Let me start by saying that in the grand scheme of things, Charlie Strong is an excellent football coach who has had success and will have success in the future.
I also think if you are Texas, where Strong currently is the head coach, you have to make a move with Strong at the end of the season or sooner and do everything you can to hire Houston’s Tom Herman.
If you are the Longhorns, you look and see your team continuing to flounder. You see that Texas hasn’t taken on the personality of its head coach this season and suddenly is like a lot of the other Big 12 teams- they can’t stop anybody. You see the thrilling overtime win against Notre Dame to start the season (which caused a lot of us to believe the Horns were back) as a win against a team that is also struggling on defense and already has three losses on the season, including a loss at home to Duke. You look down the road and Herman not only has Houston in the top 10, but he’s beaten Florida State and Oklahoma in back-to-back games (albeit over two seasons) and has the Cougars in position to make a run at the College Football Playoff.
You also know that he has ties to Austin and that your chances of making a serious run at landing him are good, much better than the overtures made to Nick Saban a couple of years ago.
You also see that Herman runs a dynamic offense that can be a winning style in the Big 12 and that his defenses at Houston have been outstanding. You see that he can recruit high-level talent at a non-Power 5 program and you dream of what he can bring to Texas.
You also see that LSU, also a great job, is already open and that there could be a coaching search armageddon this offseason with several of the best jobs in the sport coming open. You know that Herman, who I think already after one season and some change is one of the top 10 head coaches in the sport, will be at or near the top of every program’s list.
You have to make your move. This is your “caged animal moment”. And what I mean by that is when a tradition-rich program gets backed into a corner and is sick of losing that they finally go out and make a slam-dunk hire, similar to what Bama did with Saban. It’s certainly paid off for the Tide.
Back to Strong, sometimes situations don’t work out in college coaching at major programs and it isn’t the end of the line. Rich Rodriguez was considered an excellent hire at Michigan. That didn’t work out and he went on to have success at Arizona and could work his way back east at some point. By all accounts, the Michigan situation was just a blip on the radar. It’s sort of a shame that more good coaches don’t get second chances. Not all of them deserve it, but a lot do (Ed Orgeron comes to mind). There will be a lot of jobs open this offseason that Strong can land and it would not surprise me at all to see him do quite well. He can still coach, this thing at Texas just wasn’t a fit.
The “fit” is two hours and 31 minutes- a good chunk of the drive down I-10- in H-Town.
For more on why this makes sense and how it would impact the Big 12, check out the #ShurbNation Quick Cast below..
No comments:
Post a Comment