Interesting article on ESPN today about former Rice assistant and present media darling and UH head coach Tom Herman.

Six things Tom Herman and Houston swiped from Urban Meyer

Quote:...Want to win a national championship in Year 2? Meyer has the blueprint, and it was Meyer who helped launch Herman's nascent coaching career with a three-year apprenticeship at Ohio State.

At two of Meyer's past three stops, Year 2 consisted of an undefeated regular season. The other was a national championship year. There have been three BCS bowls, and while Boise State and TCU are memorialized as the BCS busters, first there was Meyer's 2004 Utah team.

Now, Herman is hoping to similarly chart a landscape undefined for the Group of 5. In his second season at Houston, Herman has positioned the Cougars as a viable preseason playoff contender. In the first two years of the playoff, only one Group of 5 team has been ranked preseason: No. 23 Boise State in 2015.

"[Meyer's] Year 2s are phenomenal," Herman said.

Herman hopes to duplicate it, and there are striking similarities between how Meyer started his programs with what Herman is doing at Houston....

Here are the six things. For each the article gives an outline of Meyer's blueprint followed by an explanation of Herman's model:

1. Break entitlement

2. Change practice habits

3. Proper alignment

4. Develop a QB

5. Family atmosphere

6. Motivate/avoid complacency in Year 2

I was kinda struck that the word Rice is unfortunately not mentioned in the article. Herman did start here, not a Ohio State, after all.

Quote:So Meyer's first offseason consisted of midnight and weekend workouts to assess the players' dedication to the program and one another. Stripped of their gear and given tattered workout clothes, players were shipped to nearby Lake Alice to carry weighted milk jugs the length of the field. Lifting logs, army crawls and sledgehammer slams followed as the rest of campus enjoyed the temperate winter weather.

That sounds a lot like Mike Rhoades' pre-season SEAL program.

Quote:"That tremendous attention to detail came from Urban," said Houston co-defensive coordinator Craig Naivar.

Quote:"You can tell he's trying to be like Coach Meyer," said Baker, who has met Herman. "He talks and it's like 'That's something Coach Meyer would say.' It helps recruit and get the most out of guys. Coach Meyer makes you feel like you could run through a wall, and Herman does the same."

Quote:Meyer protégés have spent weeks at No. 1, finished No. 2 and won major bowls and coach of the year awards. None have won a national championship.

Herman is aiming to be the first, relying on Meyer's blueprint to do it. He called his three years under Meyer like "head-coaching school," and now Herman is looking to duplicate Meyer's Year 2 successes.

This made me laugh, because in Bailiff's "Year 2" he won 10 games with an elite collegiate QB. Not sure about the other stuff on the list...

(08-09-2016 03:54 PM)mrbig Wrote:  This made me laugh, because in Bailiff's "Year 2" he won 10 games with an elite collegiate QB. Not sure about the other stuff on the list...

That he did. Herman is much more likely to fall down some than to go up. 'twill be interesting to watch the goings-on across town. I still think the article could have at least mentioned Herman's stop at Rice once.

One thing I think this shows is that Mensa has improved tremendously as a coach since leaving Rice.

That's not meant as a knock on Tom at all. If anything, it's a testament to his intelligence and dedication that he was able to absorb so much.

(08-09-2016 02:54 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  I was kinda struck that the word Rice is unfortunately not mentioned in the article. Herman did start here, not a Ohio State, after all.

Rice was his pre-season.

(08-10-2016 12:25 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(08-09-2016 02:54 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  I was kinda struck that the word Rice is unfortunately not mentioned in the article. Herman did start here, not a Ohio State, after all.

Rice was his pre-season.