The University of Texas boasts the best athletic department in the nation, except in the sports that matter, which are a bit of a mess.
The Longhorns football team is 13-12 in the last two seasons, but can brag about that 2022 Alamo Bowl runner’s-up trophy.
About a week after losing to Washington in the BlahBowl, the basketball team fired its coach.
Even if UT wins a third straight Director’s Cup, the trophy handed at the end of every academic year to the nation’s top performing athletic department, until the football and men’s basketball team are right with ball there are major problems on the Forty Acres.
A Director’s Cup trophy is a neat add to a cabinet, but it’s not a playoff appearance in football, something Texas still hasn’t achieved whereas TCU has.
Texas’ messiest issue comes up to Hell’s Half Acre on Wednesday evening when coach Rodney Terry’s ninth-ranked Horns play No. 22 TCU.
Rodney Terry should at least be named the Big 12 coach of the year. A strong argument can be made that Terry should be the national coach of the year, too.
There’s a great chance Terry won’t be the head coach in Austin after this season. There is nothing on his track record to indicate he can sustain this level of success.
And not naming him the permanent head coach is a ticket to Ugly.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte traditionally doesn’t address a coaching position until a season is finished, and he’s ankle deep in flop that he didn’t make.
No coach in college basketball was handed a better team, or a bigger bomb, than Terry when he was named UT’s interim head coach after Chris Beard was suspended following an incident of alleged domestic violence against his fiancee.
Texas was 7-1 when Terry replaced Beard on Dec. 12. The Horns are 22-7, 11-5 in the Big 12, and in second place in the league behind Kansas. Texas can potentially tie for the Big 12 title.
Beard was more of a bully than most people knew. Behind his salesman shtick was more of a Bob Knight than you would have guessed, but in terms of roster building he was perfect for college basketball.
Beard basically built juco teams at four-year programs.
Beard built this roster, and Terry has coached it to this position.
There was no way Texas could bring Beard back following his arrest. The image of Beard in jail fatigues, and standing before a judge addressing charges of domestic violence, was the end of his career at UT.
The Travis County DA eventually dropped all charges against the coach who originally was accused of strangling his fiancee. Beard’s attorney said the coach denied the allegations.
Shortly after his arrest, she recanted her allegations and was not going to be a part of a prosecution.
Beard’s dream job was Texas. And it was a dream that Texas was able to move Shaka Smart away to Marquette and easily replace him with Beard.
That dream is done, and now UT must determine if Terry can do at Texas what he was unable to build at the two previous places he’s been a head coach, Fresno State and UTEP.
Fresno State and UTEP are hard jobs, but jobs you can win to ride the elevator up to a power league. In 10 total seasons at those two schools, Terry was 163-156 with one NCAA Tournament appearance.
Terry left UTEP after three seasons to accept an assistant position at Texas under Beard. It was a similar move made by Chris Ogden, who resigned as a head coach at UTA to become an assistant in Austin.
Terry’s head coaching record would never sniff a coach a job like Texas. There is a reason he hasn’t been named the full time head coach.
How he has handled this team, in these circumstances, is nothing but commendable. Players could have easily checked out, or even announced their intentions to sit out the rest of the season before they transferred.
None of that happened. The Longhorns have had a good season, which may include a shared Big 12 title. It will include a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.
However it plays out, Rodney Terry did his job and he should win coach of the year awards.
Just don’t be surprised when he’s not the head coach.
