In light of my post yesterday about Saban, this piece about Tom Herman looking to remake the personnel staff at Texas is fascinating on a number of levels.
For instance, see if this sounds familiar:
There are several areas in which Texas lags behind national powers that Herman would like to fix, as he expressed to Dan Patrick this week when discussing recruiting.
“We need to stay competitive with the elite teams in the country — the Alabamas, the Ohio States, the Clemsons of the world — in terms of our facilities and our resources and support staff and recruiting staff and all that,” Herman told Patrick.
The last two areas are the most important in the short term, as the lack of a large support staff and recruiting staff contributed, at least in some part, to Charlie Strong’s failed tenure in Austin.
And the failed tenure of Mack Brown before him.
In fact, Texas was one of the last two schools in the Big 12 to hire a Director of Player Personnel in 2013. At the press conference to create that position, Brown admitted that “we’ve kinda been mom and popping it around here for a long time.”
The ‘Horns also didn’t have a football-specific strength and conditioning coach or a nutritionist until that time. Mom and popping it indeed.
Under Strong, it was much of the same, though there were some reports that former athletic director Steve Patterson wasn’t always willing to give him the resources he needed.
It’s going to be interesting to watch and compare where Georgia and Texas go over the next few years. Sort of a massive controlled experiment.
Get The Picture 
Who is your money on, Senator?
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Too early to tell. Both schools have tons of resources and historically shaky athletic administrations. Likely depends on which place is truly hungrier to succeed.
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I know this won’t be popular to point out, but UT has been more successful than us in victories, championships, etc. historically, is a larger state in terms of athletes and significantly more financial resources for alumni support.
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Historically, no doubt. But both programs have been chronic underperformers over the past decade. The difference between the two over that time is basically Vince Young.
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Eh… I wish that were true. Gurley was that level, I think. We’ve been wasting talent for a long time where trophies are concerned… 2004, 2007-8, 2012-14… Feels like we just wasted Chubb, too.
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Senator, I think we have both performed below potential, but I wouldn’t say we were as bad as Texas the past ten years, not even close. We have had a couple of down seasons but had two where we finished in the Top 2, look at the epic bad misses they had under both Brown and Strong.
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They cashed in when they had Vince Young and we spit the bit when we had Gurley.
Those guys don’t come along often. Gotta make hay when you have them.
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12-1 the only full season Gurley played.
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12-2 the only full season Gurley played.
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I’ll shut up now.
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May not be popular but it’s absolutely true.
Oh, and Steve Patterson may not have been supportive of Charley Strong? Ya think? That guy was the biggest controlling d-bag out there.
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Hell, you could replace the names of our AD and former coach there, and it would still be true.
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I find it interesting Herman lists Clemson as an “elite” program. I guess we’ll see how elite they are next season after Watson leaves. I like Dabo but he did lose 5 in a row to the chickens recently.
As to who will get to the upper tier first, I think Texas has more natural advantages than Georgia but the determining factor is going to be which program’s admin decides to be the most aggressive about getting better. It appears Texas has been lazy and Georgia has been cheap. It might be easier to correct being cheap than being lazy. I guess we’ll have to see.
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It’s interesting to hear that Clemson invested so heavily a few years ago on support staff, analysts, etc.
I didn’t realized that until the NC game last year when it came out.
I suppose that’s how you stop “Clemsoning”.
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I’d put Patterson’s Texas in “cheap” category. He basically killed one of the country’s best Tennis programs by being cheap.
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Does needing 90 days to begin answering any questions count as lazy? 😉
It hurts to see institutions with such potential fall prey to incompetence, cronyism, and overall disfunction. It happens in business, the arts, and non-profit alike, but it’s a lot easier to reallocate resources and interests in those areas than changing my alma mater and team.
Just because I bleed red and black doesn’t mean I enjoy bleeding!
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Rumor has it that Lawrence is headed over there.
