In late 2016, former UT system president Greg Fenves and interim athletics director Mike Perrin summoned enough institutional coherency to hire one of college football’s rising young coaches to take over the floundering Texas Longhorns program — 41-year-old Houston Cougars head coach Tom Herman.
Months later, the retirement of Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops in Norman held the potential to enact a seismic shift on a Big 12 Conference the Sooners have now dominated for two decades. Offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley was the replacement for Stoops — his first head coaching job — after two years at Oklahoma and at only 33 years of age.