Bevo’s Daily Roundup: Texas HC Tom Herman has a lot to say about the Urban Meyer rumors

Texas Longhorns head coach Tom Herman has a lot to say about the rumors swirling around that his former mentor and legendary college coach Urban Meyer might replace him.

He had a lot to say. A lot, per 247Sports: “I’m concerned about our players, I’m concerned about this program, I’m concerned about beating Kansas, I’m concerned about all of our goals still being in front of us. But to directly answer your question, I do think with the players it’s really easy. These guys, they’ve seen it all, done at all. It’s almost comical at times to them because they know the truth. The biggest mitigating factor in this is there’s a section of people, which is our program, our coaches — the people intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of our enterprise, if you will — that know the truth. And then there’s rumors. And there’s unnamed sources, there’s internet reporters with agendas that claim their own opinion as fact and hide behind unnamed sources and things of that nature. The player part is really easy, almost comical to the point where sometimes a kid will come up to me and say, ‘Coach, you’ll never guess what lunacy just came across my feed. This is crazy, right?’ The recruiting part is a different story because when you have the things that have been written about us in our program, myself and our future — very unfounded articles that state, again, opinion as fact, that state unnamed sources as being factual, it’s very hard to defend against. If I’m a competing recruiter, what do you do? You press ‘print’ and you say, ‘Look, this is true! It must be true! It’s on OrangeFans.com? It must be true! Or it was written by this guy, so it must be true! Or this source said this, so it must be true! That is really, really the hard part in recruiting is because these 16-year-old kids are very impressionable. Unfortunately, when negativity gets written — especially unfounded, rumor-based, unnamed source-based negativity gets written — then it makes our competing recruiter’s jobs just so much more easy. They just press ‘print’ and say, ‘Here you go.’ As far as the reality is concerned, we understand that we have the support of hundreds of thousands, tons of our fan base and we certainly appreciate that. We understand the difference between vocal minorities and people who make decisions and their beliefs. I couldn’t be more aligned with our athletic director [Chris Del Conte], my boss, again, who we meet with constantly, who has assured me of his support and the support of university leadership and has even commended me and the staff and program for how we have handled the craziest year in college football history. [Del Conte has] even offered if a recruit wants to talk to him to give that recruit his number. But yeah, it does get difficult. It gets exhausting more than anything to have to extinguish all of these unfounded, baseless claims that are hidden behind unnamed sources and agendas. I don’t know why it’s more here at Texas than other places, but it is and it’s something that we deal with on a daily basis. I couldn’t be happier with our staff, couldn’t be happier with that locker room and the players in it. We were brought here to build something with the ability to have [a] sustained level of success and we are very, very happy and proud of our trajectory and getting that job done here for years and years to come. And as has been told to me, so is the leadership at this university.”

WHAT THE WISE MEN ARE SAYING ABOUT THE LONGHORNS

Austin American-Statesman: Golden: What happens when a Longhorn doesn’t make the NFL? Real life, and it isn’t always easy

Austin American-Statesman: Bohls: After a breakout Masters, Texas ex Dylan Frittelli is a no name no more

Austin American-Statesman: Tom Herman: Coaching, recruiting in a world of rumors, unnamed sources and personal agendas not easy

Austin American-Statesman: Texas coach Tom Herman takes Urban Meyer speculation, job rumors head on

Austin American-Statesman: Bohls: Wins (and losses) still count as COVID-19 cases mount in college football

Austin American-Statesman: Golden: Recruits’ perceptions rank ahead of social media talk, Herman says

Associated Press: No. 19 Texas has mix of experience and elite young talent

Dallas Morning News: Tom Herman says Texas’ CB trio has made strides throughout season

Dallas Morning News: Tom Herman not worried about job security, says he has UT administration’s support

Dallas Morning News: Tom Herman believes his job is safe, but Texas AD Chris Del Conte’s silence could speak volumes

247Sports: Herman: Bye week emphasis on passing helped ‘both sides of ball’

ICYMI IN BURNT ORANGE NATION

Texas TE room now suffering from injuries

WATCH: Tom Herman addresses the media ahead of Kansas

Cameron Dicker adjusting quickly to new role as Texas punter

The Longhorn Republic previews women’s basketball and sits down with Isaac Pearson

Matthew McConaughey, the Texas Minister of Culture, discusses his new book and more

RECRUITING ROUNDUP

Burnt Orange Nation: 4-star LB Terrence Cooks commits to Texas

Austin American-Statesman: Commitment 101: Four-star linebacker Terrence Cooks fills Texas recruiting need

Austin American-Statesman: The Dotted Line: Westlake prospects Cade Klubnik, Jaden Greathouse keep recruiting on back burner

Austin American-Statesman: The Dotted Line: Which Texas recruiting targets in the 2021 cycle remain uncommitted?

247Sports: Rising OL Remington Strickland discusses Texas offer, interest

247Sports: The Stampede: Quick hitting Texas recruiting in final stretch

BIG 12 BREAKDOWN

Our Daily Bears: Baylor loses the 2020 BU-TT Bowl 24-23

Viva the Matadors: Four down territory: Baylor

Frogs O’ War: The final road game of the season will be TCU football’s first under the lights

Crimson and Cream Machine: Oklahoma Football: OSU’s JACK of all trades

Cowboys Ride For Free: No. 14 Oklahoma State football reports zero active COVID-19 cases, 25 reported among other sports

The Smoking Musket: What I think after a thoroughly dominating win

Bring On The Cats: Wildcats hoping for better news in midweek COVID testing

WHAT WE’RE READING

Banner Society: What happens next for the Pac-12?

SB Nation: James Harden reportedly turns down $50 million per year extension with Rockets

NEWS ACROSS THE LONGHORN REPUBLIC AND BEYOND

• Check out the folks at the Austin American-Statesman breaking down the 2020 Longhorns.

• As if Texas women’s basketball’s No. 4 recruiting class enough, say hello to Australian point guard Kobe King-Hawea, the nation’s No. 1 junior college prospect who’s joining the squad.