I think it impacted the Houston loss to SMU because it impacted the team’s perception of whether Herman would stay at Houston (in light of articles and Herman’s noncommital quotes afterwards).
The whole FIASCO has resulted in a HUGE deflation of the entire UH community - the administration, the fans - - the team!
How could it NOT? Everyone thought we were going to get in a P5 conference - immediately - not in several years, which would also enable us to keep Herman. We were betrayed - yet, again - by the whorns (why anyone ever believed them to be our friends is beyond me). All of a sudden the dreams of getting into that conference just vanished - at the same time as the whorns football team seemed to be getting worse - not better; and the rumors of a coaching change reached a fever pitch - with Herman rumored to be the successor.
And then we lost the SMU game! Everyone began to put two and two together, and they all came up with “four” as the answer. Result - UNIVERSAL DEFLATION OF ENTHUSIASM!
That comeback against Central Florida will certainly help, but Tom Herman has some fences to mend too - with the team, the UH administration, and the fans!