Herman blitzing the state of CA is absolutely tremendous and UT should've been doing this for the last 20 years. It's one of the three most talent-rich states, but it's easier than to pull kids OOS from there than Texas (2 good recruiting schools in state and ever blue blood in the country tries to recruit here) or Florida (3 good recruiting schools and kids seem hesitant to leave the south). In CA, USC is obviously a blue blood and we won't bat a very high percentage when going up directly against them, DeGabriel Floyd notwithstanding, but they recruit nationally and can only take so many good players. Schools like UCLA and Stanford aren't dominant recruiting powers in-state and kids in CA are pretty hesitant to go cross-county to cold northern schools or schools in the south.
Oklahoma has been taking advantage of this for years but it's easier to pull a CA kid to Austin than Norman (unless maybe they're from Bakersfield). The state of Texas will have weak spots every year and we need to hit up CA and Louisiana to supplement those spots every year.
I've been incredibly impressed with Herman. He gets it. He knows how to manage a massive football program, like UT. It's frustrating because he seems to be doing every single thing right, except getting wins. I don't like that Beck is still our OC, and I think our offense will once again pull down our ceiling significantly but if Herman can just get to 9 wins against a fairly easy schedule and then get a better OC next year, he could really get this train moving. And if he does, I don't foresee this thing stopping for many, many years.