Pump the Brakes on Firing Charlie Strong

[HornSports Staff]

Article by Chris Flanagan

The Texas Longhorns are 4-7 in Charlie Strong's second year. Many in the Texas community want Charlie Strong fired after just two years. Well, I am going to play devil's advocate for a minute and tell you why now is not the time to say goodbye to Charlie Strong as head coach.

The Brand is already diminished.

Many who clamor for Charlie Strong's head maintain the only way to rebuild the brand is to bring in a new coach. Some have already suggested bringing in Chip Kelly.

The fanbase is still stuck in a Nick Saban hangover. There are many who still believe that Texas should have gone harder at Nick Saban or offered more and he would be the Texas coach right now. That’s not true.

Nick Saban is 64 years old, two months younger than Mack Brown. Since his first season at Alabama in 2007 Saban has lost 3 times in a season only once. He hasn't lost more than 5 games in college since 2002. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and has a statue outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium. The field is likely going to be named after him when he retires. Saban to Texas was a stretch.

Not to mention, many other coaches like Art Briles said no to the Longhorns. Firing hastily is much like Nebraska has done twice. To be fair, the ‘Husker coaches that were fired won 9 games the season they were fired. However, Nebraska thought they could do better and ended up with Bill Callahan and Mike Reilly, both finishing with 5 wins in their first season.

To say Charlie Strong diminished the brand is losing sight that the brand was already losing value before Mack Brown was fired.

The money is not the big factor anymore.
TV exposure used to be a selling point of the Longhorns because they had a monopoly on it. Now, Texas has its own network. Unfortunately the Longhorn Network still draws the ire of college football even five seasons after its release. That's negativity surrounding the brand.

Money is not a separating factor anymore. Yes, Texas has the most money but many other else has lots of money that they invested into new athletic facilities which are nice as well. So Schools in Power 5 conferences can compete with Texas in that regard.

The pool of coaches is not greater than the demand.

Sure a select group of boosters might be willing to pay out Charlie Strong's contract. But the supply of proven, quality coaches on the market isn’t as great as it seems. Not to mention with many teams in Power 5 conferences already needing coaches, the price to get one of these coaches will be high. A lot of college programs are looking for head coaches. Competing with more stable programs with a lot more talent in the cupboard isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Also, you may be paying a high salary for a coach that is average at best. Chip Kelly has already said he has no interest in the Texas job. After Nick Saban's remarks with the Miami Dolphins in 2006 about the Alabama job, coaches don't come out and say they will not be the coach at whatever school unless they are certain they will not take that job.

Chip Kelly is not coming to Austin. Memphis coach Justin Fuentes is already at Virginia Tech, Toledo's Matt Campbell is the head football coach at Iowa State. If you are upset with the level of offensive production, why would you want a coach like Les Miles who abhors offense? You really want underachieving Mark Richt who couldn't win with all the recruits in Georgia? Who is going to be better?

The players love Charlie Strong, and will leave with him.

Charlie Strong is a well-liked man. His players adore him, and if he gets fired or leaves because he is not receiving the support he feels he needs, his players will likely follow him. Especially talented true freshmen like John Burt and Davante Davis. So now the new coach coming in has little talent plus some of the best players leaving the program.

The issue of Race.

Sorry, but this needs to recognized before a big change is made.

Texas was the last football program to win a national championship with an all-white team in 1969. It was also one of the last programs to desegregate when Julius Whittier lettered in 1970. The University paid homage to Jefferson Davis, the president of a rebellious group of southerners fighting for the right to own human beings, until this past August. There is a negative connotation of race and the University of Texas.

People cheered the hire of Charlie Strong. First African-American head coach in Texas history. Great day! However, many African American columnists, like Bomani Jones, have stated that Charlie Strong isn't a good fit for Texas. Many implicitly saying because he is a black man running THE program in the state of Texas, there are now unrealistic expectations placed on him. This is followed up with the notion that he will be asked to leave before he gets a chance to prove himself.

Well, 14 months after the mass exodus of players Charlie Strong dismissed (which was praised), everyone is shocked that he hasn't won 10 games in a season yet and many want him gone.

