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Tom Herman the man ===> TH the coach


sushihorn

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I think that Tom Herman is a fascinating character study and his character is very much the foundation of his coaching style as well.  I’ve said elsewhere that Herman seem like he’s somewhere on the spectrum.  He displays major social anxiety, OCD and a very literal turn of mind.  TH also displays unusual body language and odd word choices.  Not necessarily Asperger’s but something like it.  Fortunately for us, it would seem he’s got of bit of Rain Man in him.

Using the Myers Briggs system from afar I would call Tom Herman an ISTJ.  The Introvert part is an easy call.  He may be the most self-contained HC I’ve seen at a major college program.  One characteristic of introverts is that they have few but close relationships.  When Herman says that the only people who matter are in the locker room and advises players to tighten their circle he is going to his default settings.

He is not comfortable in group settings with strangers and associates.  You can see that discomfort fall away when he’s with close friends and his football family.   He’s also a lot more comfortable in one on one or in small group settings.  He genuinely cares about the team and the program far more than about anything outside the circle.  Young people are pretty good at sniffing out hypocrisy and they are reacting positively to the devotion of their head coach.  Herman may seem arrogant at press conferences but the truth is he doesn’t care that much what the rest of us think because he wants to focus that energy on the team.  That and his social awkwardness combine to leave a bad impression.

The Sensing part is not quite as obvious but still quite clear.  Our HC is intensely practical, extremely detail oriented and very literal minded.  You can see the last in the way he often qualifies statements so as to be as correct as possible.  The detail orientation shows up in the way he has so many facets of the program pointing to his practical goals.  He wants toughness and he has installed an offense that promotes it, preaches it constantly and hired an S&C coach and DC to instill it.

Herman is obviously a Thinking rather than Feeling personality.  He even thinks about stock questions at pressers when 95% of the coaches would blurt out some pre-determined coach speak boilerplate.  The Judging factor shows up in the detail, detail, detail, planning and focus.  The setup of tendencies just so they can be broken is one product of this trait.  His constant focus on the next game is as well.  1-0 and “how we respond” are the result of this.  Eventually some player(s) who lack TH’s natural inclination may break under the relentless focus but it seems to be working well for him so far.

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I always thought the articles/tweets on EDSBS about how Herman looks different in every picture are pretty funny.

https://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2015/11/20/9769294/unsolved-mysteries-the-case-of-eight-tom-hermans

 

https://twitter.com/edsbs/status/1043646914581925888

 

 

Edited by J.R. Juniors Junior Jr.
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I’m not going to break down everything that you said, but I will echo your first statement about social anxiety.  Everybody talked about how Charlie Strong was terrible with the media, but Coach Herman isn’t far behind.  It is apparent every media interview that he does.  The man always takes a closed minded stance by folding his arms.  It’s almost a defiant position that is only intensified by his fierce stare with his eyes.  Rarely does he smile or seem relaxed.  The man is focused on everything that is being said to him, which I appreciate.  It comes across as arrogant and defensive, but he may be the smartest person in the room during media q&a.  This fact in his mind makes it difficult to be relatable to his audience.  He would be a shitty politician, but he would be a dominant dictator.  

I really like the guy as a football coach, and I bet he is an outstanding family man as well.  He would do anything for his inner circle and seems to have strong convictions with little wiggle room for change in what he thinks is right.

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24 minutes ago, sushihorn said:

I think that Tom Herman is a fascinating character study and his character is very much the foundation of his coaching style as well.  I’ve said elsewhere that Herman seem like he’s somewhere on the spectrum.  He displays major social anxiety, OCD and a very literal turn of mind.  TH also displays unusual body language and odd word choices.  Not necessarily Asperger’s but something like it.  Fortunately for us, it would seem he’s got of bit of Rain Man in him.

 

Using the Myers Briggs system from afar I would call Tom Herman an ISTJ.  The Introvert part is an easy call.  He may be the most self-contained HC I’ve seen at a major college program.  One characteristic of introverts is that they have few but close relationships.  When Herman says that the only people who matter are in the locker room and advises players to tighten their circle he is going to his default settings.

I am with you. It's why I believed he would succeed, even after the Maryland debacle. He's very driven, and I believe he has an intense desire to "right wrongs," like Texas being so terrible, like Bob Stoops sticking him with the dinner bill years ago (How does it feel having your dumbfuck brother stuck with the "bill" from Saturday's disaster, Bob? Fuck you!), like Urban Meyer being an unethical bitch to his protege. Things seem to stick in his head, as you said, like Rain Man. Herman doesn't strike me as a feet-on-the-desk type like post-championship Mack.

