Coaching is a results based business and the job comes with the expectations that you are able to help develop the players on the rosters and produce wins on a regular basis. When you coach at a place like the University of Texas, you are not only expected to win on a regular basis, you are expected to compete for championships on a regular basis.
When Texas’ head coach Charlie Strong arrived on the 40 acres he knew he had a big project on his hands. Folks in and around the Longhorn program have been starving for a winner since 2009 when Texas fell to Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide in the National Championship game in the Rose Bowl. The administration in Austin opted to move on from one of the best coaches in the history of the program in Mack Brown as the program descended into a decline it has yet to climb out of since hiring Strong.
Let me say this before proceeding any further. Charlie Strong is a good man who in my mind is still a good football coach who came in and cleaned up the program and has injected some much needed talent at key positions on the roster. He instilled values, stressed discipline and placed a very high importance on graduating and getting a degree from one of the best universities in the country. All of these are things anyone who has ever sent their children off to college can get behind, respect and understand the importance of. While all of this was and is still important, the number one job of a football coach is to win football games.
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While nobody was expecting Texas to immediately vault back to 10 win seasons that they were accustomed to under Brown, almost everyone expected to see an uptick in recruiting evaluations, production on the field and in player development. While Strong and his staff most definitely have done a magnificent job on the recruiting trail and evaluating talent, player development, but the on field results have been stuck in neutral. You can argue that Texas is experiencing growing pains due to the amount of youth that has been forced into action due to the lack of upperclassmen talent on the roster, but you can also argue that the young talent that has accrued a good amount of experience to date isn’t taking the next step necessary to help take this team back where it needs to be.
While Texas seems to have found a solution to the offensive struggles that have plagued the program for years and have finally seemed to finnd a quarterback capable of leading the way in Shane Buechele; the defense who struggled mightily last year looks the same and in some ways worse than they did in 2015. When your head coach is advertised as being one of the top defensive minds in college football and has skins on the wall coaching that side of the ball, you expect that unit to perform well or at least to be serviceable. Texas is now going into its second season in which the defense is surrendering yards and points at an alarming rate, and now not only has Strong had to make a change on the offensive side of the ball, he has now had to demote his long time defensive coordinator and friend Vance Bedford.
The latest demotion questions Strong’s ability to competently fill out a coaching staff, as only one member of his original coaching staff has not be relieved of duties or moved on for one reason or another. While I do think Strong was dealt a pretty bad hand coming into this job, he had full control over who he brought on from the start, and he has to own the fact that he has had a very high level of coaching turnover on his staff for the wrong reasons. He also has to own why his side of the football seems to be confused more than ever in year three, rather than players hitting a groove and getting more comfortable within the system they have put in place.
As things sit currently, the Longhorns are 2-2 and have allowed 99 points in the last two ball games with their annual rivalry game against Oklahoma next on the docket. The season opening win against Notre Dame feels like a distant memory and no longer holds the weight it did a few weeks ago, as the Fighting Irish have struggled as much as the Longhorns have to open up the season. After finishing 5-7 last year and missing a bowl game and looking at a potential 2-3 start in 2016, the rumors have already began to swirl that Strong’s time in Austin is on life support if things don’t get turned around from here on out in 2016.
I for one was (and still am) a supporter of Strong, because I believe in what he stands for, but it has been made quite clear that if the team continues to perform the way it has the past two weeks then changes will be coming in December if not sooner. Whether or not you agree with the expectations those in Austin and around the state have for the Texas program, it is almost impossible to defend the product that has been on the field the past couple games.
There is still time left on the clock for Strong to get things back on track this year given the overall state of the Big 12, but from here on out he is almost going to have to be flawless to sway some of the minds of those who have turned against him the past couple of weeks. With Houston’s head coach Tom Herman expected to be the biggest name on the coaching market later this fall and several other programs likely looking to hire a new coach, the urgency to make a change may overshadow and override anything that happens on the field.
