Tom Herman was frustrated. He was on the phone attempting to pay a bill, kept on hold by customer service. He yelled across the room to ask his wife Michelle if this was really happening.

She asked how long he’d been on hold. It had been seven minutes.

“She’s like, ‘Seven minutes?! Of course this happens!’” Herman recalled.

It was last summer, and for the first time in almost 40 years he wasn’t preparing to coach or play in a football season. He had joined CBS Sports last August as an analyst, after one year as a Chicago Bears analyst that followed his four years as Texas head coach.

“I’d been, like, institutionalized for so long that I didn’t really even know how the ‘real world’ works,” he said. “I didn’t realize all this stuff.”

But without coaching responsibilities, he started eating better, taking better care of himself. He spent more time with his family, enjoying life as a stay-at-home dad. He had his knee replaced a year ago and rehabilitated that. But as the 2022 season went on and he visited stadiums for game broadcasts, he got the itch again. Every coach does.

Now Herman is back on the sideline as the Florida Atlantic head coach. He’s in “paradise,” as FAU calls itself, with its Boca Raton campus less than three miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The men’s basketball team’s run to the Sweet Sixteen has put another spotlight on the school, and the football coach loves it.