We all know of his accolades at Florida (two MNC's) and his success at Louisville... Just 3 losses over last 2 years. But what about his tenure at the University of South Carolina? I had a hard time finding the stats but I finally found them. So here goes. Color me VERY IMPRESSED. IN 1998. The year before Lou Holtz took over the HC job and brought in coach Strong.... The USC team finished 1-10 with its lone victory over ball state. The overall defense ranked #81 in the country. Then comes Charlie Strong In 1999. They finish the year 0-11. But manage only 87 points of offense in 11 games. That's just pitiful. 8 points a game on offense. That ranked them for 114 out of 114 Division 1 teams on offense. And on D that year? #20 in the nation. And obviously the O didn't put them in a ton of favorable situations. In 2000. Total defense is #16 and scoring D is #6 in the nation. WOW. And the team finishes the year 8-4. and ranked #19 in the final poll. In 2001. Total defense is #27 and scoring D is #12 in the nation. The team finishes the year ranked #13 in the nation in the final poll. In 2002, he leaves for Florida. So what does USC do? They slip to #44 in defense and fail to even make a bowl. TLDR; Year before he arrived.... 1-10. 2nd and 3rd year their... top 20 defenses and finish the year ranked in final AP and coaches poll. Year after he leaves.... Team no longer makes a bowl until Spurrier arrives years later.
Strong's a heckuva coach. There really ought not to be any debate over the coaching issue. The Xs and Os are there as reflected in Strong's coaching resume, part of which is set forth in the OP. There ought to be no debate that Strong can identify and develop talent. In four years at Louisville, he recruited one 5*, three or four 4*s, and the rest were 3* or below. Yet he won all four years at Louisville -- and overwhelmingly his past 2 years -- with that quality of players. Now that Strong is at Texas, it remains to be seen as to whether he can pickup the 5*s and 4*s to the degree and number that Mack could in a good year. But if he can, or if he can come close, then Strong can definitely develop the recruits he does bring in. He has everywhere he's coached, at every phase of his career, which, again, the OP simply reinforces. We didn't get us football CEO this time. This time we got us a football coach. And let me end with this point: Strong won 3 out of 4 bowl games during his Louisville tenure, including the big win over an 11-1 Florida club. I consider this to be evidence that Strong can plan ahead, and get his team motivated over a period of dead time. Will all this have any influence in the upcoming playoff scheme? Beats me, but it sure can't hurt. I think the day may come when we universally love this hire.
Not sure how much 12 year old coaching accomplishments mean given that Mack Brown's 4 year old coaching accomplishments are better than anybody has right now other than Saban, but nonetheless that is pretty impressive. Also, holy crap, 87 points all season long? We need to invent a new word for this because atrocious, awful, terrible, and execrable just don't cut it.
Baylor almost scored 87 points in a game multiple times this year. I cant even understand how thats possible over a full season. They deserve an award for that.