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52 minutes ago, ShowmeyourTDs said:

I’m not going to break down everything that you said, but I will echo your first statement about social anxiety.  Everybody talked about how Charlie Strong was terrible with the media, but Coach Herman isn’t far behind.  It is apparent every media interview that he does.  The man always takes a closed minded stance by folding his arms.  It’s almost a defiant position that is only intensified by his fierce stare with his eyes.  Rarely does he smile or seem relaxed.  The man is focused on everything that is being said to him, which I appreciate.  It comes across as arrogant and defensive, but he may be the smartest person in the room during media q&a.  This fact in his mind makes it difficult to be relatable to his audience.  He would be a shitty politician, but he would be a dominant dictator.  

I really like the guy as a football coach, and I bet he is an outstanding family man as well.  He would do anything for his inner circle and seems to have strong convictions with little wiggle room for change in what he thinks is right.

I agree with this completely.  The "he's arrogant" thing is way overblown.  The only time I've seen him look arrogant is when fielding pointed or hard to answer questions (like "why'd you lose? kinda hard questions).  I think he's a guy who has a very firm idea of what he wants his program to look like and when he doesn't get the results he wants (Maryland), it's hard to say why and look contrite to satisfy the people who then want him fired.  I think there's some uncomfortableness in his public speaking and parsing of words that comes off as bitchy.  Kinda like the way he corrected the guy who mispronounced L'il [Jordan]; he then apologized because he recognized it looked bitchy.  

 

I really like the changes from year one.  Year one was changing the attitude of the program by beating the fuck out of each other during summer camp at the expense of injuries.  Year two he clearly took it easy when appropriate to minimize injuries.  Year one was tough love and shame when appropriate with shitty breakfast for poor performers and loafer shirts.  Year two, it's clear that he's cultivating a brotherhood amongst the players. "Fight hard for the guy next to you" which I think it really paying off.

He's a work in progress and is pulling the right strings right now.

Edited by Lhorn
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1 hour ago, sushihorn said:

 I’ve said elsewhere that Herman seem like he’s somewhere on the spectrum. 

Heh, yep. Watch the intro of this post game interview. The guy misses the lil' and Herman awkwardly corrects him, "It's lil, Lil'Jordan Humphrey" . The guy says oh sorry "Little Jordan Humphrey". and Herman responds "CLOSE ENOUGH". Their faces are priceless after this part of the exchange.

Capturfefee.jpg

Then Herman spells out lil' and its pretty silly because the man is reading it off a piece of paper. 

LJ chimes in and says "appreciate you coach" to this correction. It's hard to hear.

The reporter says "it's my SMU education" lol

Then spaces out and doesn't start his brief. Then says sorry no offense for being weird as fuck and a stickler for names. 

Spoiler

 

 

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39 minutes ago, Parliament said:

You guys hate when I say it. Tom Herman and Urban Meyer are VERY similar.

Fuck Urban Meyer no he's not. 

Do you think TH is going to puss out and bail on his team and blame "stress headaches" only to go coach somewhere else?

Have TH recruited and coached players ever committed murder?

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17 minutes ago, Zavala said:

Fuck Urban Meyer no he's not. 

Do you think TH is going to puss out and bail on his team and blame "stress headaches" only to go coach somewhere else?

Have TH recruited and coached players ever committed murder?

They murdered TCUs QB

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Y'all are wayyy overthinking things. Herman is an asshole, albeit a smart asshole, but an asshole nonetheless. It's not a bad thing, but it can be. 

The real question is is he a winning asshole or a losing asshole. Or at least that's all that matters to me. And before anyone tries to say any equivocation to Urban and Briles, I'd be one of the first to call for his job if anything even smells close to that shit. 

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23 hours ago, preznick555 said:

Myers-Briggs is crap. But other than that, I agree with your points. I think he's just a much different personality type than what you normally see among football coaches at any level. Same with Mike Leach, but different personality, obviously. 

So are you an EN or ES definitely a J.  

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30 minutes ago, BigHorn'13 said:

Y'all are wayyy overthinking things. Herman is an asshole, albeit a smart asshole, but an asshole nonetheless. It's not a bad thing, but it can be. 

The real question is is he a winning asshole or a losing asshole. Or at least that's all that matters to me. And before anyone tries to say any equivocation to Urban and Briles, I'd be one of the first to call for his job if anything even smells close to that shit. 

Dicks fuck assholes too man. Dicks fuck assholes too.