So the question will be posed, would a white coach face the same scrutiny? We don't know. However, if the next coach struggles like Charlie but the administration and fans are more patient with him and he is a white man, many will question whether Charlie Strong's ousting had more to do with his race rather than the product on the field? Texas has to tread lightly on this given more African Americans are entering coaching and you can't shut down opportunities in the future because of an emotional present.

Conclusion

4-7 is not a good season. No one questions that. However, for the reasons above, this is not the time for The University of Texas to fire Charlie Strong.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[dillohorn]

If the players truly love him, then they need to hold themselves responsible for most of the shitty effort being put out.

 

[MBHORNSFAN]

-_-   -_-

 

[MBHORNSFAN]

About to be 4-8 and 10-15 overall is the only data relevant. Football is a win/results oriented business and if that is not the standard why the F even play the games.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

If the players truly love him, then they need to hold themselves responsible for most of the shitty effort being put out.

Supposedly, the players loved Mack and his "country club" atmosphere too. Now, what's the excuse?

 

[North Texas Golfer]

There are arguments for keeping Strong that make sense.

The arguments in the above article do not. 

 

[DMAC]

As I was reading the first couple of reasons I thought it was nice there was no mention of race....only to be disappointed.  I stopped reading after that.

If this were Vermont no one would question the race issue.

So isnt this Geographical discrimination against Southern states. 

How many games must we lose to pay for my great great grandfathers deeds?

 

[Hiphopopotamos]

As I was reading the first couple of reasons I thought it was nice there was no mention of race....only to be disappointed.  I stopped reading after that.

If this were Vermont no one would question the race issue.

So isnt this Geographical discrimination against Southern states. 

How many games must we lose to pay for my great great grandfathers deeds?

1969 wasn't your Great great grandfather's time. 

As of last year there were 128 FBS football programs and 11 black head coaches.  If you don't think it is a consideration, then I don't know what to say.

 

[Randolph Duke]

Texas was the last football program to win a national championship with an all-white team in 1969. It was also one of the last programs to desegregate when Julius Whittier lettered in 1970. The University paid homage to Jefferson Davis, the president of a rebellious group of southerners fighting for the right to own human beings, until this past August. There is a negative connotation of race and the University of Texas.

People cheered the hire of Charlie Strong. First African-American head coach in Texas history. Great day! However, many African American columnists, like Bomani Jones, have stated that Charlie Strong isn't a good fit for Texas. Many implicitly saying because he is a black man running THE program in the state of Texas, there are now unrealistic expectations placed on him. This is followed up with the notion that he will be asked to leave before he gets a chance to prove himself.

Well, 14 months after the mass exodus of players Charlie Strong dismissed (which was praised), everyone is shocked that he hasn't won 10 games in a season yet and many want him gone.

So the question will be posed, would a white coach face the same scrutiny? We don't know. However, if the next coach struggles like Charlie but the administration and fans are more patient with him and he is a white man, many will question whether Charlie Strong's ousting had more to do with his race rather than the product on the field? Texas has to tread lightly on this given more African Americans are entering coaching and you can't shut down opportunities in the future because of an emotional present.

Conclusion

4-7 is not a good season. No one questions that. However, for the reasons above, this is not the time for The University of Texas to fire Charlie Strong.

This article is the biggest bunch of bullshit yet posted on this site.

Yes, Texas was the last program to win a championship with an all-white football team, but the issues behind that are deeper than UT regents and alumni being a bunch of racists. Have you studied much about integration of sports in the SWC? Have you read about TAMU refusing to allow black athletes from other schools to take the field? Have you read about Baylor kicking the parents of black athletes from other schools out of the section where family of opposing players and forcing them to move to the colored section? Darrell Royal coached integrated teams starting with his first head coaching position in 1953. Royal didn't have any problem with black athletes. It was jackasses like Gene "disunity on the team" Stallings (who today is still a revered figure in College Station) who were causing integration in the SWC to be delayed. Had any other of the SWC teams won in the immediate years following Texas, they would have been the last all-white team to win a championship, but they sucked.

