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Tom "the turtle" Herman [Lame Duck or greatest 5d chess player ever?]

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he allegedly stole money from the Cole Pittman memorial golf tournament and someone posted on shaggy about it. He sent me an email saying take it down or else, and oh by the way, I cc'd my lawyer

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ztejas

ztejas 43,532

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Posted
8 minutes ago, futureman said:

nor should you.  this is an issue for alums. 

As someone that's stayed past the end of scores of football and basketball games to sing it I'd like to think I can chime in. I agree that it's up to alums to decide how best to move forward.

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RGBIII

RGBIII 22,840

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29 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Find a way to show insubordination by Herman... then fire his ass!!

 

Back to Friday Drinkin....

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Yup gonna skip the beer and go straight to liquor. Between Herman and a game 6 tonight, I can’t afford to be sober a minute longer

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wood

wood 11,256

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Just heard from a friend who is friends with a Dallas BMD ... that some BMDs were meeting up in a Dallas country club prior to TX-ou sucks, discussing 'passing the hat' to put together buyout money, and to hire Urbs. 

That's all I got. I have no special insight to add, and that's all he told me. No other background or details, nothing about their reactions after the game, etc. FWIW.

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ztejas

ztejas 43,532

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Just now, wood said:

Just heard from a friend who is friends with a Dallas BMD ... that some BMDs were meeting up in a Dallas country club prior to TX-ou sucks, discussing 'passing the hat' to put together buyout money, and to hire Urbs. 

That's all I got. I have no special insight to add, and that's all he told me. No other background or details, nothing about their reactions after the game, etc. FWIW.

did they have their glizzys with them?

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Surly Bevo

Surly Bevo 25,143

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1 minute ago, wood said:

Just heard from a friend who is friends with a Dallas BMD ... that some BMDs were meeting up in a Dallas country club prior to TX-ou sucks, discussing 'passing the hat' to put together buyout money, and to hire Urbs. 

That's all I got. I have no special insight to add, and that's all he told me. No other background or details, nothing about their reactions after the game, etc. FWIW.

The cart girl HAS to know something.  Somebody find her and get her story (and pics)

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BurntOrange&White

BurntOrange&White 40,001

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1 minute ago, wood said:

Just heard from a friend who is friends with a Dallas BMD ... that some BMDs were meeting up in a Dallas country club prior to TX-ou sucks, discussing 'passing the hat' to put together buyout money, and to hire Urbs. 

That's all I got. I have no special insight to add, and that's all he told me. No other background or details, nothing about their reactions after the game, etc. FWIW.

I’ll take it. 

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Huckleberry

Huckleberry 33,085

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19 hours ago, maninblack said:

And still miles ahead of us

Not really. They just beat us in 4 OT and our crapass squad is the only Big 12 team they've beaten after losing to KSU and ISU. That team and roster is not miles ahead of Texas, which is pretty sad because we are terrible right now.

Not to mention that Riley isn't exactly going to put "better than Tom Herman" on his resume.

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Hank_Hill

Hank_Hill 18,894

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6 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Not really. They just beat us in 4 OT and our crapass squad is the only Big 12 team they've beaten after losing to KSU and ISU. That team and roster is not miles ahead of Texas, which is pretty sad because we are terrible right now.

Not to mention that Riley isn't exactly going to put "better than Tom Herman" on his resume.

And Lincoln is possibly about to bail, meaning their one point above us would be moot. Obviously their recent history is miles ahead of ours, but this year and the future are debatable.

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Huckleberry

Huckleberry 33,085

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4 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Talent level on the rosters is equal with a slight nod to us. In-game coaching within the series is equal with a slight nod to Lincoln. In-game coaching and program management has a HUGE nod to Lincoln and that will never change. I’d kill to have Lincoln as my head coach, except we will have Urban, which is markedly better. 

If you want to continue to have absolutely terrible defenses we don't need to waste money changing anything.

Edited by Huckleberry
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TrashMaster G

TrashMaster G 17,594

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1 hour ago, Tailgate said:


Let's just all take a deep breath for a moment.

