What won over Thomas Herrion — twice — were the hugs.
The 6-foot-3, 315-pound Texan who came to the University of Utah last fall from Kilgore Junior College with tailback Brandon Warfield and is now one of five Ute football team captains with all-conference potential at left offensive tackle, really liked former U. coach Ron McBride and former line coach Alex Gerke during his recruitment.
But Herrion was really sold on coming to Utah when Vicky McBride, Ron's wife, gave him a hug.
And Shelley Meyer, wife of new coach Urban Meyer, helped Herrion overcome bad feelings about the coaching change — Herrion was the player who led the singing of "Let's Stay Together" during McBride's televised post-firing farewell meeting with the team — when she gave him a hug.
Herrion's mother, Janice Herrion, and Meyer also helped an angry young man make the transition from one coach to another, but Vicky McBride and Shelley Meyer made the real differences in getting him and keeping him.
Meyer was hired Dec. 12, a couple of weeks after McBride was dumped the Monday after beating BYU 13-6.
"It was tough," said Herrion, who started at right tackle last year but now takes over the all-important left side, replacing All-American Jordan Gross, the highest-ever Ute NFL draftee, No. 8 overall.
"I had mostly that renegade attitude like, 'I don't like you, I don't want to talk to you,' when coach Meyer came," Herrion said earlier this week at the Mountain West Conference media day in Las Vegas. Utah opens fall camp Monday and plays its first game hosting Utah State Aug. 28. "Coach Gerke was like a father to me. He was, like, there for me. He loved me. Whatever I needed, he was there." Herrion felt the same way about McBride.
"I don't like change. When I have change, I go into my little ball and be mad," said Herrion. His mother told him, " 'If you come in with a bad attitude, you're going to get a negative result.' I'm like, 'That's true.' As more and more I grew, I'm like, 'I've got to be a man about it.' And even coach McBride, he said, 'No matter what, you have to give everybody a chance.' It took everybody for a whirlwind when coach McBride left."
But Meyer quickly won over Herrion and the other returnees. "He's just being like coach Mac. He's very family oriented, and that's what you need," Herrion said.
"His wife (Shelley), first time I met her, she gave me a big hug. I'm like, 'Wow, she's a big hugger.' She hugged me like coach McBride's wife. (Vicky) just gave me a big hug. That's what won me over," he said about his recruitment.
"Coach McBride's wife — you don't see too many women, from another race, to be hugging a big, old black guy like me — it was real funny," he said with appreciation, still astonished by the act of friendship. "It's real cool. She just showed me the most hospitality.
"And Mrs. Meyer, she's the same way. That's why I came here. Most of my friends and family are like, 'Why Utah?'
" 'Because they've got some good people there.'
"Wherever I need to go, I think those people will take me there. And coach Meyer, he's opened up a lot of doors for me now, just like me being a captain," said Herrion, elected under Meyer's guidelines for captaincy — academics, athletics and character.
"I guess I knew I'm a cool guy, but I didn't know I was this cool to be a captain and coming to Vegas," Herrion said with a big, old laugh. "This is overwhelming."
Herrion has become a 3.2 GPA student on track to graduate next May. It's the priority for a player who didn't qualify academically out of high school because the concept of the SATs and ACTs "wasn't for me" and nearly didn't make it out of junior college because he too long ignored the state of Texas' required exit test during a 12-0 Kilgore season.
For graduation, "I'm going to send out a million invitations so I can get everybody to come here in Utah and see me walk across the stage. I'm really excited for that," Herrion said. "I know one thing I'm going to do is graduate with my bachelor's, that's the main thing that I really care about."
He hopes for an NFL career, but beyond that, he wants "to get into corrections, work on my master's and get my teaching degree and go back to my high school and just work with the kids." He worked this summer in Salt Lake adult parole and probation. "It's a real cool job. I'm learning a whole bunch about criminals and drugs, but it's fun." Maybe he doesn't hug anybody in this job, but, "You get to help people," he said, knowing well how much sincere acts of kindness can mean.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com