AUSTIN, Texas – The conga line of assistant coaches kept coming down the hallway Wednesday morning, phones pressed to their ears, searching for the boss.

When they found Tom Herman, they handed him the phone and let him make his pitch.

“I’m doing fan-TAS-tic,” Herman would boom into the ear of a recruit, talking and walking, radiating energy. “As excited as I am about our 2017 class, the 2018 class is going to break some records. We’re closing the borders and keeping the best players in the state of Texas.

“I’m looking forward to building this relationship. We want you, we need you, and you’re going to have a spot in a historic recruiting class.”

At Texas, an anticlimactic National Signing Day 2017 was primarily devoted to working on National Signing Day 2018.

“We definitely made a concerted effort to do that today,” Herman said.

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, as Class of ’17 letter-of-intent faxes were rolling in, Herman was playing the latest popular phone game, 8-ball pool, with a handful of ’18 prospects. By late afternoon, the coach estimated that he had spoken with 20 or 25 prospects from the ’18 class.

That’s partly because the ’17 class could be considered a table scratch.

This is the difference in Tom Herman’s world from one signing day to the next. A year ago as the coach at Houston, he was celebrated for landing what Rivals.com ranked as the No. 41 recruiting class in the nation – considered one of the best hauls ever for a program outside the Power Five conferences. This year at Texas he signed what Rivals ranks as the No. 31 class, and nobody is celebrating.

“Little different expectation level,” he observed.

Texas hired Tom Herman away from Houston. (AP) More

By blueblood Texas standards, Herman’s first class here is a bit of a bust on paper (that may prove otherwise on the field). It’s the lowest rated the Longhorns have ever been in the 17-year history of the Rivals rankings; previous classes had never been lower than 24th.

Texas signed zero players in the Rivals Top 100, and just three in the Top 250. Two of those three originally committed to previous coach Charlie Strong.

Herman declared at his signing day news conference, “We don’t sign role players at the University of Texas.” But he also noted the naturally shaky nature of most transition classes between coaching staffs. Given what the ‘Horns brought in Wednesday, a few role players could be considered a successful class.

This slippage is a natural byproduct of two things: seven straight undistinguished seasons under Mack Brown and Strong; and the coaching change. Despite the ready explanations, watching all the top Texans migrating elsewhere is a difficult reality for Longhorns fans to deal with.

Strong didn’t win much in the fall, going 16-21 in three seasons at Texas, but he did in February. Signing Day was the annual highlight of the Strong Era, stoking hopes for a breakthrough season that never came.

Now Herman will be tasked with taking those solid recruiting classes and turning them into on-field winners. His résumé suggests a quick upgrade is possible.

After helping Ohio State to the 2014 national title, Herman took over a Houston program that went 8-5 that year and led the Cougars to a 22-4 record in two seasons. Which is why he wound up here, armed with a $5.25 million-a-year salary at the age of 41.

But for anyone who expects Texas to immediately compete for a national title, patience is advised.

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As you leave the airport and turn onto Texas State Highway 71 toward Austin, a sign flashes on the right side of the road:

“Welcome to Austin, Please don’t move here”

That sentiment is understandable. For several years, Austin has been the fastest-growing big city in America, with a population well in excess of 1 million. The weather is great, the economy is healthy, the tech industry is booming here and this also is the Texas state capital, which itself is a huge source of jobs.

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