What we've just experienced this week was roughly the equivalent of four Red Banquets rolled into six days. Nothing like it has ever happened in the modern era of the Texas football program, and I say that as someone that has covered this team professionally since 1994 when I worked in the Texas Sports Information Department (yes, John Bianco was my boss). I've seen a lot of things, but I haven't ever seen this.

So, let's just woo-sah it out. It's been a long week.
 

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We're getting ready to go down quite a road, but we have to start by addressing the biggest elephant I've ever seen in any burnt orange room I've ever metaphorically stepped into.

At the end of this incredibly exhausting first six weeks of the football season, which has included one mishap after another related to the playing of The Eyes of Texas after three separate games (including the Sam Stands Alone moment), along with a massive behind-the-scenes impact on fund-raising for the South end-zone project during the middle of a pandemic...

You got all that? Woo-sah it out again if you need to.

In the backdrop of all of this mess, a massive implication emerged on Thursday through a combination of multiple online media reports, an athletic director's letter to Texas fans and a general rush from various corners of the Orangebloods.com universe to provide cover for Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte following my own report on Wednesday that Del Conte had made mistakes since July that had exasperated the problem.

The implication that exists out in the universe right now, which hasn't completely been flushed out, is that Texas head coach Tom Herman has defied Del Conte's very specific, very detailed and very unmistakable directives with regards to what each coach, coaching staff and set of players in each sport across the entire UT athletics globe needed to be doing with regards the playing of The Eyes of Texas following games.

The implication is that everything from the last couple of months is Herman's fault, that if he had been following the very clear orders that Del Conte had given everyone else, the mess from the last few months wouldn't have quite existed the way that it has.

Perhaps most importantly, the implication is that what happened on Saturday against Oklahoma and all of the fallout from that disaster would never have happened.

Those are the implications and they are not small. In fact, a strong case can be made that if Herman's alleged flagrant insubordination has created a sizable portion of the mess, it would register as grounds for immediate dismissal.

When I say the implications are serious ... I mean they are that serious. If you thought that I wasn't going to recognize the reporting of a former Orangebloods staff writer, Del Conte's own words and everything that has happened since Wednesday morning ... I'm not sure how well you know me because we are absolutely going to TALK ABOUT ALL OF IT.

Basically, I'm going to break this down into three sections.

I. What has been reported and directly implied in the last 36 hours.
II. Did Orangebloods get it wrong with its reporting?
III. Where we go from here.

This bad boy might end up being 10,000 words, so let's not waste any more time.

No. 1 - The Last 36 hours

In a premium article at 247sports, former Orangebloods reporter Chip Brown talked to three different head coaches of various sports on the 40 Acres and they went on record to support the communication efforts from Del Conte. Out of respect for the premium work by our former colleague, I'll share only one quote.

It's from Eddie Freaking Reese.

“The understanding we have is during the playing of the Eyes of Texas, we don’t have to sing or Hookem, but we should be there as a team,” Reese said.

Women’s swimming coach Carol Capitani went even further with his comments, but let's just stick with Eddie Reese because ... well ... he's Eddie Reese and I'm not sure I've ever heard a bad word said about the man or his character.

It feels like his word is gold, which makes his statement incredibly damning.

Now, let's take a look at comments that came from Del Conte in his sometimes regular newsletter on Wednesday afternoon.

"With that said, I do want to clarify that I have had many conversations with our head coaches outlining my expectations that our teams show appreciation for our University, fans, and supporters by standing together as a unified group for 'The Eyes,' while we work through this issue. However, like all families who see the world through different lenses, we have plenty of work to do on this subject and will continue to do so, but rest assured, our student-athletes love and respect this University very much and are competing their hearts out for it."

In Del Conte's own words, he said that he "had many conversations with our head coaches outlining my expectations that our teams show appreciation," but he never outlines that he personally ever told any athletes the same.

Remember that little detail because I will return to it.