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Isnt Texas just what UGA wishes it was?
Texas is UGA with more money?
Herman @ Texas is at least interesting.
A lot will depend on his ability to manage the greater resources and how willing texas is with the resources, but he is already taking a huge leap up in resources without texas accelerating the spending. If texas can turn up the flow and Herman can effectively manage that flow, Texas could be a rocketship.
Same is true in athens, but after year 1 I would say that we are still on the conservative side of spending growth.
I feel like texas could open 50-60 football support positions by the end of the year if they chose to go that route.
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Failed tenure of Mack Brown? The man won a national championship. Can you really call that a failed tenure?
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well he failed to win two….so yeah I guess he is a failure…
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My thought last year was that if UGA wanted Alabama results, they’d have to give the new coach Alabama level resources. Of course, having an unlimited checkbook doesn’t mean the person cashing the checks knows how to manage the resources. I have seen some loosening of the reserve fund the last 12 months, but I’m not sure we are at the “give him whatever he says he needs level.”
My instincts tell me McGarity won’t willingly go full Alabama on resources. I guess we will see. Whether Kirby can handle the resources as well as Saban does is also an open question, if he ever gets them.
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No one can argue with Saban’s results, but one has to question his efficiency. If Hermann can be 80% efficient with his staff and Saban is only 50% efficient with his, but Saban spends 3x the money that Hermann can, Saban gets better results. Up until now, Alabama has been willing to outspend the competition by so much that Saban hasn’t needed for worry about being efficient.
If the trend is to adopt the true Process, including spending millions on support staff, then we will learn how efficient Saban is with his money versus others.
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until people out recruit Alabama, in general, and especially at the lines of scrimmage, no one is going to out Process Saban. He has more talent than everyone he plays most years. That is his secret to success.
The only way to beat him is to have health, luck, and generational talent at quarterback that can neutralize some of his advantages. UGA almost did that in 12 with Murray and Gurley. Just didn’t have luck go our way.
Ole Miss almost did that with Kelly this year, but they just couldn’t sustain.
I simply don’t believe any one team can overtake him consistently, but an OSU or a Washington or an SEC East team that would only have to play them in the SECCG is the type of scenario that could knock him off, one, when it matters.
2015, 2016 and it looks like 2017 are going a LONG ways towards closing that gap with Bama talent wise. It’s on the coaches and Eason to actually beat him.
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I agree that Saban recruits better than anyone else on a consistent basis. But one of the main reasons why is because he has the biggest recruiting staff and budget in the country. Not only does he have people identifying and contacting kids, he’s got staffers combing the rulebook identifying gray areas where he can gain any advantage possible in recruiting. Based on that, one could argue that Richt was a more efficient recruiter than Saban. Although Richt never pulled in the top ranked class, he consistently signed top 10 classes. And he did it without the facilities, staff, and support that Saban had. On a dollars per star basis, Richt may have done better than Saban … for all the good it did him.
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Always wondered with all that Texas oil money alumni, why they did not have the overall success as Stanford has. Need to spend all that money better, I guess. Also, as this keeps turning into a outspend the other program, some have to drop out or just choose not to keep up. Kinda like the Cold War spending.
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In these comments there are good points that bottom line things outlining who will rise to Alabama type consistency. One thing I think is overlooked is having on field coaches that are effective. Most of the programs like Georgia and Texas always have a weakness in the coaching staff. Alabama does not. The head coach does a lot but having a Kirby and a kiffin for several seasons without them screwing up a game plan is huge and makes Saban seem super human. The current Georgia staff has us fans kind of on the fence where most of us aren’t confident that Chaney can put together 4-6 consecutive seasons of high power offense with zero let downs.
Basically, until Kirby or Herman get coordinators and position coaches that never make any mistakes, they’ll be behind Saban. Regarding Clemson, I think dabo has a staff that makes him look better than he is, but that’s just my opinion.
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