Goodbye Buyout: Longhorns Cost of Coach Herman Firing - $24M

What Did it Take to Get Tom Herman Out of Austin? A Buyout of Approximately $15.4 million - And That Doesn't Even Count What's Owed His Longhorns Coaching Staff

Earlier in December, Texas AD Chris Del Conte announced that Tom Herman would remain the Longhorns head coach. It was, if nothing else, a financially-sound decision. 

On Saturday, just three weeks later, Del Conte relieved Herman of his duties. And it is, if nothing else, a financially-expensive decision.

Here’s the statement from UT:

“With our football season coming to a close, our vice president and athletics director, Chris Del Conte, has evaluated the UT program’s strengths and weaknesses and where the program is relative to our goals. While we have made measured progress during the past several years under Tom Herman’s leadership, Chris has recommended to the university president, Jay Hartzell, that UT make a coaching change to get us on track to achieving our ambitious goals. President Hartzell and the chair of our Board of Regents, Kevin Eltife, concur with this recommendation and have approved the change. We thank Coach Herman for his service and dedication to our student-athletes, our program, and our university.”

READ MORE: Texas Fires Coach Tom Herman; Sarkisian Next?

What did it take to get Tom Herman out of Austin? A buyout of approximately $15.4 million for him and including the rest of the staff, a total of $24 million. Texas will also have to pay another buyout to get its new coach.

Herman will finish his campaign in Texas going 32-18 and look to take his talents to a new program. Of those losses, Texas lost seven times to unranked teams while they were ranked in the AP Poll.

Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian is expected to replace Tom Herman as head coach.

Texas finished its 2020-21 season with a 55-23 win in the Alamo Bowl against the Colorado Buffaloes. Maybe that was a step in a positive direction for the program. But in the end, it wasn't a positive-enough step for the ousted Tom Herman.