Texas football coaching search: Charlie Strong the choice

While the Nick Saban-to-Texas rumors never had any apparent solid backing, one new rumor alleges that the Longhorns weren’t kidding around about making Saban their new head coach. According to ESPN commentator Paul Finebaum — via AL.com — in a new book about the SEC and college football, Texas was willing to pay over $100 million for Saban.

For reference, Saban’s new deal at Alabama is already the biggest in college football by a wide margin, and at $6.9 million per over eight years, he is getting half of that reported Texas offer. The Longhorns ended up hiring Louisville coach Charlie Strong, who will make a total of $25 million over five seasons.

Update, June 3, 2014: Nick Saban officially makes $6.9 million a year, and the rest of this story from December holds more or less the same as well (other than Bobby Petrino leaving WKU for Louisville and Mack Brown retiring, of course).

Original, December 31, 2013: After a week of rampant speculation, Nick Saban signed an extension with Alabama Friday night. While no terms are official yet, a figure of at least $7 million was reported both before the deal by Gil Brandt of NFL.com and after by Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News.

Hiring a football coach at a place like Texas usually isn’t going to come without scrutiny or a bit of dissension within the ranks, and Longhorns booster Red McCombs made that clear in a radio interview on Monday. During the discussion on ESPN 1250 San Antonio, he called the decision to hire Charlie Strong “a kick in the face.”

It got worse:

Former Louisville head coach Charlie Strong has left the program for Texas after four years with the Cardinals, and the news has understandably left some of his former players upset.

Cornerback Andrew Johnson tweeted multiple times about the coach, saying “he ain’t real,” “he so fake” and tweeting this after one of the first pictures of Strong in Texas was released.

Jan. 4, 9:44 a.m. ET: Strong has told his Louisville staff the deal isn’t done. Yahoo! Sports reports there’s “one stumbling block.”

Jan. 4, 4:17 p.m. ET: Strong is reportedly waiting to be able to meet with Louisville admins before announcing his decision. The Austin American-Statesman reports that might not happen Saturday.

Winston’s head coach, Jimbo Fisher, has been rumored to be a target for the open head coaching job at Texas, and the quarterback says he teases his coach about the talk.

Winston has repeatedly said that he wanted to go to Texas, but that the staff there did not recruit him. Former Texas head coach Mack Brown has refuted those claims, which were made again by Winston Friday.

It’s 2014, which means rumors on the coaching carousel can be shot down via the coach in question’s personal Twitter account.

That’s exactly what Baylor head coach Art Briles did, as he countered reports that he may be the next head man at Texas, and took to the social media platform to do it.

Texas and representatives of UCLA head coach Jim Mora have had conversations about the Longhorns’ currently vacant head coaching position, according to reports by Brett McMurphy and Adam Schefter at ESPN and the staff at Football Scoop.

Mora is a bit of a surprise entry to the competition, as Baylor’s Art Briles, Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher, Vanderbilt’s James Franklin and Louisville’s Charlie Strong are reportedly the front-runners, as of last week. Furthermore, Mora was courted by Washington a few weeks earlier, but decided to stay at UCLA. He signed a six-year contract extension through 2019 after that, and followed that by denying interest in leaving UCLA.

If you have any doubt whatsoever that the top of college football belongs in its own division, that it has become its own separate sport, its own separate monster, take one look at Penn State and Texas and the burgeoning messes surrounding their head coaching searches.

In the wake of now-former Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien agreeing to join the Houston Texans, David Jones at PennLive.com wrote a startling column about a conversation he’d had with O’Brien just weeks prior, in which O’Brien’s frustrations with the program’s establishment were boiling over:

Texas athletic director Steve Patterson wants to interview Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio, according to a report from Chip Brown of Orange Bloods. Brown also reports that Patterson has already interviewed Louisville’s Charlie Strong and Vanderbilt’s James Franklin.

If Texas has indeed spoken with Strong, it apparently didn’t do so with permission from Louisville. The Longhorns have not asked for permission to speak with the Cardinals head coach, per Jody Demling of Cardinal Authority. In addition to Dantonio, Strong and Franklin, the Orange Bloods report lists several other candidates that could be drawing interest.

Any rumors connecting Jimbo Fisher to the Texas job are effectively quashed at this point, as Jimbo Fisher has reportedly signed a brand-new contract keeping him in Tallahassee for the next five seasons.

WarChant.com first reported the deal Tuesday morning, which includes a hefty base salary and rewards him substantially for on-field success:

Texas and Penn State aren’t the only hot coaching jobs reported to be potential destinations for rising star and Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin. NFL teams are apparently looking at the young coach, Ian Rapoport is reporting.

Franklin is one of four coaches reportedly being considered strongly for the Texas job, and has also reportedly been eyeing the Penn State job, which could become open if Bill O’Brien leaves for the NFL.

