New Univ. of Texas football coach Tom Herman on Thursday wants to "upgrade the facilities and build out the football staff infrastructure in a way that reflects what Texas football truly is -- a $120-million revenue driver for UT athletics," according to Brian Davis of the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. Herman said, "More is always good, to a certain point. If Alabama has it, if Clemson has it, if Ohio State and Michigan have it, then we’re gonna have it. That’s the reality of college football, and until they tell us that we can’t, we’re going to.” Davis notes UT has "long wanted to expand Royal-Memorial Stadium." It was former AD DeLoss Dodds’ "dream to build a south end zone," but his successor Steve Patterson "wanted to add more suites and club seats rather than spike overall stadium capacity." Herman: "My job is to tell (UT President Greg) Fenves and [interim AD] Mike Perrin what we need to compete at a championship level. ... We need to modernize our locker room. That’s the place where our kids spend a big portion of their time, and then we need to update the weight room and reconfigure it a little bit." Herman said from a facilities standpoint, UT is "behind, but not by much." Herman: "Nothing that a multi-million dollar facelift can’t fix. We’ve got to find a way to intertwine all of the history and tradition here but also make this a place that is appealing to 17-year-old young men.” Davis notes UT has not "had a serious capital campaign in years, and other projects take priority." The school will "need to build a new basketball arena to make way for Dell Medical School expansion." Fenves has said that he "envisions a 10,000- to 12,000-seat venue that could cost" $250M. Herman: "You should always have some capital project in football going on all the time of varying levels" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 1/6).
