Dude, just quit posting. You're making zero sense, you're rambling and you're basically just dragging your ass on the floor trying to leave a scent. It's embarrassing to read, honestly.
I'd Keep Greg Robinson. Defense was on all cylinders until Waley and guys went down Texas sure is in the driver seat in recruiting. Texas, Florida, Kentucky and Arizona.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Charlie Strong named 29th head football coach. <a href="http://t.co/w190q2PPeo">http://t.co/w190q2PPeo</a></p>— Longhorn_FB (@Longhorn_FB) <a href="https://twitter.com/Longhorn_FB/statuses/419906605157593088">January 5, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Strong's deal will be 5 years and $25 million and they've agreed to work through the $4.3 million buyout.</p>— Pete Thamel (@SIPeteThamel) <a href="https://twitter.com/SIPeteThamel/statuses/419915560147644416">January 5, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Strong has 21 days to pay Louisville the $4.3 million. So those details will be worked out soon.</p>— Pete Thamel (@SIPeteThamel) <a href="https://twitter.com/SIPeteThamel/statuses/419916221685850113">January 5, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Will Charlie Strong win big at Texas? Spoiler After big-name candidates like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh were mentioned in connection with the Texas Longhorns head-coaching position, Texas made something of a surprising move when it hired Louisville’s Charlie Strong to be its next head coach. It was perplexing, coaches told me (and I agree), because Strong is a fairly odd fit for a program that has a lot of moving parts beyond X’s and O’s. They see the 53-year-old as a football coach and not much beyond that, as far as internal politics and media go. “To me the head coach at Texas is so much more than just coaching football, especially in that state,” one coach said. “That’s not him.” Strong has at times been surly with local reporters in Louisville. Well, the press corps in Austin is larger and far more intense in its coverage. Unless he changes course, that figures to be a serious tug-of-war. Unlike a lot of coaches, including the guy he’s replacing (Mack Brown), Strong also shies away from national media interview requests. And that’s not even considering whatever TV responsibilities he might have with the Longhorn Network in town. It seems unlikely that he would allow the network open access to practices, as Brown did. Brown also participated in several shows, though ESPN programming officials have told me that Brown volunteered for much of that and that the actual obligations are quite minimal. It’s a clear change in direction for UT. "He's as much of an opposite to Mack as you can get,” one coach told me Friday night. “I guess that’s the way they wanted to go.” Of course, any lack of bedside manner on Strong’s part might be forgivable if he can get the Horns playing at an elite level again. What chance does he have to do that? Brown had pointed to the 2012 and '13 teams as ones that would get Texas “back,” but that obviously didn’t happen and it leaves quite a bit of roster turnover. Its recruiting class, heavy on receivers (six) and short on big-name, five-star talent, is currently rated 13th by ESPN’s RecruitingNation. In totality, the 2014 roster looks on the surface like a decent-but-not-great team. An Auburn-like turnaround seems unlikely, though there isn’t as far to go. Former Elite 11 participant Tyrone Swoopes, who saw limited action as a true freshman this season, figures to take over at QB, a position that’s been a problem area since Vince Young and Colt McCoy departed. It will be interesting to see if Shawn Watson, who worked well with Teddy Bridgewater at Louisville, goes with Strong. Beyond that, it will be interesting to see how the entire staff comes together, if Strong targets those with ties to Texas, who would take over for Watson if he goes elsewhere, etc. As far as what Strong himself brings to the table, he was 37-15 in four seasons at Louisville. The high-water mark was a Sugar Bowl win against Florida a year ago. The Cardinals were expected to dominate the American this year, but they were upset at home by eventual conference (and Fiesta Bowl) champ UCF. They won their final three regular season games, against Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati, by a touchdown each. That’s an impressive resume, but not necessarily one that indicates he’ll be able to elevate the Horns back to the highest levels of the sport. “[The Strong hire] isn’t scaring anyone in Texas,” one coach told me, referring to the state’s other programs. The same coach added that the prospect of the Longhorns hiring Baylor head coach Art Briles “terrified” those in the area. They felt as if Briles was the perfect football fit, even if he isn’t the most media-oriented coach in America. (Or if the thought of hiring Baylor’s coach was difficult to stomach for some UT die-hards.) Strong is from Arkansas, but he feels like far more of an outsider than some others -- Briles or Gus Malzahn (another Arkansas native), most notably -- would have. He has proved to be a very good recruiter, but in a different part of the country. In 2013, Louisville had zero players on its roster from Texas. It did have 37 from the state of Florida (due to ties dating back to Strong’s time as Florida’s defensive coordinator), however, making some wonder if he would be a better fit for the Florida or Miami jobs, if those were to open. In the Longhorns’ 2012, ’13 and ’14 classes (counting verbal commits for ’14), 57 of Texas’ 66 commits were in-state players, and just one of those out-of-state prospects came from Florida. None of this is to say that Strong won’t be successful recruiting to UT (supplementing the in-state talent with a few elite Florida players certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing, given the talent in both states), it’s just pointing out the change in geography. Maybe Strong does win at Texas, instilling toughness and discipline that coaches told me had dissipated under Brown. But the first-blush reactions from many I