Charlie Strong has some takes on why the Big 12 shifted to the high-flying offensive attacks that are all over the league. We want to warn you, the take has a radioactive heat to it and is unsafe for humans to handle without proper protection:
Charlie Strong probably shouldn’t have used these words to praise Baylor’s and TCU’s offenses
Perhaps a different course of action was needed.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
We get what he means — until the last few years, Baylor and TCU often ranked near the middle of the country in recruiting, well behind teams like Texas and Oklahoma — but there’s going to be some egg on Charlie’s face. Remember, Baylor beat Texas in 2013 and 2014, and TCU has beaten Texas in three of the last four meetings.
Apparently, TCU coach Gary Patterson noticed the shade coming from Austin.
Coincidentally, both coaches come from a defensive background and shifted to the wide-open offense after entering the Big 12. Texas went through a saga last offseason and ended up turning to Sterlin Gilbert, who has the Longhorns as the No. 20 offense in yards per game.
And in fact, it wasn’t even one of the Big 12’s non-traditional powers that opened the league up in the first place:
Somewhere in the Palouse of eastern Washington, Mike Leach is shaking his head with aggravation. Perhaps even planning on coming after Strong with one of his pirate swords.
If anyone deserves credit for bringing spread offenses to the then-fledgling conference, it’s Leach, an early product of Hal Mumme’s Air Raid offense who made a stop in Norman as the offensive coordinator for Bob Stoops in 1999 before taking over at Texas Tech.
So it was actually one of the most talent-rich schools in the conference that was an early adopter of spread offenses, as Stoops quickly identified the growing trend and hired more successful spread coordinators like Mark Mangino, Chuck Long, and Kevin Wilson.
Of course, the retweet has mysteriously vanished from Patterson’s page, but the point has been noted. You can expect when the two teams meet on Nov. 25, Patterson may throw some extra salt into the wound if the Horned Frogs get ahead. Maybe that’ll teach Charlie to choose his words a bit more wisely next time.
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