Charlie Strong, Texas
3 rd season at Texas
Overall Record: 48 – 30
Overall Conference Record: 29 – 18
Texas Record: 11 – 14
Texas Conference Record: 9 – 9
As we have written many times in the Coaches Hot Seat Blog over the years the first time that a few of us ran into Charlie Strong was sometime in the early 1990s on or near the practice fields at the University of Florida when Charlie was on Steve Spurrier’s staff in Gainesville.
The one thing that immediately stood out about Charlie Strong 25 years ago as it does today is that Charlie looks you straight in the eye and you know exactly where Charlie stands on whatever he is talking about and it’s that very simple approach that led to Strong turning around the Louisville football program winning….
23 football games
…in his last two years coaching the Cardinals, and no doubt it’s that straight ahead approach that we still believe will lead to Strong turning things around at Texas.
We have been lucky enough to have 20-plus year friends who live in the Austin, Texas area and are UT alums who have given us a tremendous amount of insight into the Texas football program over the years, and who most importantly told us early on that Longhorns football was going off the rails in the 2010 season after Texas lost the 2009-10 Bogus BCS National Title Game to Alabama when they personally saw an unfocused Texas coaching staff which was the beginning of the end of Mack Brown’s legendary run at UT.
Those same UT alums now tell us that Charlie Strong has some room to run with the Texas football program after posting records of…
6 – 7 and 5 – 7
….in his first two seasons on the job, but that progress must be shown in 2016 and when we asked our UT alum friends just what in the Hell…
“Progress must be shown”
….means for Charlie Strong in 2016 their response goes something like this:
“A Winning Record Overall and in Big 12 Play.”
When hearing the above we naturally asked….
“What if Texas puts up losing overall and Big 12 conference records again 2016 like they did in 2015?”
Their unanimous response:
“Then Charlie Strong is done at Texas.”
With that in mind let’s go to the Texas 2016 football schedule and see what Charlie Strong and the Longhorns are facing this season:
Notre Dame
UTEP
At California
At Oklahoma State
Oklahoma
Iowa State
At Kansas State
Baylor
At Texas Tech
West Virginia
At Kansas
TCU
Well….Bozo the Clown could win….
2 Games Coaching the Longhorns in 2016
….but how many wins should Charlie Strong post in his THIRD season on the job in Austin?
Notre Dame – Toss-Up
UTEP – WIN
At California – Toss-Up
At Oklahoma State – Toss-Up
Oklahoma – Toss-Up
Iowa State – Toss-Up
At Kansas State – Toss-Up
Baylor – Toss-Up
At Texas Tech – Toss-Up
West Virginia – Toss-Up
At Kansas – WIN
TCU – Toss-Up
Geez…with only TWO “Sure Wins” and TEN Toss-Up Games 2016 could really go in any direction but let’s assume that Texas can win FOUR of its SIX home games which is a number that the Longhorns should hit then that means Charlie Strong will have to find a way to win THREE other games out of these SIX…
At California
At Oklahoma State
Oklahoma – in Dallas, Texas
At Kansas State
At Texas Tech
At Kansas
Texas winning FOUR of its SIX home games and then going 3 – 3 in its games away from Austin is something that Charlie Strong SHOULD be able to do this season which would be a record of…
7 – 5 Overall
AND
5 – 4 in Big 12 play
…and thus there is Charlie Strong’s GOALS for 2016 if he wants to be coaching the Texas Longhorns in 2017 which we are quite confident Charlie is interested in doing with the Florida job not coming open anytime soon and with that in mind we can only say…
Good Luck to you Charlie Strong and beat those Sorry Damn Irish in that opening game on Sunday, September 4 in Austin!