Texas Football: New Texas WR Coach Comes Highly-Recommended
Hiring a new assistant coach at the Power Five level is an exhaustive process. It involves calling other coaches for recommendations, interviewing prospects and scouring FCS and even lower levels for potential prodigies.
For Tom Herman, his next receivers coach was right under his nose.
Andre Coleman had been brought in the year before as an analyst on the staff, tasked with helping to develop gameplans and other lesser coaching duties. He was called up to an active coaching role for bowl prep as the program looking for a replacement for Drew Mehringer.
It was during that time that he bonded with the receivers group, particularly seniors Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay, earning a strong endorsement from the two team captains.
They both came into my office (separately) and said, this guy's the real deal," Herman said. "And you know that it's not like we're gonna let former players hire assistants, but just to have that kind of endorsement in such a small period of time was very valuable to me."
Perhaps it was Coleman's hands-on NFL experience that helped him relate well to the players. Through his playing career (that included a kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XXIX) Coleman was exposed to numerous different coaching philosophies, techniques and styles.
"There are some, you know, some detailed things and tricks, you know that, that I've been able to learn over the years through my journey of playing the game," Coleman said. "I've been fortunate enough to be around some pretty good coaches and be in played with some pretty good players and so some of the things I've learned from those guys."
With a receivers room full of talent, but light on experience, Coleman isn't guaranteeing any starting positions going into 2020.
"I don't care if your scholarship guy or your walk-on guy, the best guys are going to play and the film but the film never lies," Coleman said.
What do you think?
Did Texas make the right call hiring Coleman? Which assistant coach are you most excited about? Sound off in the comments and let your voice be heard.
