Texas Hired Houston coach Tom Herman. It seemed like a foregone conclusion for months that if Texas fired Charlie Strong, Herman would land in Austin. He earned universal praise first as a national championship offensive coordinator at Ohio State and then a head coach whose Group of 5 school beat Florida State, Oklahoma and Louisville (twice) over a two-season span. He inherits a talented roster at Texas and could win big fast. Grade: A UCF Hired former Texas coach Charlie Strong. The former Louisville coach and national championship defensive coordinator didn’t forget how to coach during his three years in Austin. It just didn’t work out. He’s back in familiar territory at a place he can recruit and win. Grade: A http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...-kiffin-charlie-strong-pj-fleck-mandel-011817
That's interesting. Three straight losing seasons at The University of Texas left me doubting if he ever knew how to at this level.
That is the catch - he will not be coaching on Texas' level. I fully expect the same sort of record as he had at Louisville.
Strong definitely knows how to recruit. I think we all agree on that. In that arena, he did well at Texas. But a case can still be made as to whether he can actually coach at all, and certainly at the Power 5 level. Which is exactly what some of you guys are saying, and I concur. It goes beyond what the writer of the article stated, "things just didn't work out". True, but why? He seemed very unprepared during games. His game planning did not seem well constructed, or flexible with the ebb-and-flow during a game. His clock management was deplorable. He coaching personnel decisions were horrendous. The side of the ball that he was deemed an "expert" on, defense, was the worst in over 100 years of Texas football during his tenure. Sure, the game has changed and a lot of college defenses (particularly in the Big 12) were getting torched. But you would have expected our defense to "suck less" then other defenses because of Strong's background. All of these things smack of ineptness. The better question is, "does good recruiting overcome bad coaching at a non-power 5 school"? I think the answer is "yes", and Charlie is the prime example. We shall see. I bet he has South Florida playing great in their non-power 5 conference. And they might build enough confidence and momentum within the program to occasionally knock off a decent Power 5 team. Confidence and momentum are strong performance factors when dealing with college athletes.
Actually, after rereading the op, I agree UCF gets an A for not hiring the worst football coach in Texas history.
Fresno State only gets a B+ for hiring Jeff Tedford. That seems like a pretty big get for them considering Tedfords success at Cal. I'd reverse the grades for UCF and SJS.
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't Chuck go to USF? Either way 3LS Charlie is not an "A" hire. They probably could have done much better.
Tedford turned Berzerkley into a cesspool so bad that the administration told Sonny they didn't care about wins and losses, but rather about getting rid of the scourge that was/is Tedford and the non-compliant athletes that weren't the representatives that the administration desired.
