Tom Herman changes the culture at UH

Tom Herman walked in the door and raised expectations for University of Houston football. He said he was going to win and he started building a winner from day one – getting big-time coaches (and a big time S&C guy in Yancy) to buy-in.

But more importantly, he began a process of changing our culture. A lot of people didn’t understand that we had big problems with our culture. We were happy to go compete at UCF. Go compete at UL. Go compete at BYU, Cincinnati.

From day one he’s done everything to show this team that last year’s effort and last year’s “good enough” wasn’t good enough anymore.

From spring practice:

“They thought they were working hard. There’s a little bit of a disconnect when we talk about how hard you need to work. And how much effort and strain goes into playing championship football.”

Tom stepped on some toes. He said, “You can probably do it one way and win six, seven, eight [games a year], but to really get to the mountaintop …”

He told people at commencement that winning matters and that he taught his own kids to keep score. He locked the team out of the locker room to prove that good enough didn’t cut it. And it upset a lot of people. That’s fine. A lot of people needed to be upset.

He changed the culture by making every single component a competition. He made them practice with an intensity – with an actual prize at stake. Winners eat steaks. Winners get championship belts. Winners get celebrated. Winning matters.

I never understood people who justified keeping games close at UL, at UCF, at Cinci, at BYU. Those games were there to be taken. Our guys weren’t out-talented – they were out-prepared. They did not have their expectations raised. Bear Bryant once said, “I don’t coach football. I coach men.” That’s exactly the way Herman is going about it.

We will lose games this year because we don’t have the depth needed. We will lose games because less than 1% of programs can make it through a schedule undefeated. But our guys will get better, they will continue to buy in.

They’ve been coached up. They’ve grown. Tom said today in Pat Forde’s column that UL was probably the first time in his career that, in a big game, all three phases of the game contributed to the win. He’s right. We’ve gotten better across the board.

It’s because the players bought in. It’s because more is expected of them. Our guys have needed a leader and they’ve finally gotten one.

This pessimist is optimistic about our future.