Mark Twain once said history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. We'll leave it to Mr. Twain to pick the rhyme here, because the Texas football program is reading out of the same verse to close the 2020 season as it did in 2016.
Back then, Texas entered a season with newfound optimism based around a new offensive coordinator hire (Sterlin Gilbert). That faith appeared rewarded when the Longhorns started 2-0 and rose to No. 11 in the polls, then stumbled into a midseason losing streak. The team briefly rebounded in late October and early November and then one late November loss proved the head coach was done -- even if he wasn't fully done.
Charlie Strong was done after Texas fell to Kansas on Nov. 19, 2016, even if he still had to coach the season finale against TCU six days later.
Unless, that is, you truly believe Texas's search to secure Tom Herman really lasted six and a half hours.
Four years later, Tom Herman is on the verge of being swept out by the same cycle that brought him to Austin.
Renewed by seven new staff members, Texas found itself at No. 9 after a 2-0 start and out of the rankings two weeks later. A 3-game winning streak could have saved the season, but Herman had his own Kansas moment when Cameron Dicker's 57-yard game-tying field goal hooked wide right.
Herman is focused on a meaningless game with Kansas State, and no one in Austin will admit to anything other than Herman being UT's coach.
A fun parlor game in Texas in October and November was whether UT would say goodbye to Herman for Urban Meyer even if the Longhorns reached or even won the Big 12 championship -- remember, there's a lot more at play here than what we see on Saturdays -- or, alternately, if Texas would keep Herman for a fifth season in the event Meyer turned them down, choosing continuity over the field.
The first hypothetical is now a moot point. We don't yet know Meyer's answer, but last Friday's Iowa State loss went a long way toward forcing an answer on the second one.
We'll know soon enough. In the meantime, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.