Urban Meyer criticizes Tom Herman, Texas for coaching and ‘player development’

If you want to know what Tom Herman has done wrong at Texas this year, Urban Meyer may not be the best person to ask. The two coaches have a complicated history with one another, and that could be why Meyer had no problem criticizing his former assistant on national television Friday.

During FOX’s pregame coverage of the Texas Tech-Texas game, Meyer and his colleagues discussed what has gone wrong for the 6-5 Longhorns this season. Meyer pointed out how they have done an excellent job recruiting in recent years but not been able to develop those recruits into NFL players. While he may not have come out and said it, he was clearly criticizing Herman.

What happened to Texas this season?@CoachUrbanMeyer, @CharlesWoodson and @ReggieBush explain how it comes down to recruiting and player development pic.twitter.com/uaj1HL3zHN

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 29, 2019

“It’s not just recruiting, but recruiting and player development,” Meyer said. “When you talk about an evaluation period — when you see injuries and you see non-development of players as NFL guys, why is that? Is it assistant coaches? Is it the weight room? Is it the nutrition program? You can’t just put this on players. You’ve gotta say, ‘What’s going on when they get there?'”

Meyer noted how Alabama has had 46 players drafted since 2015 and Ohio State (his former team) has had 40. Despite having one of the top recruiting classes in the nation every year, Texas has only had 13 players drafted during that span. That could be Meyer’s way of telling Herman, “Look how much better I am than you.”

It’s possible Meyer was just doing his job as an analyst and calling it like he sees it, but many believe he couldn’t wait to rip Herman. Why? Herman was a coach under Meyer at Ohio State from 2012-2014 before he left to take the Houston head coaching job, and there was a report that he was the one who leaked the story about Meyer covering up domestic violence allegations against a member of his staff. Herman denied it and said neither he nor his wife had anything to do with it.

What Meyer said was accurate, but it would not be a surprise if he took pleasure in saying it.