been in Herman's plans for year one.

"The year-one vision was to compete every day, go 1-0 every day, and build our culture and kind of let the dust settle where it would," Herman said. "I did not know how many wins that would be. I did not know what that was going to entail."

As with many programs, it all starts with the senior class and Herman inherited a remarkable one.

"I knew that we had an opportunity to kind of do something somewhat special because the seniors on that team last year were the first to buy in," Herman said. "When you have a senior class as open as they were to change, because everything that we did was a complete 180 from what they were used to. When they were that open to change, and then kind of dragged the rest of the team with them, I knew we had a chance to do something pretty good."

Herman's Houston Cougars were just one of several teams from the AAC to have great years in 2015 and despite the league carrying a 'Group of Five' conference designation, 'The American' had a solid brand name and everyone knew that winning the league could mean big things come January.

"As we headed into the fall our goal was to compete for our conference championship and as it turned out our conference kind of separated itself and will continue to from the other non-Power Five conference, with us having four top-25 teams for multiple weeks in the top-25," Herman said. "If you win the American Athletic Conference you are going to a New Years Six bowl game nowadays. That is a pretty neat experience."

Houston would go on to win the AAC against Temple and then defeat Florida State in the Peach Bowl, 38-24, in a game that may not have even been as close as the score indicated.

The University has responded by making a heavy investment in the football program. Herman was reportedly courted by several other programs during the offseason but opted to stay at U of H and put together one of the best recruiting classes by a non-Power Five school in memory. The Cougars had the No. 42 national recruiting class according to Rivals.com but that same class would have ranked 8th in the Big Ten ahead of schools like Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota if U of H were a Big Ten school.

#HTownTakeover has been become a steady trend on social media and it was a calculated move by Herman and his staff to build excitement as they looked to capitalize on first-year momentum.

"We knew that when we came and took this program over that we were not going to be as successful as we could be if we didn't not only secure as good of prospects as we could from the greater Houston area, but also really re-energize the city of Houston to college football," Herman said. "I say it all the time, we are the hometown college football team in the 4th largest city in American and in my opinion the greatest city in the country.

"We wanted to re-energize college football, re-energize U of H to the casual fan in the city of Houston, but also we wanted to make sure we secured the walls of the greater Houston area the best that we could when it came to recruiting."

Herman accomplished both of those goals with interest in Houston football soaring and recruits picking the Cougars over other Power Five teams. 16 of Houston's 20 commits in the class of 2016 came from the state of Texas and the Cougars inked an elusive five-star with home-town defensive tackle Ed Oliver turning down the likes of Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma to name a few schools.

There will always be ties between Urban Meyer and Tom Herman and Ohio State fans may secretly (or not-so-secretly) hoping that Herman could return to Columbus once Meyer's days at Ohio State come to a conclusion. That may be many years in the future with many unknowns still out on the college football landscape.

There are not many 'knowns' in college football but there is one thing that most people are sure of. Tom Herman will be one of the brightest stars of the next generation of college football head coaches.