Strong Shows Confidence at Big 12 Media Days

It’s unusual to see a coach brimming with confidence following a 5-7 season and facing a do or die year, but loose and confident was exactly the vibe Charlie Strong conveyed during Big 12 Media Days. The third year Texas coach was relaxed during his initial press conference, and he held a lively session with multiple members of the media during the afternoon portion. Strong started the day off by talking about his excitement for the upcoming season, and the need to elevate the program.

“We’ve gotta be better than what we were the last two years. We’ve got to elevate. We’ve got to elevate this program and it’s about making sure that our players understand it’s about accountability, about responsibility and it’s about moving this program forward,” said Strong. He noted that the way he’s recruited in his first two full classes led to the bullish attitude he had on display Tuesday. “I look at the last two years of what we’ve done in our recruiting and really you look at Malik, Vahe, Connor Williams, you look at three All-Americans last season and our two freshmen corners, we had a lot of freshmen play last year, Chris Warren, but you look at the signing class we just brought in with 28 signees and we got the four players from Baylor and I told the players the other day these are Texas Longhorns and let’s welcome them in.”

The hashtag “believe” appeared in January, and it preceded a monstrous finish to the 2016 recruiting class. That motto and momentum flowed into the spring, and the Longhorns have made it the theme for this season. “Our team is coming together, a lot of energy and momentum and guys are beginning to believe in one another. One of our themes right now is believe, and I tell ’em all the time, if you don’t believe me yourself no one will every believe in you, so it time to start believing in yourself and get this program head back in the right direction.”

Despite the confidence, it’s well known that Strong’s seat could at best be described as very warm. Strong deftly sidestepped questions about the number of wins it would take to keep his job, and instead chose to talk about the high expectations in Austin. “The expectations here are always high, which they should be and why would you want it any other way. They should. There is no reason for us to go 6-7 and 5-7 and you want to see progress. I totally agree with that and we should, and that’s what we’re working for. Our goal is to win every game and it’s the work to go win those games and they shouldn’t be any different.”

In his first two seasons, Strong commented multiple times on a lack of upperclassmen leadership. Strong chose to bring seniors Paul Boyette, Dylan Haines, Kent Perkins, and Caleb Bluiett to represent the program in Dallas, and he expressed pleasure with the way seniors have stepped up. “It’s better than it has been, and if you harp on something enough I think they get the message and they’ve gotten the message now because the four guys I got here, even with Tyrone. Tyrone doesn’t say much but he works and he goes about it the right way. Another, Bryce Cottrell, and probably one of my best leaders on the team is Tim Cole. Tim understands his role. He plays behind Malik. But guys respect Tim Cole because of how hard he works and how he carries himself.”

Despite the praise heaped upon his upperclassmen, a big reason for optimism is the wealth of young talent recruited from the last two cycles. Strong utilizes an unorthodox recruiting strategy that allows the Longhorns to close late in the year. “You always look to go improve your recruiting and guys always know this. I’m one of those guys that I like to close late. I always say a lot of times when guys make commitments they’re raking a reservation. A lot of times they don’t stick to it, so I will always be one of those guys who wants to close late. I tell guys all the time, listen, you go visit wherever you want to visit, commit to whomever you want to commit to. But at the end I’m going to come back and see where your interest is and see if we can somehow convince you to come to the University of Texas.”

While a number of freshmen are likely to see significant playing time this season, no recruit from the 2016 class is more important to team success than freshman quarterback Shane Buechele. The Elite 11 finalist enrolled early in the spring, and he wowed fans during the annual Orange and White spring scrimmage. It was clear that Strong would not tip his hand in regards to the starting quarterback position, but he was effusive in his praise of the young signal caller. “I call him one of those guys, you know, you see guys they’re gym rats. That’s what he is. He’s always around the facility. You always see him. I was in there Sunday, getting ready to go down to San Antonio and walked in the game room and him and Collin Johnson were in there shooting pool, and I said, do you ever go to your room? But he’s a guy that — some guys just have that ability about ’em and you can just tell that, you know what? He’s a special young man.”

What is it about Buechele that has the forty acres buzzing? His work ethic and competitive nature stand out to just about every person that interacts with him. “When you have a guy like Shane working the way he works, it rubs off on the whole team. Now everybody is seeing the way he works and they all did it. Last night me and Bluiett was talking about it and Bluiett, every time I walk in the game room and see him and Bluiett there they’re shooting pool and Bluiett is like, there’s nothing he can’t do. Then he goes and plays Ping-Pong and then he goes and plays basketball and then he goes and plays golf. But just like his overall attitude, within the whole team it’s seepin.”

It hasn’t been all smiles and high fives for the Texas players this offseason. While Charlie Strong will remind players of great performances against Oklahoma and Baylor, he also shows them their poor performances. “You know, what I did is I took — like the last few weeks, I’ve taken a game and I’ve put it on in the building and one week it may be the Oklahoma game and the next week it may be the Iowa State game, but I put on those games for our players to see and some of them they liked the game and some they did not like, and tried to get me to turn it off, and I said, ‘Do not touch that TV. Do not turn it off!’” Players like Caleb Bluiett and Dylan Haines acknowledged that it angers them to see the Iowa State matchup, but they also acknowledged that it reminds them to be consistent. Consistency was a big issue for the Longhorns last season, and it left them wondering what could have been.

“You’re sitting in the locker room after the Baylor game and guys are just sitting there, and I call them up and talk to them and I said, okay guys time to go and they’re looking at me and I said, what’s wrong? And they said the season is over. And I said, yes, the season is over but if we had played like this, they should be continuing on. And I think that’s the taste left in their mouth because they felt like we should be a team that continued on. Then we get into the Bowl season and I texted a few of them and I said, how do you guys feel now and they were all upset. But you should be, but now it stings a little and it should sting because if you’re a competitor, it’s going to sting”.

It’s unclear at this point if the confidence is real or just bravado, but the media saw a different side of the Texas program in Dallas. While the season still looms large for an embattled coach and his young core of players, the optimism expressed from players and coaches says a lot about the team’s frame of mind going into a make or break year.