Texas announced on Saturday that it had separated from football coach Tom Herman after four seasons, with sources telling ESPN Chris Low that the Longhorns have focused on Alabama’s offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian as their replacement and hope to finalize a deal with him in soon.
Texas said in a statement that sports director Chris Del Conte evaluated the program and recommended a change to university president Jay Hartzell. Herman had 32-18 in Texas and 7-3 last season, which culminated in a victory over Colorado at the Valero Alamo Bowl on Tuesday.
“Decisions like this are very, very difficult and are certainly not something I take lightly,” Del Conte said in a statement. “As I said before, my philosophy is to wait until the end of the season to look at all the factors in evaluating any of our programs.
“After a lot of deliberation and a lot of reflection, when I looked back at the totality of where our football program is and in discussing its future, it became evident that it was in the interest of the University of Texas to move to a different direction.”
Hartzell and Kevin Eltife, chairman of UT’s Board of Regents, agreed with Del Conte’s recommendation and approved the change, according to a university statement.
Sarkisian, the former USC and Washington coach, won the 2020 Broyles Award as the country’s best assistant. Alabama faces Ohio State in the College Football Playoff national championship game on January 11.
Sarkisian, who is earning $ 2.5 million a season on Nick Saban’s team with Crimson Tide, turned down Auburn’s proposals in his search for head coach last month and turned down the position of Colorado’s head coach last year .
He would be the first technical assistant hired by Texas to lead his program since 1951, when the Longhorns promoted Ed Price to the position.
Herman, 45, took Texas to the Big 12 Championship Game, a Sugar Bowl championship and 10 wins in 2018, but the program has failed to return to that level in the past two seasons. He overhauled his technical team after 2019, replacing the coordinators and several other assistants, but Texas started slow and ended up behind Oklahoma and Iowa State in the big 12 race.
Herman won 4-0 in bowl games in Texas, but never won the Big 12 and went 1-4 against rival Oklahoma.
“I am grateful for all that Coach Herman has done and for the hard work and dedication that he and his team put on behalf of our program and the student-athletes,” said Del Conte in his statement. “I think of him for all his efforts and services to our institution, and I wish him the best in the future.”
Herman was under contract until the 2024 season.
Texas owes Herman about $ 15 million to buy the portion of the last three years of its contract. The Longhorns will owe about another $ 10 million to purchase the remaining contracts from their assistants, which are guaranteed business for several years. In May 2019, the university’s governors approved a two-year extension for Herman, which runs until the 2023 season. The last two years of the deal would have paid Herman $ 6.5 million in 2022 and $ 6.75 million in 2023.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach contributed to this report.