 

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I agree that Herman can be a little autistic, and I think some of the stunts he pulled last year from the Urban motivational bag of tricks bordered on hazing and didn't really work with the roster he inherited. Urban is a classic narcissist and master manipulator, and Tom just can't pull that shit off.  He dialed it back once he won the team over with the Missouri win, and team morale seems to as high as it's been since the Colt years. 

Tom also seems to be actually taking advantage of having Mack Brown around as a mentor in dealing with the pressures of coaching at Texas, and he's getting better with the press.  This win streak has done wonders to win over the Austin sports media who, in keeping with modern journalism trends, were more interested in hot takes and playing gotcha than giving Tom any sort of honeymoon to get his feet under him.  The stank of mediocrity from late Mack Brown and Charlie Strong is starting to lift, and Tom is starting to come off less defensive and more insightful.   

As far as the coaching, the staff's stubbornness with strength and conditioning, devotion to scheme, and rigid practice habits are paying dividends.  We're improving game to game, particularly on offense.  The defense has overcome some major personnel changes and not missed a beat, despite a lack of upperclassmen star power on that side of the ball.  Special teams is improving in consistency, even though all our ST skill players are true freshmen and make their share freshmen mistakes.   Not bad for a team I was hoping would be 3-3 at this point in the season, when in fact we're 5-1.  

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I think the OCD and "spectrum" assessments are pretty unfounded.  He may be anal retentive, but he none of what he displays indicates OCD.  

I think he's just a smart guy who lacks that schmooze factor that Mack Brown had.  He can be a little prickly but he's hardly the asshole Urban or Saban are.

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2 hours ago, RollLeft said:

So are you an EN or ES definitely a J.  

ENTJ. LOL.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/what-your-myers-briggs-type-says-about-whether-youll-take-the-myers-briggs-test

Quote

ENTJ: “The Opportunist” – Instead of taking the test, you’ll give a TED talk explaining why the test is bullshit. After it goes viral, you’ll release your best-selling book, What Myers-Briggs Gets Wrong About Millennials.

 

 

 

 

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I always think back to this article when this topic comes around.

It's probably posted here somewhere else, and I am sure that it was somewhere on Shaggy, but this seems like a good spot for it.

Pete Thamel, Campus Rush (http://www.campusrush.com/houston-cougars-football-beat-okalahoma-upset-1998298989.html)

It’s 9:15 a.m. on Saturday. Houston’s two team buses pull up in front of NRG Stadium, where about 2,000 Cougars fans are lined up outside the gates. As the players disembark and walk past a sea of screaming followers flashing the three-finger paw sign, a scene normally reserved for an SEC or Big Ten school, coach Tom Herman asks with a smile, “Where were all these people for Texas State last year?”

Herman has spent the past 20 months at Houston with a simple goal: Change the world. And no game offers a better opportunity than the matchup with No. 3 Oklahoma, an 11-point favorite. After going 13–1 in 2015 and finishing No. 8 in the country, their highest season-ending ranking since 1979, the Cougars begin this season No. 15—high enough that they could crash the College Football Playoff. But there’s even more at stake: Houston, a member of the American Athletic Conference, is eyeing a spot in the Big 12, which is exploring expansion. The university is meeting with conference officials in Dallas the week after the game, making it a potentially ideal showcase for the streaking program.

To show how far the Cougars and their coach have come, Herman tells a story about recruiting in Dallas as an assistant at Texas State in 2006. He got an invitation to have dinner at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse with a group that included Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. Herman, who made about $42,000 at the time, couldn’t afford the meal, so he ordered a cheeseburger and drank water while, as he recalls, Stoops and his crew ate lobster tails and filets and drank $200 bottles of red wine. At the end, Stoops suggested everyone throw down a credit card to split the bill. Herman chipped in an equal share, $150, before calling his wife to apologize. “There’s no way,” Herman says, “I could be that guy [splitting the check] in front of Bob Stoops.”

“We’re going to win the game. We’re not going to win it because we outrecruited them. We’re not going to win it because we have better facilities. We’re going to win it because we love each other better. We’re going to win the game. So relax.”

—Tom Herman, Friday, Sept. 2

Ten years later Herman found himself across the table from Stoops again, and he gave Sports Illustrated full game-week access to see how the world has already changed.

At 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Herman struts into his office belting out Ace Hood lyrics: “I woke up in a new Bugatti.” Safeties coach Craig Naivar wears an AC/DC T-shirt to a staff meeting because “my Guns N’ Roses shirt is dirty.” And after an offensive staff meeting ends one night when Texans receiver Braxton Miller shows up wearing a T-shirt adorned with action shots of himself, offensive coordinator Major Applewhite can only laugh and say, “There’s not a tent big enough for this circus.”

