The Houston Cougars are set to hire Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman to their vacant head coaching position, according to a source. The news was first reported by FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman. The 39-year-old Herman is expected to be tasked with returning the Cougars to the level of high-scoring offensive success they enjoyed under Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin.
Tom Herman, Ohio State award-winner, to be new Houston head coach
The Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator won the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s best assistant coach, last Tuesday.
As a coordinator under Urban Meyer, Herman’s Buckeye offenses have ranked among the nation’s most prolific, leading the Big Ten in scoring offense in all three seasons and racking up over 500 yards per game in each of the previous two. Ohio State ranks No. 4 and will play Alabama in the College Football Playoff’s Sugar Bowl despite losing its top two quarterbacks to injury.
Houston fired Tony Levine Monday after a 7-5 campaign in 2014. In three seasons with the Cougars, Levine was 21-17 overall, twice qualifying for a bowl. In an official statement, Houston A.D. Mack Rhodes praised Levine for “leaving the program better than when he arrived,” but stated that “the expectations of our program have changed over the last five years with the opening of TDECU Stadium and the current college football landscape.”
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TDECU Stadium, a state-of-the-art, 40,000-seat on-campus stadium built at an estimated cost of $120 million, opened in September with a 27-7 Houston loss to UTSA.
Despite his current position in the Big Ten and his California roots, Herman has spent most of his coaching career in Texas. After graduating from California Lutheran University, he spent a year as receivers coach at Texas Lutheran University before joining Mack Brown and Greg Davis at Texas as a graduate assistant. Two seasons in Austin got him a spot as wide receivers coach at Sam Houston State.
In 2005, Herman joined Texas State as offensive coordinator and immediately helped the Bobcats win 11 games and make their first appearance in the I-AA playoffs. Herman followed Texas State coach David Bailiff to Rice for two seasons before getting his first BCS-level coordinator job at Iowa State in 2009. Despite his struggles at Iowa State -- in three seasons, his offenses never averaged more than 24 points per game -- he was pegged by Urban Meyer to join the Buckeyes as their new offensive coordinator.
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