Finally, Austin American-Statesman reporter Brian Davis actually spoke with Del Conte and Texas spokesperson Gary Susswein and apparently Del Conte himself to confirm the following two nuggets.


That's it. No further follow-ups the rest of the day on any of it, which feels weird.

No. 2 - Did Orangebloods &^%$ up?

Here are the main bullet points from my article on Wednesday. Let's just cut to the chase.

1. When meeting with Texas athletes prior to the release of the announcement of its Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, Del Conte did not communicate to the Texas athletes that he spoke with that it would be expected that they remain on the field for The Eyes of Texas. That meeting ended with Texas athletes feeling like they had been given the green light to basically choose whatever action they wanted with regards to action when the song was played.

2. I reported that from the end of the meeting in July all the way to the first game against UTEP that "there was minimal conversation" between university officials, the Texas coaching staff and the players.

3. That there was a meeting scheduled later in the week to address the current fiasco.

4. There were concerns that the lack of action had left new Texas president Jay Hartzell as a target, provided zero public protection for his coaches by speaking openly and transparently on the record and that players might push back strongly if they were forced to participate in the song after being told that they didn't in July.

Real quickly - No. 1 is true and indisputable. No. 3 happened. With No. 4, Hartzell suddenly seems out of the fray, the coaches are still sitting ducks to some degree (see Shaka Smart), but none of the players have yet to push back by the new set of guidelines they've been given.

So, let's focus on No. 2.

Our timeline in the story specifically mentions that the communication was lacking leading up to the very first game. It might seem like semantics but the distinctions of the timeline matter quite a bit when it comes to determining how much responsibility Herman owns in this entire situation.

Upon checking with numerous sources, there's an important piece of the story that took place last Thursday, October 8. Following the TCU game the previous Saturday, Del Conte met with at least a small section of the head coaches (we have not confirmed ALL were involved) within the Texas athletics universe to discuss the situation five days later.

We were one of the only people that confirmed that this meeting took place before the middle of this week

Full transparency: We found out about this information on Friday morning and were contacted by a senior official at the school who threatened to blame Orangebloods if we reported the information and members of the Texas football team decided to not play against Oklahoma because of it. However, we did continue to vet it, we did confirm that it occurred and it was discussed on the site..

Given that the athletic department was making threats to us on Friday morning, it's fair to ask out loud why that note was reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, confirmed by Orangebloods and ignored by every other reporter on the Texas football beat last week.

However, a key note emerged on Thursday.

A source connected to another men's sport told Orangebloods that during the meeting, Del Conte not only told all of the coaches present (including Herman) that not only staff members would be expected to stand for the song, but also all of the players.

Ladies and gentlemen, this might very well be the Professor Plum in the Library with the candlestick moment of this entire ordeal. We can get into a further discussion about whether Del Conte had been as direct about his expectations to the coaches prior to this meeting, but if our sourcing is correct, then Del Conte did tell Herman before the Oklahoma game about the expectations.

Before Sam was left alone by his teammates. Before the players walked off. Before the entire burnt orange world melted down like The Chernobyl Disaster.

The expectations outlined by Del Conte to Herman in that meeting suggested Herman needed to do whatever was needed to prevent what happened in the Cotton Bowl from happening.

Following the comments from the trio of head coaches that Brown spoke with, it seems like all three coaches need to answer a few follow up questions about specific details of just how many times in the previous two months such outlines had been given by Del Conte, but the Thursday meeting explains why all three coaches went on the record about having clear instructions.

That's big.

No. 3 - Now what ...

Who the hell knows, if we're being honest?

I suppose it partly comes down to whether this stays restricted to the bubble of premium Internet sites or goes beyond that? Will the Statesman ever report on it, especially since it has access to Del Conte, who refused to return my call on Tuesday after he reached out to me on Tuesday morning and we played a game of tag via calls and texts (I have screenshots).

Will Bruce Feldman report on it? Andy Staples? Pat Forde? Pete Thamel? Game Day? Urban Meyer on the Fox pre-game show?

Do any other reporters in this market cover this story with any thirst?