When Herman came to Houston from Ohio State, where he was the co–offensive coordinator, he told his football operations director, Fernando Lovo, he wanted to conduct an experiment: “We’re going to win a lot of games, and we’re going to have a lot of fun doing it.”

Fun reflects Herman’s personality: He named his two-year-old son Maverick after the character from Top Gun, and he dubbed his nine-year-old Maddock Thomas Danger Herman so he could channel Austin Powers and tell girls, “Danger is my middle name.” Before one practice this week Herman dances like an overserved wedding guest, an air doggy paddle to Icona Pop’s teenage anthem, “I Love It.”

An appropriate tune, since love is the other aspect of Herman’s philosophy, which emerges from what he calls the “why.” Houston’s why is love, and players are encouraged to work hard and play for one another more than for themselves. All week Herman pounds home the message: “We genuinely love the guy next to us. When you line up against Oklahoma, you know your ‘why’ is better, your purpose is greater.” All this frivolity and fondness is laid over a foundation Herman picked up at his previous stop. Herman and his staff are relentlessly organized and plan out every conceivable detail. “It’s as if [Ohio State coach Urban] Meyer’s program and Plan to Win is being executed by Tom Cruise’s character in Risky Business,” says graduate assistant Dan Carrel, a former Buckeyes aide. With all eyes on them this week, the Cougars plan to produce plenty of PDA and to dance as if no one is watching.

“To [the Oklahoma] coaches and players you are two-star recruits who didn’t go on any of the trips that they went on.”

Tom Herman, Monday, Aug. 29

Five days before kickoff, Herman debuts a video that will loop in the facility and locker room all week. It shows goose-bump-inducing upsets: Boise State over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson, Appalachian State stunning Michigan in ’07 and Holly Holm beating Ronda Rousey.

The Cougars know underdogs. They have a 5′ 10″, 185-pound senior quarterback, Greg Ward Jr., who emerged on Heisman Trophy lists despite starting the 2014 season as a wide receiver. They have a 27-year-old freshman punter from Australia, Dane Roy, whom Herman teases about eating vegemite sandwiches. They have a starting tailback, sophomore Duke Catalon, who hasn’t taken a live football snap in more than 1,000 days after a redshirt and a transfer.

But if there’s one Cougar indicative of what the program could become, it’s freshman defensive tackle Ed Oliver. When Oliver verbally committed in May 2015, he was the No. 6 recruit in the country out of Houston’s Westfield High. His pledge started a chain reaction that led to the 35th-ranked recruiting class, the best in school history. Oliver, who arrived on June 1 at 6′ 1″, 260, has since put on 18 pounds, and though he has a 40-inch waist he needs size 44 pants to accommodate his log-roll thighs. “When I wear a pair of pants,” he says, “people are like, What’s wrong with you?”

Otherwise, Oliver has been a great fit. Even with the added weight he has a 36-inch vertical leap, and he can squat 605 pounds. “His freak potential is unreal,” says strength coach Yancy McKnight, and going into the Oklahoma game Oliver had earned a starting job, unseating senior nosetackle B.J. Singleton, who was second-team all-AAC last year.

Herman’s recruiting game plan mirrors the one used by Miami in the 1980s: Tap into the local swagger. “If you put all the talent in Houston on one team,” says Oliver, “you could beat the world, really.” How would the locals react to an upset of the Sooners? “I think we’d flip the town,” he says.

“When we were out practicing in a monsoon, they were practicing in their $50 million indoor [facility] and eating steak and lobster. They ain’t been through what we’ve been through.”

—Tom Herman, Tuesday, Aug. 30

At 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, the Ragin’ Cajun restaurant is packed. Herman is broadcasting his weekly radio show, and as he does his wife, Michelle, picks at a salad and laughs about how they got here—like their first date, when Tom sprayed air freshener in his mouth, mistaking it for breath spray. Along the way she worked at a day-care facility, a nonprofit, a bank, a college of criminal justice and at a bar, serving muffuletta sandwiches to college kids. Possum waited at the doorstep of their first apartment in Huntsville, Texas, every night, and roaches the size of saltshakers roamed freely. They moved out after Tom killed a bat with a broom, and they considered it an upgrade to live in government-subsidized low-income housing. “I wouldn’t change anything about it,” Michelle says. “Nothing was handed to us.”

These days, Houston hands Herman $3 million per year, and he’s in line for a $2.5 million raise in each of the first two seasons Houston plays in a Power 5 conference. To school officials and fans, such an invitation would not be a leap up but a return to previous status.

