Strong's job seems safe - for now
Coach’s chances of survival increasingly hurt by blowout losses, internal conflflicts, however.
We have good news to report about the Longhorns.
Twitter war has declared a ceasefifire. At least for now.
Of course, Texas has become the Middle East of college football, where warring factions wage conflict unend- ingly. As if things weren’t bad enough, players have begun turning on themselves. At least freshman cornerback Kris Boyd was only engaging an Aggies fan when he retweeted him during halftime of last Saturday’s 50-7 TCU disaster. Now the Longhorns are engaging
one another on social media. This would be borderline comical if it weren’t so deadly serious for beleaguered Charlie Strong, who just can’t seem to gain any traction in Year Two.
Not two days after Boyd was chastised nationally for appar-
ently thinking more about social media than his team’s performance, and not two days after Strong called a team meeting as soon as the team plane’s wheels touched down, and not one day after Strong had yet another meeting with his seniors, some of Boyd’s teammates were caught up in social media drama of their own, Twitterizing one another. Just a matter of time until the Lege introduces a bill to stop Twitter on Twitter crime.
Strong has to be beside himself. And maybe wondering who is beside him. Or maybe not. Locally, he appears to be fine.
The new athletic director, Mike Perrin, has thrown his full support behind Strong. But then UT President Gregory L. Fenves fully supported Steve Patterson right up until he canned the athletic director before he was on the job even two years. Perrin couldn’t be reached for comment about Strong on Monday, but Fenves is still on board.
“As President Fenves indicated last month, he fully supports coach Strong,” said Gary Susswein, director of university media relations. “This has not changed at all.”
So is Charlie safe this year? Should he be? I totally believe Strong needs at least three seasons to have a fair shot at building a program here, but more noncompetitive blowouts and internal discipline issues could undermine him to such an extent that keeping him might not be feasible.
He has a guaranteed contract for five years and would require a payout of $15.9 million, but is he guaranteed even a third season if, say, his team implodes and stumbles to a 3-9 finish? Where are those other two wins? Strong promised a better effort against Oklahoma on Saturday.
What would a 55-10 loss to OU mean? Would a home loss to dreadful Kansas be a final straw? Would a half-empty Royal-Memorial Stadium in the next home game against Kansas State suggest an already apathetic fan base? Remember, Perrin told us in the Amon G. Carter Stadium press box Saturday that, “I don’t like empty seats.” He may not have seen anything yet.
Texas may rank 110th nationally in offense and 120th in defense, but it leads the nation in team meetings and team drama. How far until Texas football becomes a national punch line, the laughingstock of college football? Or are the Longhorns already there?
Just how does Strong survive? He deserves a fair shot to turn this around. When I asked how long it will take him to reverse the current direction of the program and whether he was concerned he might not even reach his third season, Strong said, “Every day is a battle.”
Strong has taken necessary steps. He demoted his two co-offensive coordinators, but many questioned Shawn Watson’s credentials before he was hired. He installed Jerrod Heard as the quarterback one game into the season but should have played him some last year. He announced the kicking job is up for grabs but perhaps should have opened it up for competition two weeks ago after Nick Rose botched the extra point against Cal.
Strong should have suspended Boyd, at least for a quarter against OU. Not tweeting during halftimes apparently doesn’t qualify as a core value. Do the players fear Charlie anymore? I know they support him, but where’s the tough-love coach who kicked 10 players off the team before the ink on his signed contract was dry?
And where’s the good news? What’s to spin positively? Not even Texas wants to see the headline “Coach Is Safe.”
There’ll be more drama to come. Watch for it on Twitter.