Football 12/2/2022 5:59:00 PM

Tom Herman Introduction

FAU President John Kelly
“This is a great day in FAU history. We are really thrilled to welcome Tom Herman to Florida Atlantic University as the new Hagerty Family Head Football Coach. He’s a proven leader, he has a great record; if you haven’t looked up his record and if you want to just salivate, go look at his record. He’s a winner. He wins at everything he does, and the proof is his wonderful family that he’s won over too.”

Athletic Director Brian White
“What an exciting day for FAU; the athletic department, the football program, the whole university. We couldn’t be more fired up.”

On the search process
“We have a great locker room of student-athletes in this program and that was something that was very appealing. There was a lot of attraction to this job. For us, Tom was our very top target and the only person who was offered the job. When we talked to student-athletes, there were two things that summed it up the feedback from 110 guys: They wanted a winner, someone that was going to help them win at a high level. And number two, they wanted somebody that cares about them on and off the field. From my many conversations with Coach Herman, those two things stood out as a bare minimum.”

Tom Herman (Introductory Speech)
“This is an absolutely phenomenal place. As soon as I stepped off of the plane, I knew just exactly what Brian White was talking about with ‘Winning in Paradise.’ The foundation that has been laid by President (John) Kelly and the leadership crew at Florida Atlantic University is second to none. It has made this job such an attractive place.”

Tom Herman (Press Conference)
On what made him choose FAU as the place to continue his coaching career
“The first thing would be Brian White. I’ve met with plenty of athletic directors in my day and we just clicked. He was very articulate, specific, and thorough with his vision. When we started talking philosophies and leadership styles, it was very apparent we were aligned in what we wanted to do. That plus the ability to recruit to this beautiful facility, recruit in South Florida and the tremendous high school programs that are in the three counties down here, it has all of the makings of a program on the rise.”

On being a part of FAU’s move to the American Conference
“It’s extremely important for the trajectory of our program. You’ve seen schools follow this roadmap. I was at the University of Houston. [They were] Conference USA, American Conference, and now the Big 12. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse by any stretch of the imagination. We have to: crawl before we walk, walk before we run, run before we sprint. We can do that. The neat thing about this job is that transition is a little bit smoother than others because of the infrastructure that’s already in place.”

On what he wants to implement from his previous stops at FAU
“It starts with the players. We have to continue to bring in quality student-athletes. Hopefully, most of them from South Florida or the state of Florida. But then, we have to foster a culture of accountability that if you make a mistake or you do not live up to the standards that have been set, you feel guilty that you let your teammates or coaches down. When we all have that kind of buy-in and accountability towards each other in the locker room as well as the staff, you couple that with the athletes and the training that they’ll get, that’s when special things happen.”