spoke with Friday night, as the news of the Strong hire first began to break, were of skepticism. Some even laughed. “I can’t believe Texas did this,” one of them said. Charlie Strong has earned everything he's gotten, but Texas is the wrong fit for him Spoiler Charlie Strong is a self-made success story, a guy college football shamefully made wait – and wait, and wait – for his shot as a head coach. When he finally got that chance, he crushed it. The result is an opportunity of a lifetime: head coach at Texas, earning reportedly $5 million a year. The first African-American coach of a men’s team in Longhorns history has earned it. This is a feel-good story – except for what might come next. I hope the 53-year-old Strong doesn’t become the most miserable self-made multi-millionaire in the sport. For all his on-field credentials, he is a complete misfit for the spotlight that accompanies the Texas job. Strong hated dealing with both the small media following at Louisville and the modest core of boosters who were important to the program. When presented with national media opportunities to enhance the Cardinals’ profile, he routinely rejected them. Getting him to make promotional appearances that could enhance donor relations was an exercise in frustration. He left a lot of administrators and support personnel at Louisville exasperated at his unwillingness to do anything to sell the program outside the cocoon of the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex. So now we’re going to take that recluse and drop him in front of the klieg lights that shine on Texas football year ‘round? To quote Elvis Costello: I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you. The fit is so bad in that area that you have to wonder whether Texas did enough homework upon making this hire. Certainly it is not the most important element of the job – but did the search firm that recommended Strong ever take it into consideration? Vanderbilt’s James Franklin, another Texas finalist who doesn’t have quite the on-field high points of Strong but has three times the personality, would pass that part of the test with flying colors. When it comes to public relations, Strong is the antithesis of the man he is replacing, Mack Brown. Perhaps Brown’s best trait is his people skills: he made every out-of-town media visitor feel like an old friend; he was charming and indulgent with overly interested boosters; and he carried that winning personality with him into high schools and living rooms. Mack sold Texas to all pertinent constituents. And there were many. And they were needy. Strong can recruit. But he has shown no interest in or appetite for the other elements of a college head coach’s job. And like everything else, those elements are bigger in Texas. Brown spent every Monday during football season in external relations. He did hours of media, talked to boosters, sent recruiting letters. If you gave that schedule to Charlie Strong and asked him to replicate it, he might have a stroke. Does he have to do the job the same way Brown did? Of course not. And if he wins the way he has at Louisville, he can pretty much do what he wants and act how he wants and nobody will object. But there is one other needy beast at Texas that must be fed, no matter what Strong thinks about it: the Longhorn Network. The ESPN creation is a revenue firehose for the school, so if it wants to mic up the head coach for staff meetings and practices, guess what? He’d probably better go along with it. That will require an adjustment from Strong. If he can learn to tolerate the public nature of the Texas job, the rest of it may come easily. The résumé he compiled in his first head-coach job is impressive. Strong’s on-field body of work is commensurate with this Cadillac position. He took over a Louisville program that had gone flat and injected immediate life into it, going 37-15 in four years – 23-3 the last two. He was a recruiting force who built his program around star Miami quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, and buttressed it with his own specialty – a relentless and athletic defense that leads the nation in fewest yards allowed per game. Presumably, a guy who has made his recruiting hay in the Southeast will be able to transition to Texas. When he has the power of the Longhorn brand behind him, Strong should be able to sell the program to the state’s annual battalion of top recruits. So there are some tangible reasons why he got this job. But this is no sure thing. He would not be the first Louisville coach to use the job as a steppingstone that turned into a disaster (see: Schnellenberger to Oklahoma; John L. Smith to Michigan State; Bobby Petrino to the Atlanta Falcons). And even if it works out, he must change his mindset. How will Strong handle the initial disappointment from some entitled fans who had their hearts set on Nick Saban, or Jim Harbaugh, or Jon Gruden? How will he handle it the first time the entire state questions his choice of starting quarterback? How will he handle the first time the Longhorn Network lays out a schedule requesting several hours of his time in a week? The Charlie Strong at Louisville wouldn’t handle any of those things particularly well. Maybe the Charlie Strong we see at Texas will be different. But it’s hard to change a man at age 53. And hard to make him act like something he is not. National reaction: Texas' new coach Charlie Strong a 'recluse,' 'misfit,' could be 'miserable' Spoiler Pat Forde, Yahoo Sports: I hope the 53-year-old Strong doesn’t become the most miserable self-made multi-millionaire in the sport. For all his on-field credentials, he is a complete misfit for the spotlight that accompanies the Texas job. When presented with national media opportunities to enhance the Cardinals’ profile, he routinely rejected them. Getting him to make promotional appearances that could enhance donor relations was an exercise in frustration. He left a lot of administrators and support personnel at Louisville exasperated at his unwillingness to do anything to sell the program outside the cocoon of the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex. So