On Sunday night, Charlie Strong’s firing as Texas head football coach seemed a sure thing. Reports from Austin and national media alike said Texas decision-makers would fire him, with an announcement possible on Monday.
Charlie Strong says he and his staff ‘deserve to come back’ to Texas
After a wave of reports of his imminent firing, the Texas coach is pushing back with some gusto.
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
But that didn’t happen. Strong held an oddly uplifting game-week press conference on Monday. He sounded clear that no decision had been made, and ready to coach in Friday’s game against TCU (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1).
On Monday night, Strong went a bit further than just outlining the state of affairs.
“I think about what we’re building here, and I think about the players that we’ve recruited in this program and their families, and I have a great coaching staff,” Strong told the Longhorn Network, via The Austin American-Statesman. “It’s not like you’re sitting here trying to promote your job, but you just feel like, ‘Hey, we put the work in, we’ve put a lot of work in, we deserve to come back.’”
“We deserve to come back.”
It has to be close to impossible to ignore it when the entire college football world is talking about your lack of job security, but Strong seems as if he’s trying, especially with his players.
“I try to take their mind off it,” Strong told the LHN. “I don’t allow my mind to race down that road, because if anything’s going to happen, the people who’s in charge, who’s controlling that situation will tell me.”
From everything we’ve seen publicly, Strong’s players have lined up firmly behind him. Many tweeted in sorrow when reports of Strong’s firing came down, and a big group of them turned up at his Monday presser to show support.
Strong is 16-20 at Texas, and last Saturday’s loss to Kansas was the Horns’ first to the Jayhawks since 1938. If this entire situation feels like a mess, well, that’s Texas.
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