If so, this thing is going to explode before Texas plays football again. If not, perhaps this ends up being some story that myself, Anwar and Chip all made a big roar about, but nothing else occurs.

Regardless, we're at a point where Del Conte AND Herman need to answer questions about this situation. and opening statements on Monday from Herman are not enough. At a bare minimum, the OU disaster might have occurred because he was so worried about a team revolt that might lead to players missing the OU game, that he just didn't tell them.

Maybe that's not what happened. Again, that's why he needs to answer some questions.

Same with Del Conte.

If he gave orders throughout the last few weeks and months beyond last Thursday and this week, it's time to give some specifics because if his head football coach has ignored his orders all season ... what the hell?

Is Del Conte trying to give Herman so much slack that he has grounds to fire him? If that was the goal, the grounds now seemingly exist, although it still boggles the mind that it took six weeks, four Texas games, three Eyes of Texas fiascos and one Sam Stands moment for this thing to reach some clarity this week with Wednesday's meeting.

Take a look at Herman's contract.
 

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Folks, it's all there.

We're here.

Man, Tom Herman 's press conference on Monday has a chance to be something else. Of course, if Herman actually disobeyed his boss to the point that he ignored him for days, weeks and months, why would Del Conte still allow for him to talk at all, given that Herman would have put the entire program in a compromising position?

Fellas, it's time for some questions to be answered ... on the record.

The moment for full transparency has arrived.

"... exasperated the problem"?  Nice writing.

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RGBIII

RGBIII 22,840

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5 minutes ago, Ricky Butler said:

All these negative pieces on Herman do make it feel like the timeline is accelerated for whatever the heck is going on. Is it boosters trying to sully Tom's name? Or is it boosters AND administration laying the groundwork?

With the amount of blatant insubordination articles coming out it seems like it’s coming directly from administration and I don’t hate it

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Getafix

Getafix 28,792

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48 minutes ago, wood said:

Just heard from a friend who is friends with a Dallas BMD ... that some BMDs were meeting up in a Dallas country club prior to TX-ou sucks, discussing 'passing the hat' to put together buyout money, and to hire Urbs. 

That's all I got. I have no special insight to add, and that's all he told me. No other background or details, nothing about their reactions after the game, etc. FWIW.

 

If ever a post lived up to the username ...

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15,539

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2 hours ago, Dr. Beeper said:

“Per my source, at first his teammates didn’t know he was still out on the field, much less alone. When they realized he wasn’t in the locker room, some trickled out looking for him, notably Ta’Quon Graham. There’s no fracture within the team and certainly no issue between Ehlinger and his teammates“

I hope @Ghost of LL, that dumb motherfucker, read this. 

Yup--no problem with this team's leadership at all, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

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bad_teammate

bad_teammate 13,224

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24 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

With the amount of blatant insubordination articles coming out it seems like it’s coming directly from administration and I don’t hate it

The wishful thinking part of my brain makes me think it sounds like lawyers laying the groundwork for a cause firing threat leading to a negotiated exit (with a muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch lower buyout).

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,534

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23 hours ago, Reagan1k said:

I would disagree that he's complacent and coasting - He's a stubborn narcissist and cannot see that his way isn't working.  He cannot accept that he's not able to transmit his self-perceived superior intellect and coaching prowess so that the players can simply exert HIS will and overwhelm the opponent.

His claims that practice is great show that the players are doing exactly as instructed, only to be embarrassed by lessor opponents.  So, he blames the team for not playing like they practice (with his great technique and scheme). 

He's effective as an underdog once every few years when a superior team underestimates his, and he can scheme some trickeration to swing momentum.  Momentum in which he doesn't believe, because that would be counter to his notion that he can game plan due to superior intellect and ability....since emotion is but a tool for the weaker minded.

The refusal to stop pounding a square peg into a round hole isn't complacency, its pathological and shows an inability to accept that others might have a better game plan or make in-game adjustments that he.

He was a passenger on the Urban train and thought he was the engineer.  Born on third and thinks he hit a triple.  He believes this to his core.