As for Jefferson Davis, hell aggy chose him to be the first president of their college. Sul Ross was no less a beloved son of the Confederacy than was Davis. Ross' Klan robes are reportedly stored in the Cushing Library on the aggy campus. Confederate memorials dot the landscape all around Texas, including on the grounds of the state Capitol. The attitude toward Conferedate sympathy is no greater on the campus of UT Austin than in the state of Texas as a whole. In denigrating the efforts of UT students and alumni in promoting racial equality, you conveniently forget it was in 1956 that Chancellor Wilson opened all academic programs at the University of Texas to black students, making it the first university system in the South to integrate. You forget the protests of 1961 when the students and faculty of the university demanded the businesses along the Drag integrate. You forget that to this day the university is fighting before the Supreme Court to promote higher admissions for African Americans. None of that matters in the debate, does it? Only the statue of Jefferson Davis which was placed where it was for reasons no living student or alumni can explain nor really ever gave a thought about. Nothing about Simpkins or Littlefield seems notable in the debate. Nor about the statues of Jordan or King. No notation of how the University of today differs from the University of the day the Davis statue was erected. Nothing intellectual about the matter, just a snap decision that if UT fires an underperforming, overpaid coach it's all because of the Jefferson Davis statue.

The implicit argument that The University of Texas needs to carry the burden of white guilt to atone for the sins of slavery and to finance an affirmative action program in college sports by employing a man who has failed, at the expense of the integrity of competing as sportsmen or at the expense of seeking out the most competent individual, regardless of race, is insane. The students, faculty, alumni and administrators of UT have, for well over half a century, fought racial intolerance. If Bomani Jones wants to argue the University needs to continue to employ a coach who has been epically inept in guiding the team solely as a matter of racial preference, give him my phone number and tell him to book me on his show. The blowout losses, the inability to build a decent coaching staff, after two years still getting punked on trick plays by underachieving teams (Tech's victory formation) that work because opposing coaches understand Charlie Strong fields horribly undisciplined teams stand as testiment to Charlie Strong's failure as head coach.

We don't know if a white coach, or an asian coach, or a hispanic coach or a coach of any other race would face the same scruitny at UT if they had similarly atrocious records, because no coach in the 120-plus years of Texas football has fielded a program that has performed as abysmally as has Charlie Strong's. On record alone, Charlie Strong has proven he is not up to the job of being Head Coach at The University of Texas. However, since political correctness is demanding white guilt must be placed upon the university by articles such as this one, in the name of affirmative action, we will retain an incompetent coach for another year. You claim the university can't be seen as making the decision based solely on race, but based on the final paragraphs of your posting, the decision is absolutely being made solely on race.

The sad thing is there may well be a very capable African American coach who is being deprived of an opportunity to show his ability because programs like Texas continue to base employment decision on the color of a man's skin and not on his competency as a professional. You can make any number of arguments as to why Charlie Strong should be given another year. The decision seems to have already been made, so the subject is moot. Just don't say or imply The University of Texas is obligated to retain a horribly underperforming coach being paid an unbelieveable $5 million/year because the university needs, at all costs, to avoid being seen as an avowedly racist institution. Only one's ingnorance on the history of the University can lead to such a totally bullshit conclusion.

And, for your information, the first black football player at UT Austin joined Royal's team in 1967 (Curry), two years after LeVias joined the team at SMU. Curry couldn't cut it academically and left the university. I will spare everyone the discussion of admitting academically unprepared black athletes to universities simply to play sports and thus depriving them of an opportunity to go to a school that would serve them better. If you had any understanding of the state of black high school education in Texas in the immediate post-Brown era, you would understand more about why it was difficult to recruit black athletes in Texas in the early 1960s. There simply weren't large numbers of black athletes prepared for both the academic and the racial hurdles of the time. The first black scholarship player in football was in 1968 (O'Neal). Whittier was the first black letterman in football. The first black athlete at UT Austin was James Means in 1963.

 

[DMAC]

1969 wasn't your Great great grandfather's time. 