Texas has started to narrow their search for Mack Brown’s successor, focusing particularly on Vanderbilt’s James Franklin, Baylor’s Art Briles, Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher and Louisville’s Charlie Strong, according to a report by The Dallas Morning News.

Fisher, Strong and Briles all received extensions this year, and Franklin got one at the end of 2012. Fisher, Franklin and Strong have more or less denied interest in leaving their current spots.

Mack Brown was finished at Texas, then he wasn’t, and then he was again. The rumors about his future began in earnest after the Longhorns’ season-ending loss to Baylor, but on Friday, Dec. 13, every indication suggested that Brown would be back in 2014. He seemed to have the support he needed from key administration members.

By Saturday night, Dec. 14, he was done. So what happened? According to a report from Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports, the reversal occurred because UT president Bill Powers abruptly withdrew his support for Brown.

Welcome to COACHWATCH, a weekly review of the coaching carousel.

We know it won’t be Mack Brown. We know it won’t be Nick Saban. So who will coach the Longhorns in 2014?

As the Texas coaching search ramps up into high gear, and the list of potential candidates becomes more focused, the Longhorns should get ready for one thing: denial of interest from almost every rumored contender for the job. It might not be fun to hear, but until a hire is made, fans in Austin are going to hear “no thanks” quite a bit.

Several candidates have already shot down speculation, whether directly in reference to Texas or in general.

Who’s the No. 1 candidate to replace Mack Brown as Texas Longhorns head coach?

For a long time, it looked to most to be Nick Saban, but a new deal at Alabama has taken him off the market (whether he was actually ever on it to begin with is another story). And now that every site on the internet has released its list of the names to know as the Texas search officially begins (here’s ours!), Bovada has its list of coaches you can bet on:

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly has denied rumors that he may be a candidate for the vacant head coaching job at the University of Texas, telling ESPN’s Phil Sheridan it’s “just speculation.”

A group of NFL head coaches are reportedly on the Longhorns’ wish list, including Kelly, Seattle’s Pete Carroll and Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy. The Eagles are in first place in the NFC East, with an 8-6 record, and look on track for a playoff berth in Kelly’s first season.

One year ago, Texas’ concerns are not centered on Brown. Rather, it’s everyone below him that presents a problem.

While the Longhorns had just finished 8-4, with two straight losses to TCU and Kansas State at the end of the schedule, Brown has the full public support of Texas president Bill Powers. There had been speculation that Brown could retire at the end of the season, as there had been in the two previous seasons.

Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst denied rumors that the Cornhuskers reached out to former Texas head coach Mack Brown, texting the World-Herald “Deny!” when asked about the claims.

On Sunday, Brown’s lawyer, Texas booster Joe Jamail, told Kirk Bohls of the Austin-American Statesman that the coach had heard from Nebraska, while also categorically denying Brown’s interest in the position.

Mack Brown addressed the media Sunday afternoon to discuss his decision to step down as head coach of Texas, saying the decision was his and made for the good of the university.

“We’ve had a great 16 years,” Brown said. “Sally said yesterday, ‘four presidential terms.’ So that’s a long time. We have had a blast.”

The thing to keep in mind about Texas’ search for Mack Brown’s replacement is that every name is a name to know. The Texas job commands such national respect and wields such resources that every coach in the country will be inclined to listen if the Longhorns come calling. So to narrow it down to three or four names at this point in the process would be just about impossible. But we’ll do our best to whittle it to 11.

Things we do know: Texas will want a coach with success as a big-time head coach, media savvy, a relatively clean record, and the ability to light an immediate fire. With that in mind, here are the names to be the most familiar with at this point. These aren’t necessarily predictions, but rather names you’ll be hearing over the next few weeks.

Mack Brown will serve as a special adviser to University of Texas president Bill Powers until 2020, according to comments made by his lawyer, Joe Jamail, and reported by Kirk Bohls of the Austin American Statesman.

Further details on this arrangement have yet to be released, although it does indicate that Brown’s relationship with Texas will not be over any time soon. Ending months of wild speculation about his job security, Brown announced earlier on Saturday that he would be stepping down as head coach following the team’s Alamo Bowl appearance against Oregon.

Mack Brown is done at Texas. The head coach resigned on Saturday, according to the Longhorn Network, meaning that perhaps the best job in all of college football is now available. Brown will stay on to coach the Longhorns in the Alamo Bowl against Oregon.

Update: Statements are here.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban denied that he ever considered taking the head coaching job at Texas, according to ESPN.

Saban was rumored to be interested in the Texas job, which is still occupied by the embattled Mack Brown, but he put pen to paper on a contract extension on Friday that will pay him $7 million a year to remain with the Crimson Tide. “I don’t want to go someplace else,” Saban said. “I don’t know how many times I can say that.”