I have to admit when I first heard the reports that Texas had zeroed in on Louisville’s Charlie Strong as its new football coach, I was a little surprised.
Not because I don’t think Strong is a fantastic coach, an energetic dude and a great face for any program. He’s all of those things and more. My surprise stemmed from the fact that, in comparison to Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher, Jim Harbaugh, Art Briles and others, Strong’s name doesn’t carry the weight I would’ve expected UT to want- perhaps even demand — in a successor to Mack Brown.
Maybe I just can’t get the idea out of my head that at one point, not that long ago, Strong was on the list of potential replacements for Mark Mangino. Think about that. In late 2009, Strong, then an assistant at Florida, was on KU’s radar and today he’s the head coach at Texas. Wild stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Strong was that close to being a finalist for the job that went to Turner Gill — and then Charlie Weis two years later — but he was a hot target at the time and there’s no doubt that KU kicked the tires.
In Strong, who went 37-15 in four seasons at Louisville and 23-3 during the past two seasons, UT is getting everything I think KU fans were told they were getting in Gill. A player’s coach who would do things the right way. A great recruiter. A man of strong morals and values. An intelligent football mind with the capability of putting together a top notch staff around him.
We all know how that played out with Gill and Kansas but I see no reason at all to think anything close to the same will happen for Strong and Texas.
This seems like a fantastic hire for the Longhorns and an absolute nightmare for the rest of the Big 12. Strong will get players. At Texas they always do. And I believe under his leadership the best of the best will again have UT as an automatic entry on their recruiting lists.
More than that though, Strong will evaluate, develop and motivate those players at a level Texas hasn’t seen in quite some time. The man radiates pride, intensity & character all at once. Now that he’s taking over a blueblood program he’ll get a great opportunity to show just how talented he really is.
There are questions about Strong. He doesn’t love dealing with the media and may not be the perfect fit to handle the insane exposure that comes from The Longhorn Network. But in terms of football acumen, Strong is everything you could want.
Credit the UT administration for ultimately understanding that a big-time name was not needed to replace Brown. A big-time coach was. And, in Strong, I think they found exactly that.
