Tom Herman isn't from Texas.
He wasn't born or raised there -- he grew up in California -- but he understands what football means in the state.
"If there's a better football state in America, I will kiss your ass," Herman said, "because there's not."
Herman makes this claim based on personal experience. From Division III to FCS to FBS, he spent the majority of his formative coaching years as an assistant inside the state. He spent time outside the state, too, at Iowa State and Ohio State, recruiting across the country. It's all part of the path that led him back to the Lone Star State, specifically the University of Houston, where he's a first-year head coach.
Four FBS programs this offseason hired new head coaches with deep roots in Texas -- Houston (Herman), Kansas (David Beaty), SMU (Chad Morris) and Tulsa (Philip Montgomery). All of them emphasize how much their time in Texas meant to their careers and shaped their current selves. Each has a different challenge and his own method for success in mind, but there are similarities they share that provide a window into the future of their teams.
* * *
Three have roots as former Texas high school coaches: Beaty, Montgomery and Morris. To each, it's a badge of honor.
"It is literally my foundation," said Beaty, who coached high school football in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from 1994 to 2005. "When you're a high school coach, you are the only one that can create the energy. If you don't bring the energy, then your program won't have any energy. That's something that I've drawn upon since the day that I became a high school football coach in Texas. If you don't have energy in Texas, then you don't exist."
Beaty recalls the days when he not only coached, but juggled numerous other tasks from teaching classes to hiring coaches for all of his school's sports teams because in many Texas high schools, the head football coach is also the athletic director. The task list was at times endless, something to which Montgomery and Morris can also relate.
Morris says
Accordingly, Morris -- who took six teams to state championship games, winning one with Bay City, Texas, and two with Lake Travis High in Austin -- takes things a step further when it comes to giving back to the Texas high school football community. Not only is there an open-door policy for high school coaches at SMU to attend practices, Morris' staff actually schedules time specifically for them.
"Every day, when these high school coaches come in, there's an itinerary for them," Morris said. "During these three-hour blocks during the day, we're with these high school coaches. Anything they want to talk about -- scheme, how to run a program, any questions they have -- that's five days a week."
Montgomery, who coached at two Texas high schools -- Stephenville and Denton -- said some of his lasting memories weren't necessarily teaching kids how to move the chains or push the pace so the team ran 80 or more plays. It was simpler than that.
"Teaching it from the ground level up from the point of teaching a kid how to put his pads in his pants to getting in a stance, to taking a handoff, to catching a football, when you've got to start at the
Herman didn't coach at a Texas high school, but he came close to doing so at one point. His first college coaching job was at Division III Texas Lutheran followed by a stint at Sam Houston State. When he was part of a staff that was released at Sam Houston State, he considered becoming the offensive coordinator at Cypress Falls High School in Houston. But then-Texas State head coach David Bailiff called him and hired him as the Bobcats' quarterbacks coach, and he later followed Bailiff to Rice.
* * *
Unsurprisingly, each of the four fit a similar prototype, one that seems to be the increasingly popular pedigree for new head coaches: young, offensive assistants from Power 5 programs.
Herman (Ohio State), Morris (Clemson) and Montgomery (Baylor) were each offensive coordinators at their last stop, while Beaty (Texas A&M) was a receivers coach and recruiting coordinator but has been an offensive coordinator before. They range in age from 39 (Herman) to 46 (Morris).
To call them all "spread coaches" would be mildly accurate but overly simplistic. It also overlooks the fact that each has different offensive principles. Montgomery, 43, has the most marketable and intriguing tagline: "Fun, fast, physical football." He scoffs at the "finesse" label thrown around at spread coaches and vows Tulsa will be physical in its run scheme.
"We still want to line up and do the things that you've got to do to create a point of attack and to be physical at that," Montgomery said. "And we're going to be up-tempo."
