Relative to other head coaches who moved on to new jobs for the 2017 season, Tom Herman did just fine in his first season as Texas head coach. Athlon Sports ranked the 23 FBS head coaches who changed gigs in the offseason from the best job done to the worst and Herman clearly did something right in his debut on the Forty Acres.

By taking the Longhorns from a 5-7 that lost to lowly Kansas in the final season of the Charlie Strong era to a seven-win squad, Herman came in at No. 10 on Athlon’s list in the publication’s preseason magazine.

That might sound low until considering the coaches ranked ahead of Herman on the list.

Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley, No. 3 on the list, guided the Sooners to a Big 12 title and a berth in the College Football Playoff. Jeff Tedford of Fresno State (No. 1) and Lane Kiffin of Florida Atlantic (No. 3) inherited programs that won a combined four games in 2016 — the Bulldogs went 10-4 under Tedford while the Owls finished 11-3 in Kiffin’s first season on the job.

Like Herman, the coaches ranked fourth through seventh — Purdue’s Jeff Brohm (3-9 to 7-6), Florida International’s Butch Davis (4-8 to 8-5), Georgia State’s Shawn Elliott (3-9 to 7-5) and Oregon’s Willie Taggart (4-8 to 7-6) — came into jobs where the program was coming off of a losing record and instantly made them a winner.

Had the Longhorns won another game or two, Herman could have easily been ranked higher on the list.

“A solid first season for Herman could have even better with a few breaks,” Athlon wrote. “The Longhorns lost to both USC and Oklahoma State in overtime and lost Oklahoma and Texas Tech by a combined nine points.”

Regardless, Elliott at No. 6 is where the argument can be made about how much higher Athlon could have placed Herman.

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Georgia State posted a winning record at the FBS level for the first time in the program’s history. However, as Athlon noted, none of Georgia State’s seven wins came against a team with a winning record and only one of the program’s seven victories was by a margin of more than 10 points.

Temple dropped from 10-4 to 7-6 in the first year of the Geoff Collins (No. 8) era. Ranked one spot ahead of Herman on the list is Strong, who won one fewer game in his first season at South Florida (10-2) than Taggart did in his final season leading the Bulls in 2016 (11-2).

Athlon made note of South Florida averaging one yard per play less last season compared to the previous season. On the other side of the ball, Athlon pointed out the biggest area of improvement in Herman’s first season was on defense as the Longhorns gave up 365.6 yards per game, nearly 83 yards per game less for the opponent compared to the defense in Strong’s final season leading the program (448.3 yards per game allowed).