Introductory Press Conference: Tom Herman
12/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
University of Houston welcomed in new football head coach Tom Herman on Friday afternoon in its introductory press conference at TDECU Stadium.
PRESS CONFERENCE OPENING STATEMENTS
Tilman J. Feritta
Chairman UH System Board of Regents
"Thanks everybody for coming out on this beautiful Friday afternoon. It is beautiful for the University of Houston. I've been around for a long time; involved with the University of Houston and we've gone though a lot of coaches. It hasn't been since Jack Pardee have I personally been excited and I know a lot of other people who have been involved with the University of Houston program are as well.
I really think we did it right this time. I can guarantee you one thing; we're going to win. We got the right guy. When you look back a few years from now you will remember we got the right guy. I think our Chancellor and our Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics wants to win more than anyone. They made sure we got the right guy this time. I want to thank the two of them for steering us in the right direction. I want to thank a couple of our Board of Regents, Jarvis Hollingsworth that also helped us with this process.
If we want to talk about business and the economy I will talk a little longer, but you all want to talk about football so I'm going to move on."
Renu Khator
Chancellor/President, University of Houston
"Good afternoon everyone. This is a great day for the University of Houston. The stadium looks beautiful even on a rainy day. Today's very special because it's also graduation. I was just there this morning. I shook 1,000+ hands and I'll be back again shaking another 1,000 hands and then again in tonight's ceremony.
In between we have this great exciting event because as I always said, `We are building here a nationally-competitive University, a Tier One University.' When you're a Tier One University, you have your dreams and hopes and expectations of absolute highest prime in every single field. Athletics is very important. I know football is very important. We have a great team here.
Now I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Herman as a candidate. I confess to you that I just like to see fire in the belly. He showed me he has fire in his belly. When I saw him the first time, I knew he's got fire in his belly and he wants to win more than I want to win. That's the kind of person I like to have on my team. Coach Herman - I want you to know that winning is very important. I just want you to know that I know football also and that means that I'm at every single game as well. I might be on the sideline too. I tried putting in the contract, [Mack didn't I try putting in the contract], that I could call one play at least a game. I didn't work out but that's okay.
We are so excited to have you here. I know you're bringing here not just great talent and coaching, but also bringing us a hope, a dream and that competitive edge that we are hungry for. Our fans and this city and state is just wonderful and you know this state. You know the city, but you don't know our fans that well. Now that you will meet them you will realize that they will love you, they will give you all the support you need and all they want is for you to be a great team player with them. I know you're going to be.
We're just very excited and very fortunate to have you and your whole family. Michelle - welcome here to Cougar Nation and to your three beautiful kids. We are just so happy here to have you in the Cougar Nation.
It's a great day for the University of Houston and I know it's a great day for athletics and it's a great day for the city of Houston. The students are a big part of the spirit here. They are a big part of the scene here that we have assembled. We do have 8,000 capacity on our campus that means we are the second-most residential campus in the state of Texas. I think we have every tool here and we are here to help you coach. We are here to follow your orders and I'll never call any play. I just want you to win. Thank you very much and welcome to Cougar Nation."
Mack Rhoades
Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, University of Houston
"I am glad this is over. Where's Amy? Amy we can now get a Christmas tree. It has been a great process. So many people helped us throughout the process. Certainly, I want to recognize those individual folks, but before I do I want to ask our young men of the football team, who are going to their second straight bowl game, who are going to represent the University of Houston versus Pittsburgh on Jan. 2, 2015 to stand and let us give you a round of applause.
I want to thank Dr. Khator. As you know she's so passionate about our athletics programs. She has been a tremendous support to me personally, but also to our coaches and to our student-athletes, so Dr. Khator thank you very much. To Chairman Fertitta, whom from the very moment of the beginning was behind part of this process. Truth be told, I brought one candidate to meet both the Chancellor and Chairman Fertitta and hoped they liked him. They obviously did. We couldn't be more pleased.
We have some regents with us. I know that Chairman Fertitta recognized Regents Armour and Hollingsworth, but also Regent Wilson. We have some former Regents Smith and Hermes. Thank you for sitting next to each other. That made it easier for me. I appreciate that. We have the SGA president, who did a pretty good job of leading us in Coog House, Charles Haston.
If you look at our seven home games, and you looked at the student section, really other than the last game that kicked off at 11 a.m., and we all know when we were college students there couldn't be a worst time to kick off a football game than 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning, but our students packed the student section every game other than that game. We really appreciate our students and everything they do.
Coach (Bill) Yeoman is here. Coach Yeoman gave me permission to officially announce this today. Coach Yeoman and the Yeoman family donated a sizable amount of money to the football stadium, and so the club area over in the corner where I am pointing will now be called the Bill Yeoman club, and we couldn't be more proud. Thank you Coach Yeoman. I also think Regent Shah is here with us. Thank you for being here. CEO of TDECU certainly needs to be thanked for what a great partner they've been with us as partners on this stadium, Stephanie Sherrodd is here. I know Ron and Carolyn Yokubaitis are here. They are the catalyst, the very special people who made this stadium a reality. Ron, Carolyn thank you. The President of our faculty is here. Maria, thank you.
Again, I want to talk about the search process. This is a testimony to everyone in this room who tested us, and put us in a position to really excel our future. We had an unbelievable pool of candidates. We talked to a bunch of different people throughout the country. We did it extremely fast. We had two donors, and I don't want to mention their names, that allowed us to use their plane, so that we could go back-and-forth and back-and forth.
