Tom Herman says he will talk about his time at Texas. Right after he does this.

Texas is not back, but Tom Herman is.

At Florida.

Not at Florida. In the state of Florida.

At Florida Atlantic.

Got all of that?

And he’s not ready to talk about Texas just yet.

“There will be a time and a place for me to talk about my time at Texas; you will probably read it in a book,” Herman said Tuesday. “I’ve got great stories. Call me when I hang up the whistle, and I’ll tell you some stories.”

On Tuesday morning at the American Athletic Conference media days, inside the Live! by Loews hotel, Herman answered questions from the media as the head coach at Florida Atlantic University.

It wasn’t that long ago Herman was inside AT&T Stadium at Big 12 Media Days answering questions from the media as the head coach at the University of Texas.

“It is absolutely great to be back coaching college football, and to be back in the American Athletic Conference,” Herman said. “I could not be happier. I say that with truth in my heart. These past eight months have been the most fun I’ve had coaching in a long time.”

Of all the slew of new hires made in college coaching this offseason, “Most Interesting” goes to Tom Herman.

He’s 48 years old, has a few gray hairs, and sounds not like the man who replaced Charlie Strong in Austin in the winter of 2016.

“I try to ‘Fight the man’ a lot less. I am more diplomatic,” he said. “I understand I can’t wave a wand and get things done.

“With this generation the delivery may need to be a little bit different. Every year I like to use the word ‘evolve.’ I’d like to think you self-evaluate every offseason and try to make improvements.”

Since 2010, Tom Herman by far remains the most successful football coach at Texas. Better than Mack Brown’s final seasons. Better than Charlie Strong’s tenure. And, thus far, better than Steve Sarkisian.

Approximately one month after Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte publicly said that Herman would return as the Texas football coach for the 2021 season, he was fired.

The reasons and circumstances behind the peculiar timing of the announcement remain speculation, and internet chat room rumor. Only a few people actually know the specifics.

The few who do won’t say publicly.

For an athletic department to fire its football coach on Jan. 2 is not only not good, it is embarrassing. No one won on that.

The firing ended a four-year tenure at UT where the Horns were 32-18; it was an era of Texas football defined by a Sugar Bowl win over Georgia in 2018, and four bowl wins.

In retrospect, there was some good in there.

“You didn’t seem to think so,” Herman said to me on Tuesday.

A fair observation. I didn’t.

I am not alone. Because when you are the University of Texas, more is justifiably expected than many close, painful, losses.

The four-year era was also defined by Tom Herman, and the noise that came with it.

Texas under Herman was pretty good. Not good enough. Not good enough to outweigh whatever the private specifics that resulted in his firing.

His handling of the “Eyes of Texas” controversy, born out of the George Floyd murder and subsequent movement, in the entire season of 2020 was Tom Herman at his best. His support of his players also hurt him more with the influential burnt orange persons more than it helped him.

Combine the noise, losing to Iowa State in consecutive seasons, the continued inability to kill the cockroach that is TCU, and even falling behind Oklahoma State and Baylor, and the influential Bevos had had enough.

One of those influential burnt orange types told me, after Herman’s first season, “He was 42 when he was handed the keys to a Ferrari, and he’s figuring out how to drive it.”

Since 1976, there has been one driver who knew how to drive the burn orange Ferrari, Mack Brown.

The Ferrari handles more like a political monster truck. Since Darrell K. Royal retired in 1976, the truck has left tire tracks over every able man.

The tire tracks aren’t visible on Herman. But you don’t coach Texas for four years, and get fired, and escape without a few tracks.

Since then, Herman spent one season working with the Chicago Bears as an analyst, and another working for CBS Sports calling games.

It wasn’t that long ago when he was one of those “Young, hot” coach types who was destined to be hired by a big school. He inherited a good Houston job in 2015, and in his two seasons he kept it as one of the best programs outside of the power five.

After 2016, he had LSU and Texas in full pursuit. He picked the program where he previously worked. LSU went with Ed Orgeron, who led the Tigers to a national title in 2019, and was fired in 2021.

Herman was ready to coach the Texas football team, but less so for the University of Texas football program.

“I understand that there are more parts to the machine than just football. The machine being an athletic department, and a university,” he said. “I’ve made a conscious effort to be more diplomatic.”

Hiring Herman for Florida Atlantic was low risk, high reward. If it works out, FAU has its Lane Kiffin reboot.

If it doesn’t work out, then Tom Herman will be able to tell those Texas stories sooner rather than later.