On November 19, 2016, the Charlie Strong era came to an effective close with a devastating loss to the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, a defeat that made the Texas Longhorns the laughingstock of college football.
A week later, the Longhorns fired Strong and almost immediately replaced him with one of the rising stars in college football — former Texas graduate assistant Tom Herman, who had just guided Houston to 22 wins in two seasons, including victories over Florida State, Louisville, and Oklahoma.
The move didn’t come without risks, as Herman only had two years of head-coaching experience when he took the high-profile job in Austin, but he did understand the culture at the school and in the state.