Tramel: Can Texas coach Tom Herman end Longhorns’ decades-long stagnation

So while some in Bevo Land lament not being 2-0 in the Big 12, others wonder how a team so highly regarded is fortunate not to be 0-2.

“Our guys, they know what they signed up for, and so did I,” Herman said. “When you come to a place like Texas, there’s going to be very high expectations and a lot of people that think they know how to do your job and play your position and all of that.

“Our job is to put our nose to the grindstone and continue to improve.”

But there’s the rub. Longhorn football seems stuck in neutral since January 2010, when quarterback Colt McCoy was injured during the national championship game against Alabama. The Longhorns lost 37-21, and UT football hasn’t been the same since.

Through four more years of Mack Brown, three with Charlie Strong and now three-plus with Herman, Texas is 73-58, without a conference title, with only three-top 25 finishes and just final-poll ranking higher than 19th.

It’s a lost decade of Longhorn football, during which Texas ranks sixth in conference winning percentage, behind OU, OSU, Kansas State, TCU and Baylor.

Herman, who had been a graduate assistant under Brown and was Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator on Ohio State’s 2014 national championship team, seemed a perfect fit for Texas. He was head coach at Houston for two seasons, during which his Cougars went 5-0 against Power 5 Conference opponents, including OU and Florida State.

If Herman can’t win big in Austin, who can, outside of Nick Saban or Urban Meyer?