Tom Herman’s task at Texas is simple: Be Oklahoma.

After his Horns secured a spot in the Big 12 title game on Friday, Tom Herman said his Texas team was “overachieving right now.

After some debate, Tommy Boy is dug in on the subject.

“The conference has a ton of talent and we have some talent, too. Don’t get me wrong,” Herman said Monday. “We are probably playing above our talent level.”

But I thought Charlie Strong’s recruiting classes were full of the state and nation’s best, consistently Top 10 overall, blah blah blah?

With all due respect to Herman and the job both he and his team did in 2018, Texas did not overachieve this season. Not even at 9-3, with a win over Oklahoma, a berth in the Big 12 title game, and a No. 9 national ranking.

College football is a caste system, and Texas has so many built-in advantages this type of season should be the norm. That’s life at Bama. At ‘SC. At The Ohio State. At Texas. At Oklahoma.

Texas should be Oklahoma, and until then UT is underachieving.

There is no good reason why Oklahoma is to the Big 12 what the New England Patriots are to the AFC East. It’s embarrassing to every Texan, and every Texas college program.

All others have tried, the only one to do this so far is Texas.

The second-year coach at Texas could not have started the 2018 season any worse than with that awful loss to Maryland, but to the man’s credit, he did what he was hired to do. Texas is in the Big 12 title game, and a nationally relevant program for the right reasons.

On Monday during the Big 12 conference call, I asked him, after myself and others had fun knocking him around, if he felt any personal vindication given the team’s success. He certainly has earned the right to extend a certain finger at myself, and others.

“It means a lot for me for you to be asking that question, so thank you,” he said.

Pretty sure that’s tongue in cheek, but gotta like a man for having some earned fun at my expense.

“I’m not into vindication or pettiness. I might be if I cared what anyone outside of that locker room or my house thought of me,” Herman said.

Never heard of a coach who was unaware of, or didn’t care, what was said and/or written about them. As a human being, it is hard not to wonder what others are saying about you behind your back.

I’m never ceased to be amazed by my good brothers and sisters in the media who feel like we can just crush our subjects and then are stunned when their feelings are hurt. They’re people. Most rational people are sensitive.