Our first interview with coach Herman was on a Tuesday night at 10 o'clock, and I think we ended around 2 a.m. Certainly, he did pretty good in the interview. One, he's smart. He certainly knows how to recruit, because his wife Michelle is here. He absolutely knows football. We talk about that competitive fire, and him and I kind of locked eyes, and I knew that this was somebody who wants to win as bad as I do, and I want to win as bad as he does. The competitive fire, but the process and the plan, and the vision that he has for this program was tremendous.
Hunter Yurachek and Jeramiah Dickey were with me throughout the process. I want to thank those two gentlemen as well. Coach Herman is the right person for this job. He's a man of integrity, he's got a great family, and he will be proud to put the "UH" on his chest. He will be proud to represent this university nationally. Coach Herman wanted this job. It was five, six, seven years ago that he earmarked this job. This was the job that he wanted, and he wanted to be here. So, he certainly is the right person.
He is the right man, because he knows how to lead young men. Our young men will not only be successful on the field, but they'll be successful off the field with him. He certainly is the right fit with 11 years in the state of Texas. His connections: I received multiple emails from high school coaches just speaking on his behalf, and some of them even said "I'm not even trying to get a job." Just great support throughout the state of Texas. Certainly, he's the right coach.
When you look at the people that he's coached under, and when you look at what he's done offensively, you cant be just mediocre if you're getting ready to go play Alabama in the semi-finals. When you talk about bright minds in this business, the first name that comes up is coach Tom Herman. With that, I want to welcome Michelle, and Priya and T.D. (Maddock), and Maverick has his back to me, but I want to welcome the Herman family, to the UH athletics family, and introduce coach Tom Herman as our next head football coach."
Tom Herman
New Houston Football Head Coach
"Thank you very much. A couple of the things I've gathered from Dr. Khator and Mack (Rhodes) talking are; one, Michelle we are not getting a Christmas tree just yet. We've got some unfinished business to do back home, and two, if you have the opportunity to shake Dr. Khator's hand, you might want to put some hand sanitizer on first, because she's apparently gotten a lot of germs on that hand throughout the day.
Let me start by saying that I first want to thank Dr. Khator, I want to thank Chairman Fertitta, I want to thank the rest of the board of regents, and I also want to thank Mack Rhoades. Their vision and leadership are second-to-none, and it is something that absolutely makes Cougar football one of the premier programs in the country. I want to thank my wife Michelle. I outkicked my coverage. I can't believe that I was able to recruit that close to 20 years ago, but I did. And here's the kicker; she's really smart too, so it's unbelievable. So, thank you Michelle. This has been a wild ride, and you do an unbelievable job and a thankless job with our family.
I also want to thank the great head coaches that have come here before me. From Coach (Bill) Yeoman, to Coach (Kevin) Sumlin, to Coach (Art) Briles, to Coach (Tony) Levine. They have paved the way for a bright future for Houston Cougar football. I finally, as Mack alluded to, want to thank all the high school coaches in the great state of Texas that rallied behind me, that let their support and their voice (be heard) throughout the search process.
Let me say this, I am excited to be the head football coach at the University of Houston. This is a dream come true for me and my family. I have always admired this program from afar. It is really surreal almost to know that now I will be leading the charge. I've learned a couple things in my 16 years as an assistant. Most of them were the last three years under (Ohio State) head coach Urban Meyer, who is a fantastic mentor to me: one of the great champions in our great sport's history.
One of those things that I've learned is, you better compete every single day in everything that you do in order to be successful. That is from the time you wake up and brush your teeth until the time you lay your head down on the pillow, and every now and again you might want to compete in your dreams too. But, we will compete at the University of Houston. Two; the toughest coached team always has a chance to win the game regardless of talent. And, we have a ton of talent over there, and we will recruit some of the finest talent in the state of Texas, that I can promise you. One thing we will be; we will be tough. We will be physically and mentally tough, and that comes from preparation, and that comes from training, and we have the ability to be the most physically and mentally tough team in America.
The third thing; the player coach relationship is built on earned trust. I met with our team this morning, and I asked them to trust me. That's really, really hard to do. You're a 19-year old young man, your college career might be kind of flipped on its side a little bit right now, and you've got this guy coming in for a 15 minute meeting asking you to trust him. Again, I ask you guys to trust me. Trust the plan. Trust the process, and eventually that trust will go from blind trust to earned trust, and we will build championships here together. I will give you every single tool, by any means necessary, to be successful not only off the field, but off the field, and in life as well.
We will be exciting to watch. Our enthusiasm from our players will shine through with our aggressive style of play on offense, on defense, and on special teams. The city of Houston needs a hometown college football team to be proud of. Everybody keeps telling me about all the pro sports teams in the city of Houston, and they do a great job. There is nothing wrong with that, but the city of Houston deserves a hometown college football team to be proud of, and we will do everything, we will exhaust every opportunity, and we will take any measure necessary to make sure that the city of Houston is proud of this college football team.
We have a long way to go, but the expectations have been set very high, and should be. We've got a long way to go, let me reiterate that. We've got some culture things to change. We've got a vision that needs to be aligned throughout the staff, and throughout the department. That takes time. Culture change takes time, but I will tell you this, the expectations of winning and competing for championships in the months of November and December are expectations that I as well, feel are reachable here in the near future. Again, I want to thank you, and I'm excited to be the head football coach for the University of Houston, and we will give the city of Houston, and the great state of Texas, a college football team that they can be proud of. Go Coogs!"
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