Texas Football: Herman Meets with Younger Players

Tom Herman spent a portion of Texas' bye week talking with true freshmen, breaking down either game or practice tape (depending on their redshirt situation) and give younger players the kind of one-on-one attention one can't spare the time for during a game week.

"The class of 2019 had their coaches make a 10-play cut-up, whether it's practice or if it's a guy playing, carved out 30, 45 minutes to meet with each guy and really coach," Herman said. "I miss -- as a head coach, I miss coaching players. It was really good to kind of reacquaint myself with those guys individually."

While Herman certainly enjoyed getting back to his roots and coaching on an individual level, these kinds of meetings go beyond a refreshing change of pace for the head coach or even intended growth and development for the younger players.

In the era of the transfer portal, this kind of upkeep becomes absolutely necessary.

While guys like Jake Smith, Roschon Johnson, Chris Adimora, T'Vondre Sweat, Kenyatta Watson, Marcus Washington and David Gbenda are all contributing early, there are plenty of other guys who have been toiling on the practice squad for two thirds of a season at this point, many of which haven't seen playing time since the lopsided win over Rice two months ago.

Even for the guys who have been able to see the field, this is often the time of year you see younger players hit "the freshman wall," a mental and physical hurdle that happens to younger players who aren't yet used to the grind of being a Division I college athlete.

"All of a sudden you're thrust into two months of very intense summer conditioning," Herman said of a young player's experience arriving on campus. "Then a training camp that's harder and more time-consuming than you could have ever imagined. Then, oh, by the way, you've got to take 15 hours at The University of Texas. You've never taken a college class other than the online summer school class that you took or whatever. And it wears on you."

Herman's national recruiting base has further complicated things. Unlike the Mack Brown classes of old, which were often at least 80 percent in-state recruits, the Texas class of 2019 is more than half out-of-state recruits with 12 enrollees from the Lone Star state compared to 16 from elsewhere.

It has paid dividends in terms of on-field talent but adds the potential problem of homesickness for younger guys.

Texas currently has three players in the transfer portal, two of which are from out of state.

While individual meetings like this past week are great for a small boost to morale, Herman understands it's not a permanent solution. That's part of why he has challenged his older players to build a bridge of leadership to the freshmen.

"Sam Ehlinger said when Andrew Beck was whatever he was, a seventh-year senior, when he talked, the freshmen listened," Herman said. "I said, 'I know, because he had a sophomore Sam Ehlinger. He had a junior Zach Shackelford that was -- he had a starting redshirt freshman right tackle in Sam Cosmi that could bridge that gap of age and experience.'"

"So we've challenged some of those guys that are going to be really good leaders for us, some of those younger guys, to make sure that we continue to bridge that gap from older guys to younger guys."