now we’re going to take that recluse and drop him in front of the klieg lights that shine on Texas football year ‘round? To quote Elvis Costello: I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you. The fit is so bad in that area that you have to wonder whether Texas did enough homework upon making this hire. Certainly it is not the most important element of the job – but did the search firm that recommended Strong ever take it into consideration? Vanderbilt’s James Franklin, another Texas finalist who doesn’t have quite the on-field high points of Strong but has three times the personality, would pass that part of the test with flying colors. Greg Couch, Fox Sports Texas spent a year bragging it could get Nick Saban, gloated that it had “all the money that is not up at the Vatican,’’ and all the way to the very end, threw out every big name, including Jim Harbaugh, Jim Mora, Jimbo Fisher, even Jon Gruden. (Strong is) a solid pick for anyone, but not a splashy one for Texas. This is a curious pick, and actually a bad fit. It comes across as if Texas had actually talked its way out of the bigger name coaches and settled instead on Plan B. It’s not that Strong can’t coach, but that he isn’t going to appeal to the huge Texas ego. The Texas bluster. He hasn’t done enough yet, and doesn’t have the outward personality to keep all the Texas rich-boys together and pulling the same way. Strong is a tough-guy leader. And the truth is, that’s probably just what Texas could use. The question is whether the Texas boys will be quiet enough to allow a stern, strong hand to do what’s needed. Roger Groves, Forbes In the case of Texas, Mack Brown’s malady was the inability to win the top recruits in his home state. Texas A & M and Baylor passed him up. Even BCS bowl teams outside the state have significant increases in their talent base from Texas. You ask: What’s that got to do with Charlie Strong? He coaches Louisville, without a significant presence of Texas players. Texas is not even a major strategic part of his recruiting network. Answer: If he can go into Miami and get more of its best players than Florida, Florida State, and even the University of Miami, he ought to be able to come to Texas and get the best of what the state has to offer. I suspect Strong’s biggest challenge will not be recruiting and training his student athletes or picking a staff. It will be dealing with the Mack Brown good ole’ boys, like Bill O’Brien had frustrations with the “Paterno People” as he called them.
^ yes. God knows who gives a fart about the fact that the game passed Mack Brown by 5 years ago. what matters is that he memorizes Pat fordes wife's name and glad handled the **** out of people. THIS IS REQUIRED THIS IS TEXAS!
Eh...I remember when Auburn hired Malzahn, the media spewed how he "wasn't scaring anybody" in the SEC, and you can honestly say that about tons of other hires. Strong might suck (don't think he will), but let's see what he actually does before he's automatically written off.
I think the worry is that if he pisses off the wrong people his leash will end up so short that he won't have a chance to succeed. Will they give him 3-4 years to get his feet under him if he's not the kiss-ass his predecessor was? Also, if he's not a spotlight kind of guy... a job like UT, which is a minor national celebrity type of gig, might not be the best place for him long-term. I was worried that Briles would have had that problem at UT, but compared to Briles, Strong is Regis f***ing Philbin. Apparently it doesn't take people skills to get hired at UT, but a lot of people think it takes them to stay hired at UT. We'll find out after the first couple of bumpy seasons, I suppose.
It's not like he's inheriting a team in shambles or anything. It shouldn't take 3-4 years for sure for this program to compete given the were a win away from a BCS game.
Mack Brown brainwash complete! The HC at Texas can spend time shining Joe Jamail's shoes - or he can do the hard work required to win - which often means making hard choices. Nobody has ACTUALLY TRIED the latter path for 16 years so it may not be as untenable as Mack would have folks believe
Jez. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills in this board. Mack had the winningest program for a decade. He just couldn't get past that OU hump a little more than half the time. He went on to beat them 4 times in a 5 year span. It's worth noting that not many people could stop OU. They are a very good program. Mack would have been better if he could have beaten them more but to just assume a victory over Stoops should be a given is silly when you consider how good that program is. Very few coaches have made it to two national championships and more so, won one. He would have won in 09 if Colt's dad wouldn't have taken Colt out to preserve his NFL career. There was no official injury. I'm not saying that is wrong but considering how things turned out, I'm betting Colt regrets it. This attitude of "he should have won more national championships" is so entitled and drives crazy considering the previous championship was 35 years prior. Still think he should have gone to 3 championship games and if Gideon was an above average DB they would have. A lot of the players from that 05 team went to the NFL. Not as many of the 09 team. Granted, the last 4 years have been bad. Their QB recruiting was real bad and I'm not going to make the argument that he should have stayed. I really wish we would have seen what would have happened if Ash was healthy and if we could have won the conference if Gray didn't get knocked out. However, injuries are a part of the game. It's just annoying to see people re-write history when Mack is easily the 2nd best coach in UT history. I want to see the program do well but a small part of me wants UT fans to suffer through 35 years without a championship. Maybe then Mack will be appreciated a little more.... Not really though. Really hoping Strong can kill it recruiting wise. He had a florida lineman transferring to Louisville so he would be reunited with Strong. Would be awesome to see him come to Texas now.
