In the summer of 2014, Charlie Strong, the brand new University of Texas football coach, set off on a tour across the state of Texas. The tour, which lasted for a month, was the first opportunity for some of the biggest fans of the Longhorns to check out the new coach of their favorite team. The tour crossed the entire state from Austin to El Paso and just about everywhere in between. As the tour progressed, Strong faced questions from the fans. During these Q & A sessions, Strong spoke on just about everything from who would be the staring quarterback that season to what style of play he team would employ. Following that, Strong went on to talk about something that has changed the culture of the University of Texas football program greatly.
Coach Strong’s cultural revolution started with a few simple rules for the members of the team.
1.) Attend all your classes.
2.) No headphones or texting in class. Pay attention and take notes.
3.) If you miss a class you run. If you miss 2 classes your whole positional unit runs. If you miss 3 classes your positional coach runs. The positional coaches don’t want to run.
4.) No earrings in the football building.
5.) No drugs. No stealing. No guns.
6.) Treat women with respect.
7.) Players will live together. Eat together. Work together. Hurt together.
In the first few weeks after the rules were instated, Strong dismissed 9 players from the program. However, Strong would argue that the players chose not to play for a program with such rules. In an interview with a Longhorn’s radio program, Strong had this to say on the matter:
“I didn’t kick them off. I’m a coach who wants to make sure that my players are successful on and off the field. I feel like this is the best way to ensure that happens. Now, some people don’t want to listen to the message. And then when they decide they want to run their own program, then I tell them, ‘You know what? This may not be the place for you. There’s tons of programs that would love to have you, so I think that’s where you should go.”
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The dismissal of nine players left many on the outside wondering about the state of the team that Strong had inherited from the Longhorns’ former coach Mack Brown.
In his first season as coach, Strong led the Longhorns to a 6-7 record with a 31-7 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks in the Texas Bowl in Houston. The season also featured a 28-7 loss to Baylor, a 31-26 loss to Oklahoma, and a 48-10 blowout loss to TCU on Thanksgiving. By Texas’ high standards, this season, like the last few before it, was an absolute disaster. Fans were calling for Strong’s head to roll after only his first season at the helm.
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Strong wasn’t fired after that first season despite the lackluster performance of his team. However, as a result of a 6-7 first season, his every move and decision would be scrutinized by fans and analysts alike. The first thing that would be over-analyzed by those outside the program was Strong’s first official recruiting class at Texas. Strong’s first recruiting class was ranked as high as tenth best in the nation by some sources. Outside Line Backer (OLB) Malik Jefferson highlighted the class. Running Back (RB) Chris Warren was another top recruit signed by Strong in the 2015 class.
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In his second season at the helm of the program, Strong led the Longhorns to a dismal 5-7 record. On paper this would make it appear as though the team was even worse than than they were in Strong’s first season. However, this wasn’t exactly the case. Three of the Longhorn’s losses were decided by three points or fewer. Including a heartbreaking one-point defeat to California that was the result of a missed extra point late in the game. Unlike Strong’s first season, the Longhorns were able to beat both Oklahoma and Baylor. Texas ended up being the only defeat that Oklahoma would suffer until the college football playoffs. The Longhorns did have their fair share of slip-ups as well. They fell 24-0 at the hands of Iowa State and 50-7 to TCU. The worst part of Strong’s second season was missing out on a bowl game. To make matters worse, in-state rival Texas Tech prevented the Longhorns from having a shot at making a bowl game by beating the Longhorns 48-45 on Thanksgiving night in Austin.
There was plenty of pressure on Strong heading into the off-season following a year where the Longhorns were so close and yet so far away from having a good season. To make matters worse it appeared that the Longhorns were not going to have a good recruiting class. No websites or scouting organizations had the Longhorns recruiting class ranked inside the top 30 classes in the nation heading into national signing day. On top of that already awful news, Texas’ biggest rivals Oklahoma and Texas A&M both had classes hovering around the top 10 in the nation. By this point fans who were on the fence about Strong as a coach were calling or him to be fired. Pressure was mounting and their was no tangible evidence to show that things were going to get better any time soon.
By the end of national signing day, Texas had hauled in a class of athletes that was good enough to be considered 10th or 11th best in the nation. College football fans across the nation were absolutely stunned that Texas had managed to go from being ranked outside the top 30 classes in the nation to a top 10 recruiting class. Those fans (myself included) would discover that Strong had asked many of the players that signed for Texas on signing day to stay quiet about their scholarship offers from Texas. Strong hoped that by keeping Texas’ interest in a player private there was less of a chance another school might try and woo them instead.
Strong’s rather unusual strategy payed off as the Longhorns landed several star players including: #1 Safety Brandon Jones, #4 Linebacker Jeffrey McCulloh, and #4 Quarterback Shane Buechele, among other very talented players. This class should prove without a doubt that despite recent struggles, the University of Texas is still a big name and a huge draw for talented players from across the country. It also proves that Strong is able to recruit quality players despite the recent struggles of the team.
Now, the only question that remains is whether or not Strong and his staff can turn this group of talented players into a football team that is not just good or mediocre, but a team that is great. It might seem very simple and straightforward, but this simple ability to turn a bunch of talented guys into a winning football team has eluded Texas since the end of the Colt McCoy era. Strong is heading into his third season as coach of the Longhorns, and while his stellar recruiting class has quieted the grumblings of disgruntled fans for now, should he fail to return Texas to winning ways this is surely going to be his final season at the helm of the program. Texas wants winners and they want them now. The eyes of Texas are upon Strong and his team; it time to do or die.
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