STRONG WORDS
UT coach Charlie Strong isn’t looking at the Miami job, instead he wants to fix the Horns.
AUSTIN — Charlie Strong left out what he should have said Wednesday. He neglected to mention the biggest reason he has for blowing off Miami, and it has nothing to do with money, resources or geography.
If he’s serious about wanting to stick with Texas, he should have looked into the cameras and bluntly, definitively stated his explanation:
He doesn’t want people calling him a quitter.
In a roundabout way, he alluded to that idea when he was asked again about the story that won’t go away. With the Palm Beach Post reporting that Miami considers Strong a top candidate for its open head football coach job, and with a national Fox Sports reporter citing sources saying Strong is interested, he insisted Wednesday, “It’s all a rumor.”
“We’re here to build a program,” Strong said. “I have to be successful.
‘I’m not going to Miami’
Some wondered why he didn’t offer an outright denial, even though he’d already given one. Three weeks ago, when his name first started to pop up after the Hurricanes fired coach Al Golden, Strong laughed at a question about the job and said, “No, I’m not going to Miami.”
It didn’t stop the rumors.
And in case anyone was wondering just how upside-down the world of UT athletics has become, consider the details of this latest circus. Strong, who both his school president and athletic director would like to retain, is denying reports that he wants to take a job offering a fraction of his current pay, with poorer infrastructure and a new set of roster challenges.
And people still wonder if he’s being truthful. Does that aggravate him?
“It does, because I have an unbelievable job,” Strong said. “I don’t know where it surfaces from.”
The trouble for Strong is the rationale behind the reporting at least makes some degree of sense. Undeniably, he’s struggled so far at UT, winning only 10 of his first 23 games. Undeniably, this year’s recruiting isn’t going as well as he’d hoped.
And although there is no movement to fire Strong before he gets a third year, it’s undeniable that some donors might not mind seeing him leave on his own.
No end to rumors
Those factors have given the Miami story a life of its own.
It doesn’t matter that Strong still has three more years on a UT contract paying him $5.2 million per season, or that the Hurricanes could afford to pay Golden only half as much. It doesn’t matter that almost all of the Longhorns’ best players will return next season, including a freshman class looking more and more like one of UT’s best in recent memory. It doesn’t matter that Strong and his staff believe they’re in line for another big winter recruiting finish.
It doesn’t stop the rumors.
Maybe there’s some truth in them. If there isn’t, maybe nothing Strong says can make them go away. But even so, he should have tried Wednesday.
A lot unsaid
He should have said he didn’t subject himself to the hardship of cleaning up an entitled locker room and dismissing nine players for nothing. He should have said he didn’t break his back for two years laying groundwork only to let someone else swoop in and live in his mansion.
He should have said he didn’t promise Malik Jefferson, Holton Hill, Davante Davis, Anthony Wheeler and John Burt that they were going to be part of something special, only to walk out on them after a year.
He should have said he didn’t wait 27 years to become a head coach, and four more to get the job of his dreams, only to spend the rest of his life wondering if he gave up too soon. People might have believed that.