COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Tom Herman arrived at Ohio State in late 2011, he did so with little fanfare, better known for his membership to Mensa than his work at Iowa State.
Whenever Herman leaves—and that day may be sooner rather than later—he'll do so as one of the hottest commodities in the college coaching ranks.
Herman's work since coming to Columbus to work for Urban Meyer has spoken for itself, as he's helped transform what was a broken offense and inexperienced quarterback into a juggernaut that has ranked in the top four in national scoring in each of the past two seasons. The Buckeyes offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach's performance in 2014 has been his most impressive yet, turning a backup into a Heisman Trophy candidate and a third-stringer into a Big Ten Championship Game MVP.
"It's the hand we were dealt, and we played it," Herman said, according to The Associated Press (via ESPN.com).
Herman played that hand all the way to this year's Broyles Award, which is presented annually to college football's top assistant. Beating out Alabama's Lane Kiffin, Oregon's Scott Frost, TCU's Doug Meacham and Missouri's Dave Steckel, Herman asserted himself as one of college football's most talked-about coaches—just as the sport's yearly carousel of coaching changes begins to turn.
Herman has maintained that he's only focused on being Ohio State's offensive coordinator, especially as the Buckeyes prepare take part in the first-ever College Football Playoff. But his name had previously been linked to the head coaching vacancy at SMU that was eventually filled by Chad Morris as well as the Nebraska opening, which went to Mike Riley.
Herman has also been mentioned as a possible front-runner for the yet-to-be-filled Houston head coaching job, which would make sense on a lot of levels. But regardless of where—and when—Herman takes his first head coaching job, it's hard to imagine that his next employer will regret hiring the 39-year-old rising star.
While the Buckeyes' spread offense has always been Meyer's baby, Herman has managed to put his own spin on it, implementing a no-huddle element that the rest of the Big Ten is yet to have found an answer for. Meyer has been quick to credit Herman for Ohio State's "jet" tempo, as it's not a pace that the two-time national champion head coach has been used to playing at.
"He's an expert at it," Meyer said of Herman. "This is the first time I feel very comfortable with the tempo because that's not something [we did] at Florida, Utah, Bowling Green. We never ran tempo offenses."
And although the hurry-up has been Herman's calling card, it's been his quarterback development that's brought him to the forefront of college football.
When Herman first arrived in Columbus, Braxton Miller's raw talent was apparent, but his passing skills were still unrefined, as evidenced by his 54.1 completion percentage in his freshman season. In his first season under Meyer and Herman, Miller upped that percentage to 58.3, a year before completing 63.5 percent of his passes in his second of back-to-back Big Ten MVP Award-winning seasons.
And Herman's signal-caller resume doesn't end there.
When Miller went down with a season-ending torn labrum two weeks prior to the start of the Buckeyes' 2014 season, redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett was thrust into the Ohio State lineup. After a couple of shaky starts—including a Week 2 loss to Virginia Tech—Barrett put together the greatest statistical season in Buckeyes quarterback history, breaking the school record for total offense and the Big Ten record for total touchdowns.
Barrett's emergence thrust Ohio State back into the playoff picture, with a spot in the final four seemingly on the line for the Buckeyes in their Big Ten Championship Game matchup with Wisconsin. Only Ohio State would find itself down to its third-string quarterback, as a broken ankle suffered against Michigan brought Barrett's freshman season to a premature end.
Anything less than a convincing performance against the Badgers, and the Buckeyes would likely be left out of the playoff field.
Enter QB No. 3 for OSU, Cardale Jones, who did that and then some, throwing for 257 yards and three touchdowns in a 59-0 walloping of Wisconsin. If there was any doubt about Herman's ability to develop quarterbacks, it was put to rest in Indianapolis, as the Buckeyes earned the chance to play for the national championship with their second backup quarterback of the season.
"Tom Herman is an excellent coach. His unit the first year was very average," Meyer said following the Big Ten Championship Game. "Now, it's one of the strongest units on the team. He's done a marvelous job."
His cutting-edge scheme and ability to develop the most important position on the field aside, Herman has a commanding presence with the media. More importantly, he has shown that the area where his talent might stand out most is on the recruiting trail.
In just two years, Herman has single-handedly built a pipeline from Texas to Columbus, reeling in Barrett, Dontre Wilson, Mike Mitchell and Demetrius Knox from the Lone Star State. He has also played a key role in the recruitment of 2015 commit Torrance Gibson of Plantation, Florida, who at one point Ohio State seemed to be a long shot to land.
Recruiting connections in Ohio, Texas and Florida? That's not a bad base for a future head coach to build his program on.
And while Herman's next job will likely be a stepping stone job where he can cut his teeth as a head coach—like Colorado State was for new Florida coach Jim McElwain—get used to hearing his name. Because as the announcement of the Broyles Award showed, there may not be an assistant in college football with a future brighter than Herman's.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com, and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.
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