Tom Herman, the Head Coach of the Texas Longhorns, is widely considered one of the most hypocritical complainers in all of sports. He whines and moans about anything and everything, and is a sore loser.
West Virginia’s stunning win in Austin last year was capped by Will Grier famously running in a 2 point conversion to beat the Longhorns in the final minutes. Following the game, Herman was livid, whining and crying about the fact that Grier celebrated prior to crossing the goal line. Celebrating before scoring a touchdown should negate the score, according to the rules. However, Grier did not celebrate before crossing the goal line.
As you can see, he did high step into the end zone and began to raise his arms, but that hardly qualifies as “excessive celebration.” There was absolutely nothing unsportsmanlike about what Grier did on this play, but that didn’t stop Tom Herman from complaining about it following the game. “I thought taunting before you cross the goal line negated a score. I’ve got to brush up on my rules and get some questions answered.”
To make matters worse, Herman’s actions in the 2017 Texas Bowl against Missouri was perhaps the most unsportsmanlike, unprofessional behavior in the history of college football coaching. Drew Lock, Missouri’s starting quarterback in 2017, celebrated following a touchdown pass. Herman, with several Texas players, decided it was appropriate to mock Lock after the Longhorns.
For a coach to mock an opposing player is unheard of and unprecedented. That has literally never happened at any other point in the history of college football. It was not just unprofessional, it was historically unprofessional.
The culture that Tom Herman has built at Texas is that of softness, of hurt feelings and of complaining when things don’t go their way. He is a below average coach and even though he brings an incredibly talented team to Morgantown this weekend, the Mountaineers will always have chance with him coaching.