Just south of the Red River, Morris will also emphasize high tempo. SMU went as far as establishing PonyUpTempo.com, which greets visitors with the words "Welcome to #Tempo Football," with the image of a sprinting Mustang underneath. Rare is the Twitter post that surfaces from Morris or an SMU assistant's account without the hashtag "#PonyUpTempo." The equipment staff even carved it into the snow at Ford Stadium one particularly chilly day in North Texas.
"We want it to be a lifestyle, how you live your life," Morris said. "The decisions you make affect so many people. It's a brand. That's the biggest thing we want our guys to understand. This is far more than just a saying."
The 44-year-old Beaty's coaching background has long been in up-tempo offenses, so that won't change now. Spending the last three years at Texas A&M, Beaty became familiar with Air Raid principles and he hired Rob Likens -- previously at Cal and Louisiana Tech with Sonny Dykes -- to install them for the Jayhawks.
Herman says his team won't look like Ohio State's, but principles he used with the Buckeyes will certainly be a part of his offense at Houston. Major Applewhite, his offensive coordinator, will call the plays, but Herman wants the Cougars to have a downhill, physical run presence, attacking the A-gap and focusing on where the talent exists.
* * *
The heart of each of these four teams will come from the roster and how each coach builds it. To that end, recruiting is critical. To win, coaching is key, but talent is required. One thing is certain: All four coaches will recruit the talent-rich state of Texas heavily.
SMU is coming off a 1-11 season, and of the 10 FBS schools in Texas, the Mustangs had the fewest number of Texans on their roster (68). Morris, who has 16 years of coaching experience in Texas high school football, says he will focus SMU's efforts on the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex first and establish a presence in East Texas, Houston, San Antonio and Central Texas.
"I don't want to drive or fly past a kid that could play right here, that's right here in our own back yard, to go outside of the state of Texas and get the same type of kid," Morris said. "If we go out of the state of Texas to get a kid out of Oklahoma or a kid out of Louisiana or wherever, let's make sure he's a difference-maker."
While the entire state is part of the blueprint for Herman and his staff, they, too, are focusing particularly on their home city first. Houston coaches can be seen regularly on social media promoting an "H-Town Takeover," trying to start a trend of getting highly regarded local recruits to stay home.
"I think there has to be a movement, so to speak," Herman said. "It has to be cool. It has to be the 'it' thing to do, to stay home and compete for championships, get a great education."
Beaty and Montgomery have their own home states to tend to, and they say that's where their recruiting emphasis will be. After Beaty was hired, his staff spent the first three days in the January contact period visiting all 474 high schools in Kansas to show coaches how serious it is about developing the relationships necessary to recruit the state.
But his roots are in Dallas. He was born and raised in the suburb of Garland, and those long-established relationships with Texas high school coaches will be invaluable as Beaty tries to inject Lone Star State talent into Lawrence, Kansas.
"It's obviously a big key," Beaty said. "When we were winning consistently here under Coach [Mark] Mangino, there was a [large portion] of our roster that was made up of Texas, Oklahoma football players. ... We were successful with those guys in addition to Kansas guys.
"Our hub will be Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, but we're going to recruit the planet to get the right players here."
Montgomery acknowledged he wants to do a great job in the Tulsa area as well as the rest of the state because of the quality of football in Oklahoma, but it's no secret Texas is a key part to his recruiting strategy. The Eastland, Texas, native spent his entire football career -- as a player and coach -- in Texas.
"I think the guys that I've hired on my staff have strong ties back to Texas, have either grown up there, coached there, been in the high school ranks there, coached college there, have recruited that area heavily," he said. "So we'll still put a very strong emphasis on our recruiting in Texas."
* * *
Each program will assume an identity under its new coach. For Montgomery, it's an attacking, physical, fast, aggressive style of play. Beaty wants his players and coaches to "#EarnIt" one play at a time, one day at a time. Morris is emphasizing passion, relentless effort and discipline. Herman demands toughness and accountability.
What their respective futures hold is unknown. Each traveled long, winding roads through Texas to get to this point. They'll all cross paths on the Texas recruiting trails, likely competing for several of the same players. The results of those clashes will be fascinating to watch.
Let the battles begin.