Houston is the fourth largest city in the country, with a population of 2.2 million, and in the 1980s the university competed on the highest level. Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Carl Lewis roamed campus. Phi Slamma Jamma made two championship appearances (’83 and ’84), and gunslinging quarterbacks such as Andre Ware, the ’89 Heisman Trophy winner, and David Klingler drew huge crowds to the Astrodome.

But when the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1996, Houston got left behind. “This place fell asleep when the conference broke up,” says athletic director Hunter Yurachek. “It was a huge blow, not just athletically.”

Before Herman arrived, Houston had already been transformed under president Renu Khator, who is overseeing a $1 billion campus renovation. With the new coach on board, the football facility has undergone a transformation too, including a new locker room and cafeteria and an upgraded academic center. In the past three years the university has opened a $125 million football stadium and a $25 million basketball practice facility; the $60 million basketball arena, the Fertitta Center, will be ready by 2018–19. “Every day I walk in this office,” Herman says, “and I think about how different it looks from when I first walked in.”

All of that effort and money has positioned the school well for its formal pitch to the Big 12, but none of it is any more important than its on-field audition. “It will change your life forever if you beat Oklahoma on Saturday,” Tilman Fertitta, the chairman of the Board of Regents, told the team. “If you beat Oklahoma, you are on your way.”

“If you think you’ve earned their respect, you have not. They don’t respect you. To them, this is still Cougar High.”

—Tom Herman, Monday, Aug. 29

At 9:30 p.m. on Friday, the lights dim in a theater at the team hotel. A television clip from a Thursday ESPN studio show flashes up on the screen, with analyst Danny Kanell previewing the Oklahoma game. Herman has spent the week searching for any embers of slight or morsels of disrespect. “I think they’re going to be overmatched by Oklahoma physically, from a talent standpoint,” Kanell says. “I love Gary Ward, what he does at quarterback. . . .”

Herman homes in like an unblocked defensive end. “That guy didn’t even know our quarterback’s name,” he shouts at his team. “Think he messed up Baker Mayfield’s name? Think he messed up Deshaun Watson’s name? He doesn’t even know our quarterback’s name! The guy who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated!Gary Ward?

“What does that tell me? We have to make them respect us.”

As the Cougars poured out of the film room and headed to their hotel beds, teammates teased Ward relentlessly: “Let’s go,

Gary! Where you at, Gary!”

“Trust our training. Don’t ever think on the field. Ever. That’s the fastest way to get beat.”

—Tom Herman, Friday, Sept. 2

At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, the Houston locker room has become an impromptu dance party, until Herman cuts the music and asks all the players to take a knee. He summons Applewhite, defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and special teams coach Jason Washington to the front of the room to help him recognize the top players from the 33–23 shocker of the Sooners. Nearly every player called up tells his teammates he loves them, that he played hard for them. Among those saluted is Oliver, who had seven tackles and two sacks in his debut.

No one gets a bigger ovation from his teammates than Ward. Oklahoma’s defense dared him to beat them with his arm, and he happily obliged, completing 23 of 40 passes for 321 yards and two touchdowns. When Applewhite called him to the front of the room, his teammates chanted, ” Ga-ry! Ga-ry! Ga-ry!

With Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby in attendance, Houston delivered. Carl Lewis attended the coin toss, and Herman gave Rockets star guard James Harden a bro hug during a television timeout. About 70% of the 71,016 fans at NRG stadium wore Cougar red, as opposed to Oklahoma crimson. Perhaps most important, the game, on ABC, got a 12.8 rating in the Houston market, which blew away the highest-ranked regular-season college football game in Houston in 2015, an 8.5 for Texas A&M vs. Alabama. The world, indeed, is changing.

The biggest moment of Houston’s big day came in the third quarter, when defensive back Brandon Wilson returned a missed 53-yard field goal for a 26–17 lead. Wilson began with his heels centimeters from the back of the end zone and hurdled one of his teammates along the way to score what has to be the longest touchdown in college football history.

Now there’s no telling how far the Cougars can run. Besides AAC showdowns at Cincinnati and Memphis, they have a Nov. 17 home game against No. 19 Louisville to boost their playoff candidacy. While all that’s a long way away, Ward perhaps summed up the immediate legacy of this historic win, for himself, his program and university: “They’re all going to know my name now.”

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With the mostly hillbilly numbnuts we have for a local sports media, I'd get emotional disorders having to talk to them. One reason I think Herman gets knotted up figuring out what to say and how to say it is because coaches are severely sleep-deprived, which I defy anyone here to say does not make it hard to talk or talk smoothly sometimes.

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