As of last year there were 128 FBS football programs and 11 black head coaches.  If you don't think it is a consideration, then I don't know what to say.

I was referring to pre civil war slavery.  We won a NC with an all white team, ok.   So what.  I get tired of this liberal argument.  Its never ending.  People bitch and moan about race this race that.  Hes black, thats why you wont hire him or thats why you shouldn't fire him.  You do realize using that argument is racist in itself?  If people want this to become a race free society then maybe people should stop pointing to race as a factor.

You asked "if you dont think this is a consideration then..."

Well I can speak for myself and NO I dont give a shit what his skin color is.  I am not red McCombs.  I loved VY but hated Case McCoy, does that make me liberal or a conservative?  No, it makes me an alum who wants the best person in the job regardless of color, whether its a coach, AD, president, player, president and on and on.  I have defended Charlie and hated on him and NOT once was skin color a factor.  

It is amazing though whenever a high profile person is black it and there is talk about firing him, then bring out the leftists and play the race card.

 

[tejasrulz]

People say race shouldn't matter but then they bring it up all the time.

Racism is not just a one lane road and until that is recognized, we will continue to go in circles.

 

[Hiphopopotamos]

I was referring to pre civil war slavery.  We won a NC with an all white team, ok.   So what.  I get tired of this liberal argument.  Its never ending.  People bitch and moan about race this race that.  Hes black, thats why you wont hire him or thats why you shouldn't fire him.  You do realize using that argument is racist in itself?  If people want this to become a race free society then maybe people should stop pointing to race as a factor.

You asked "if you dont think this is a consideration then..."

Well I can speak for myself and NO I dont give a shit what his skin color is.  I am not red McCombs.  I loved VY but hated Case McCoy, does that make me liberal or a conservative?  No, it makes me an alum who wants the best person in the job regardless of color, whether its a coach, AD, president, player, president and on and on.  I have defended Charlie and hated on him and NOT once was skin color a factor.  

It is amazing though whenever a high profile person is black it and there is talk about firing him, then bring out the leftists and play the race card.

I think its funny you've referred to me as both a liberal and a leftist - my wife would probably laugh hysterically if I cared enough to let her know about a sports message board discussion.

Race may not matter to you - but political ideology certainly does.

 

[DMAC]

I think its funny you've referred to me as both a liberal and a leftist - my wife would probably laugh hysterically if I cared enough to let her know about a sports message board discussion.

Look Hip.

I never called you a liberal.  I said bring up this race factor is a liberal argument.  I would never call you such a derogatory thing     jk jk jk

 

[DMAC]

Race may not matter to you - but political ideology certainly does.

Yes it does.  Im as right as they come, pun intended.  

 

[OrangeLarry]

There are a few coaching areas where Coach Strong has been a disappointment to me.  But, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the talent "cupboard" he inherited from Mack was BARE.  The talent "cupboard" is not replenished in one season.  Ergo, the 2016 recruits are critical to his longevity at UT.  Also, from various written reports, the support Charlie received from Patterson was questionable.  He deserves another season.  2016 season will be the true indicator of whether he is capable of returning the Horns to the "promised land".  Hook 'em.

 

[North Texas Golfer]

As I said in the "247 Reporting" thread, the only reason that Charlie should not be fired is if you think he is the best and right man for the job.

Keeping him for the reasons in the above article is total stupidity. 

The above article is simply one of the worst, if not the worst, I've read on this site. 

 

[North Texas Golfer]

There are a few coaching areas where Coach Strong has been a disappointment to me.  But, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the talent "cupboard" he inherited from Mack was BARE.  The talent "cupboard" is not replenished in one season.  Ergo, the 2016 recruits are critical to his longevity at UT.  Also, from various written reports, the support Charlie received from Patterson was questionable.  He deserves another season.  2016 season will be the true indicator of whether he is capable of returning the Horns to the "promised land".  Hook 'em.

Are you TexLarry's brother?

 

[Hiphopopotamos]

Are you TexLarry's brother?

Wouldn't his name be Daryl?