What Tom Herman wants from the south end zone renovations at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium

Through the first roughly 500 days that Tom Herman has been the head coach of the Texas Longhorns, he’s been a vocal proponent for improvements in the football facilities. With the administration now soliciting proposals for south end zone renovations at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium that will also include updates of the Moncrief-Neuhaus football complex, Herman is in position to once again impact those decisions.

On Tuesday, he was asked what he wants to see happen.

“Everything would be about our players,” Herman said after practice. “I think the first thing that comes to my mind after we redid the locker room and the weight room and make those as state of the art and first class as any in the country, our training room is in dire need of that as well. My plan is to blow it out — I’m talking as good as there is in the country, because it directly impacts our student-athletes and their preparation and recovery.”

In the project description released last week by the school, improvements to the hydrotherapy and sports/nutritions areas of the football complex are included, in addition to “other support spaces.” So Herman has likely had some preliminary conversations with athletics director Chris Del Conte about what he wants.

The other areas where Texas has fallen behind competitors across the country are in the team meeting spaces, coaches offices, areas to host recruits, and the players’ lounge.

“We need to get it to where we are one of the top five or 10 in the country,” he said.

Herman has also talked in the past about wanting the ability to see out over the football field from the football complex — if constructed, that room would possibly be for hosting recruits.

The other looming question, not specified in the solicitation request, is whether to demolish the football complex or simply remodel it. After upgrading the locker room and the weight room, there’s now incentive not to tear out or demolish the investments the school has already made, Herman noted.

The second story of the complex could expand out into the stands or get torn down and then rebuilt, but it’s still so early in the planning stages that there haven’t been any concrete decisions made in that regard.

In the next several months, there should be more clarity as the plan starts coming together.