Tom Herman can’t talk about one recruit yet, even if it’s a 5-star defensive tackle who offered a verbal commitment to Houston over schools such as Alabama and Texas A&M last week.
Why Houston? Herman launches into a five-minute speech, stops, says “Long story short” and digs in a little more. He’s more than prepared to answer that question.
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Herman calls Houston “an unbelievable vixen,” and it didn’t take long for the Broyles Award winner to feel the home-grown pull of the fourth-largest ciy in the United States.That makes it easier to understand why a blue-chip high school kid might feel the same thing.
“There are three, four, five generations from the city of Houston,” Herman told Sporting News. “They are entrenched in the city. Our message is, ‘You’ve grown up here and started your legacy here. Let’s change college football together here.’”
That’s ambitious, but it’s the same localized model Howard Schnellenberger perfected to transform Miami into a national powerhouse in the 1980s. Houston isn’t going to be “The U” overnight because of one 5-star recruit, and the more attainable goal is to become a Boise State-like program in the Group of 5.
There are noticeable signs the program is serious. A new stadium. Eternal recruiting fields. A coach who can flash a College Football Playoff championship ring with lessons learned from Urban Meyer. Don’t forget that good-old Texas pride. Hey, Matthew McConaughey and Drake stopped by and got their jerseys.
Herman is on to something, all right. TCU worked its way up from the smaller conferences into a Big 12 contender. Can Houston work the next Texas turnaround? Follow the money.
“Our staff salary pool is literally the highest in the country of the Group of 5,” Herman said. “We’ve got a vision from the top down with the dreams of being in a Power 5 conference in a few years. We’re positioning ourselves to do that, but we need to have consistent success nationally.”
Herman’s spiel also starts with the auxiliary pieces.
It’s about academics. Houston is a Tier 1 university just like Texas and Texas A&M.
“It's a vibrant college life with an unbelievable degree,” Herman said. “I thought we were going to have to hide from academics when I got here, but it’s become a big, big selling point.”
It’s about economics. Forbes ranked Houston as the fastest growing city with a job growth rate of 4.5 percent. Houston’s enrollment is over 40,000.
In Texas, it’s always about sports. Houston’s a high-visibility sports city in the now. The Rockets made the Western Conference finals, the Astros are in first place in the AL West and the Texans are a NFL playoff contender with J.J. Watt.
Now, Houston has Herman fixated on turning the football program into something more. Herman does that while complementing Rice, the other FBS program in the city where he served as offensive coordinator from 2007-08.
“There’s a lot of things in this city that make you puff out your chest and smile,” Herman said. “We need to be this city’s hometown college football team.”
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Houston wants to build a Power 5 profile, and there have been glimpses of that in the past. Art Briles won 10 games in 2006. Kevin Sumlin won 13 in 2011.
It’s a program best-remembered for the quarterback lineage of Andre Ware, David Klingler, Kevin Kolb and Case Keenum. So it’s fitting Herman, who helped lead Ohio State to a national championship with Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones, faces his first challenge under center.
Greg Ward Jr. and Utah transfer Adam Schulz battled for the starting job through the spring. Herman said Ward reminds him of Miller relative to the competition, but Schulz brings the experience and game-preparation skills of a fifth-year quarterback. He’ll have that first big head coaching decision this summer.
“The thing we've got to decide is if Adam is a six athletically and an eight as a game manager and Greg is seven managing the game and nine athletically, then you go with that,” Herman said. “It’s about playmaking ability and managing the game."
As for the talk of something more – Houston has made its desire to move up to the Big 12 public – Herman prefers not to engage in that conversation yet. The Cougars are coming off back-to-back 8-5 seasons, and that’s not going to get enough attention. It starts with winning in the conference you’re in, and right now the focus is on the American Athletic Conference.
“I don’t think any conversation starts without saying, ‘We gotta win our conference,’” Herman said. “In 25 years, men’s basketball and football have a combined three conference championships. Kevin Sumlin went 13-1 here and was in the Top 10 at the time, but lost the conference championship game.
“We have to be dominant in our conference year in and year out whatever that conference is,” he said. “Then, we let the chips fall where they may.”
If Houston, Herman and that hometown approach can land that first 5-star verbal commitment, then more good things will follow.
Long story short? It’s a message worth listening to.
