How The Citadel Indirectly Helped Houston Keep Tom Herman

On Sunday, Dan Wolken of USA Today released an article talking about the challenges Will Muschamp has at South Carolina. The article talks about his failures at Florida and the speedbumps going forward in Columbia.

Then, all of a sudden, Wolken drops an information H-Bomb.

South Carolina, in fact, first targeted Houston’s Tom Herman and was so far down the road toward an agreement, according to two people familiar with the process, that the school’s administration had essentially shut its search process down.

Those same people, who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity, said Herman’s mind changed after South Carolina lost to The Citadel on Nov. 21 and it became clear the next coach would have a massive rebuilding job on his hands. Herman decided to stay at Houston for a deal worth nearly $3 million per year and, presumably, wait for a more high-profile situation.

Tom Herman, the darling coach of the 2015 season, was in fact ready to cash in with the Gamecocks.

However on November 21st, all that was derailed by The Military College of South Carolina, The Citadel

That game also seemed to help Houston going forward in upsetting Florida State in the Peach Bowl, finish 8th in the AP Poll and land one of the best recruiting classes in the American Athletic. Herman also was rewarded in a $3 million-a-year contract bump.

South Carolina and Herman have no obligation to answer questions about this alleged near-hit, so Gamecock fans will have this "what if?" scenario to torment them all summer while Houston fans are giddy with anticipation for this fall.

If Muschamp falters, more fans will look back at The Citadel 2015 and have the same amount of anger as Herman had for his fax machine post-NSD.