Tom Herman credits UTEP assistant Barrick Nealy with career

EL PASO, Texas - It will be tough for UTEP to slow down Tom Herman this Saturday. The 4th-year Texas head coach has led the Longhorns to three straight bowl wins.

Herman is a college football giant. He’s the highest paid coach in the Big-12 and his just under 7-million-dollar salary outweighs that of the entire UTEP coaching staff.

But the Texas head man says he may not have achieved all his recognition if not for assistant on the UTEP sidelines.

That’s current UTEP running backs coach Barrick Nealy, who 15 years ago was the star quarterback for Texas State.

Nealy's offensive coordinator?

A young, up-and-coming play caller named Tom Herman.

In 2005 Herman’s offense ranked 8th in Division I-AA, with Nealy a finalist for player of the year.

But as Herman prepares to face Nealy as an opposing coach, he had almighty praise for his old quarterback.

“Barrick made my career. I’m not ever gonna deny that," said Herman earlier this week of Nealy.

"This was a young man that had star potential written all over him and it was kinda the right place at the right time for both of us."

Nealy is in just his second season UTEP's coaching staff and his first as an on-field assistant.

And as Nealy begins a coaching career of his own, he passes on from Herman a golden principle to his players.

“For a long time I’ve always heard coaches say 'I’m not your friend, I’m your coach.,'" says Nealy.

"I think Tom was really the first coach that did it backwards. He made sure I knew, he was my friend first. So I would say more than anything I’ve really taken that approach with my running backs right now."

"Just kind of letting them know like, 'Listen man I’m your coach, but I’m your friend first.'”

It’s a foundation evident in the relationship between the two lifelong-friends. Both on the field, and off.

“I’m forever indebted to him, his wife Tiffany, his children." says Herman of Nealy. "He has been a godsend in our lives, the Herman family life.”

For Neely, he has similar praise of his old play-caller.

But he added that Herman’s greatest coaching act came after the two were torching defenses at Texas State.

Several years ago, Nealy's life was at a crossroads when his wife Tiffany called Herman for help.

“Just going through life as a young man, going through rough times," says Nealy.

"Tom was that first person that my wife called. We hit a point in our lives where I was having a hard time just figuring things out. Just wasn’t a lot of opportunities out there. I’d always been a good kid, a good person. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and my career."

"I remember laying in bed man, in my bedroom with the lights off just in a dark room. I think I was in bed for almost a week. Just depressed."

"I remember Tom being the first person that she called. And I didn’t want to talk, and she threw the phone at me, saying ‘You need to get on the phone.’"

Nealy describes an urging Herman on the other end of the phone.

"Right away it was you know, 'Get your ass up out of bed and boom, boom, boom. Just kinda doing what he does and he really motivated me."

"And all of a sudden things started falling place and things started happening. I went back and finished school, got my degree, and things just kinda started aligning, and all of a sudden I get a call from Dana," says Nealy of the offer he received from current UTEP Head Coach Dana Dimel.

"So I credit a lot of that to Tom.”

Two coaches.

One at the pinnacle of college football, one just getting started.

But to Tom Herman and Barrick Nealy, two friends, they’re one and the same.