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Saturday’s Texas-Oklahoma game was Charlie Strong’s 30th game in charge of the Longhorns program.
Right or wrong, it was probably the game that sealed his fate in Austin.
Strong’s standing with the Longhorns' power brokers has been tenuous, at best, for more than a year. Last year, he was coaching for his job in the same Texas-Oklahoma matchup, and after the Longhorns improbably won — remember how happy he was with that gilded hat? — Strong saw a third year.
But Texas is a now 2-3 after a 45-40 loss to the Sooners on Saturday in Dallas.
Strong entered the contest with the same expectations as last year, announced or not — Saturday’s Red River Showdown was a must-win game. He didn’t win it, so the vultures are circling.
Is it fair for Strong to effectively lose his job after 30 games, knowing that the prestigious program he took over needed a full rebuild? Probably not, particularly for a coach who was hired despite having no Texas ties and wanted to play power football in a Big 12 that’s dominated by Air Raid systems.
But since when has college football been fair? When have the big-money boosters that fund arguably the nation’s top job given the benefit of the doubt?
This is business, and Strong has now lost most, if not all, of his leverage.
He’s going against some powerful forces, too. At this point, his best bet might be an appeal for mercy.
Strong finally opted to adapt to the Big 12’s way of doing things this season — he hired an Air Raid guy, Sterlin Gilbert, and Texas’ offense has done well in the new system. There was reason for optimism at the beginning of the campaign — with that offense and a Strong defense in its third year, you could imagine good things happening.
But the defense has crumbled (perhaps Strong was taking the Big 12 adaptation too seriously) and Saturday was perhaps its worst showing yet, and that’s saying something.
Strong took over as Texas’ main defensive play caller for Saturday’s game, but it didn’t help — Texas allowed 672 yards to Oklahoma. The Longhorns didn’t play defense as much as they were bystanders for an offensive show — any defensive success was really offensive failure.
One of the easiest ways to judge if a coach is on the proverbial hot seat is to look at his expertise. If a team is thriving in the area upon which the head coach has built his career, that coach has a shot to stick around. Strong built his career on defense.
It’s unlikely that Strong gets the axe mid-season, like Les Miles — who was in a similar situation at LSU — did, mainly because there’s no one on the staff that is a logical choice to stand in as an interim. Strong just demoted the one guy, Vance Bedford, who would theoretically take over.
But barring a miraculous turnaround, Strong is done in Texas. The seat is too hot, and the boosters have their eyes on Houston coach Tom Herman and the money to make the move. Maybe they’ll even make another $100 million pass at Nick Saban.
It’s probably not fair, and it might not end up being the right choice, but those things don’t change the truth of the matter:
Charlie Strong won’t see a fourth year in Austin.
