When Charlie Strong went 11-14 in his first two years at Texas, he only deserved a portion of the blame. The previous head coach, Mack Brown, had left a program short on elite talent, as proved by Texas’ recent NFL draft production, and long on players Strong felt the need to discipline.
Charlie Strong was building a solid case to return, but Texas just cannot lose to Kansas
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He failed to assemble a functioning offensive coaching staff for too long, making midseason OC changes in both 2014 and 2015 and at one point leaving no clear idea as to which coach actually was the OC. But that appeared to be resolved with the hire of Sterlin Gilbert, who has a young Horns offense in the country’s upper half in yards per play after a No. 110 showing in 2014.
And then the defense fell apart. Strong had to make another midseason coordinator change, replacing longtime right-hand man Vance Bedford with himself in October of this year, after a 49-31 loss to Oklahoma State that dropped the Horns to 2-2. UT’s defense clearly stopped struggling as the schedule lightened up, but the damage was done there.
Still! The Horns reached 5-5 with a good shot at a bowl and maybe as many as eight wins. They had the No. 7 2016 recruiting class on campus, leading national rusher D’Onta Foreman, one of the country’s highest-rated freshman QBs in Shane Buechele, and plenty of defensive talent set to return for 2017. Strong had built a promising core, and he’d deserve a shot to see it pay off, if he could only ...
... and then Texas lost to Kansas for the first time since 1938. In was in overtime and on the road, but ... 1938!
UT is the country’s richest athletic department and draws from one of the country’s most talented football states. KU hasn’t had a winning season since 2008 and only three since 1995.
If a few of the season’s earlier close games had gone Strong’s way and he’d been 8-2 before losing at KU, maybe there’s a way he could weather this. That was just as definitive a last straw as I can recall seeing in a long time, and reports broke Sunday from all over that he’ll be leaving.
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