It's Charlie Weiss...and Tom will go to the grave believing  he has a decided schematic advantage over every opponent and only the players can derail that.

 

It's pretty scary how alike we think.

I'm not sure I'd call it narcissism, maybe that's accurate.  But he is certainly arrogant and stubborn and can't seem to see that his insistence on beating that square peg just isn't working.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,534

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Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

I’ve got a huge problem with it, at the appropriate level (Herman) and for the right reasons (not being a presumptuous sniveling cunt about Sam’s inability to forge relationships with blacks because he’s from Westlake). 

Serious question, were you in the band at HP or did you run cross country?

Cross country was actually pretty cool back in the day.  Most of em ran track track too and they were funny as hell.  Like swimmers, their sport is masochistic af, and it breeds some insanely funny people.

"You can't beat our meets for excitement" was the motto in an ad they placed in the school phone directory.

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62,825

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Posted

 

24 minutes ago, Ricky Butler said:

All these negative pieces on Herman do make it feel like the timeline is accelerated for whatever the heck is going on. Is it boosters trying to sully Tom's name? Or is it boosters AND administration laying the groundwork?

Burton is talking directly to people on the BOR. He's got a network with the alums as well, but he's better connected than the others to the administration and their governance mechanism. He'll feed doses of info and quotable sources to Brown as the Powers That Be instigate for him.

Ketchum is persona non grata but fatta with The Money and the administration. As others have pointed out, at some point, Anwar and Hermansipid became buddies, which is bizarre but we've watched it unfold.

People working with IT are connected to Carrington, assistants on the staff, Herman, and various other staffs across the country. They're also connected to the HS system and the street agent realm in ways no other sites are. Gerry is connected across the sports media landscape in ways the rest of these guys aren't. They're also connected to folks who are either major contributors or part of some of those cadres. 

To me, that means that that Burton will know definitively before anyone else when dipshit is fired. IT will know who the assistants will be, which players are staying/going, and which recruits are coming/leaving sooner than anyone else. Ketchum will know precisely when the McRib is back.

12 minutes ago, MoJames said:

Just waiting for a large outlet to pick up the stories.

 

We'll see, but my guess is the issue with the major outlets is that their audiences aren't going to find this to be much of a story. EOT is a very niche issue for hardcore elements of the fanbase and the program.Hell, it isn't even that easy to quickly explain. Of course when it is clear that Tomblefuck has been given the heave-ho, it will be everywhere instantly. 

Mostly, the EOT angle and the insubordination premise coming with it should tell us that they're working on negotiating a reduction or removal of the buyout, and they probably have emails to support that and other issues, and it's forcing, or attempting to force, Trace Armstrong to back off the position of "fuck you, pay this fucker (and me)". 

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,534

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Posted (edited)

As a legal matter, using handling of The Eyes as a provable instance of insubordination doesn't thrill me.

Any/all of this is probably just one of several negotiating points, but that one in particular seems a little too factually squishy.  Maybe if Del Conte said "it is vitally important for alumni relations that the team remain on the field" and Herman, instead of forgetting or soft-pedaling it, said "I'm not going to ask you to stay on the field.  I have been told to, but I'm not going to ask you to."

Edited by TwiceHorn
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BurntOrange&White

BurntOrange&White 40,001

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Posted
Just now, TwiceHorn said:

As a legal matter, using handling of The Eyes as a provable instance of insubordination doesn't thrill me.

Any/all of this is probably just one of several negotiating points, but that one in particular seems a little too factually squishy.

The eyes debacle with Herman

 

the double birds on national television 

 

the mocking of an opposing teams player on national tv

 

all seem to be data points that will be used to negotiate a much smaller buyout. 

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Duane Moore

Duane Moore 5,249

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20 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's pretty scary how alike we think.

I'm not sure I'd call it narcissism, maybe that's accurate.  But he is certainly arrogant and stubborn and can't seem to see that his insistence on beating that square peg just isn't working.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect explains Tom Herman very well. 

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