Tom Herman's first few practices on the field as a head coach were more of a challenge than he was expecting, and it had nothing to do with his new team.
After being very hands on as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator the past decade straight at places like Texas State, Rice, Iowa State, and Ohio State, taking a step back wasn't as easy to do as Herman originally thought.
"I have an unbelievable coaching staff that is really, really good at what they do, so I try not to meddle as much as I would like to when I get the itch to get out there and coach. My fun comes the first 10 minutes of practice when I get to work with the punt team and get to be hands on and coach technique and that stuff."
"But my job, as I walk around and take notes, is to just make sure that we're operating efficiently, and that the culture stays where it needs to be and we don't let anything slide." Herman explained.
Those parameters for his staff were set in his first six weeks on the job, Herman explained later, noting that those first six weeks were dedicated to "coaches coaching coaches", meaning that the staff got familiar with Herman's expectations, and their role and Herman's vision for the program.
Interestingly, after the first day of practice running his own program, Herman reached out to mentor Urban Meyer for a little advice.
"I actually called coach Meyer and asked, 'What am I supposed to do during the two hours of practice?' I'm just used to having my own group with the quarterbacks, and then you go to the whole offense, and you're kind of the head coach of that, now I have to take a step back and survey everybody."
When asked what Meyer's advice was, Herman responded by saying, "take a step back, survey everything, don't meddle too much and make sure the culture stays consistent."
Herman went on to note that delegating responsibilities isn't hard to do when you've hired guys that you trust. Hear more from him below.