It's not how you start it's how you finish. The Big 12 Media Days wrapped up with Tom Herman in the spotlight and the Texas coach didn't like the way his Texas tenure began.
Herman lost his first game and wound up with a 7-6 record. He says year number two is on track to be better.
"We are really excited about season. Culture is firmly in. Guys are in as good a shape as I've ever seen them," said Herman.
While Herman has the right attitude, history is not on his side. The second season for UT coaches have been worse than the first for each of the last five men in charge on the forty acres. The last coach to improve from year one to year two was Darrell Royal.
Royal: 6-4-1 in first year, 7-3 in second year.
Akers: 11-1 in first year, 9-3 in second year.
McWilliams: 7-5 in first year, 4-7 in second year.
Mackovic: 6-5 in first year, 5-5-1 in second year.
Brown: 9-3 in first year, 9-5 in second year.
Strong: 6-7 in first year, 5-7 in second year.
Herman: 7-6 in first year, ??? in second year.
"Hitting on the past puts a feeling in my stomach that I don't really like," said defensive lineman Breckyn Hager.
"It's gotta happen sometime. That's only thing I can say about it," defensive lineman Chris Nelson added.
Texas tight end Andrew Beck gave hinted that not everyone has been on board in the past.
"I think with Coach Strong a lot of people said they were bought in but we had a lot of locker room lawyers with opinions on everything," said Beck.
The players seem to be behind their coach 100 percent and Herman points that out.
"We are as close of a team as Texas has been in a long time. Not just player to player but coach to player as well," said Herman.
Now the challenge is to make everything that looks good on paper, look even better on the field.