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Forde, formerly of the Louisville Courier-Journal, offers several legitimate reasons why Strong is not a good fit for the Texas job (Yahoo!):
Charlie Strong is a self-made success story, a guy college football shamefully made wait – and wait, and wait – for his shot as a head coach. When he finally got that chance, he crushed it.
The result is an opportunity of a lifetime: head coach at Texas, earning reportedly $5 million a year. The first African-American coach of a men’s team in Longhorns history has earned it. This is a feel-good story – except for what might come next.
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When presented with national media opportunities to enhance the Cardinals’ profile, he routinely rejected them. Getting him to make promotional appearances that could enhance donor relations was an exercise in frustration. He left a lot of administrators and support personnel at Louisville exasperated at his unwillingness to do anything to sell the program outside the cocoon of the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex.
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The fit is so bad in that area that you have to wonder whether Texas did enough homework upon making this hire. Certainly it is not the most important element of the job – but did the search firm that recommended Strong ever take it into consideration? Vanderbilt’s James Franklin, another Texas finalist who doesn’t have quite the on-field high points of Strong but has three times the personality, would pass that part of the test with flying colors.
When it comes to public relations, Strong is the antithesis of the man he is replacing, Mack Brown. Perhaps Brown’s best trait is his people skills: he made every out-of-town media visitor feel like an old friend; he was charming and indulgent with overly interested boosters; and he carried that winning personality with him into high schools and living rooms.
Mack sold Texas to all pertinent constituents. And there were many. And they were needy.
Strong can recruit. But he has shown no interest in or appetite for the other elements of a college head coach’s job. And like everything else, those elements are bigger in Texas.
Brown spent every Monday during football season in external relations. He did hours of media, talked to boosters, sent recruiting letters. If you gave that schedule to Charlie Strong and asked him to replicate it, he might have a stroke.
Sounds like BS to me.
When presented with national media opportunities to enhance the Cardinals’ profile, he routinely rejected them. Getting him to make promotional appearances that could enhance donor relations was an exercise in frustration.
Translation: he didn’t like to stroke the media. Who cares?
He left a lot of administrators and support personnel at Louisville exasperated at his unwillingness to do anything to sell the program outside the cocoon of the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex.
Translation: He didn’t strong-arm or sweet-talk boosters at UL. Guess what? Neither is required at Texas.
Win…and nothing else matters.
Don’t win enough…and nothing else matters.Charlie Strong will win at Texas. A no nonsense coach players love to play for. Screw the PR crap. Mack was a perennial 8 game winner playing that game. An excuse for every loss. Two years and Texas is back in the hunt.
Mack Brown. Perhaps Brown’s best trait is his people skills: he made every out-of-town media visitor feel like an old friend; he was charming and indulgent with overly interested boosters; and he carried that winning personality with him into high schools and living rooms.
And what, exactly, did that get Brown once he started replace 11 and 10 win seasons with 8 W’s per year? Texas was 13-0 and playing for the national championship as late as Jan 2010. Four years later, with 8, 9, and 8 wins that last 3 seasons, respectively, he’s shown the door.
I do think there is some truth to it. Texas is a unique job. Brown was quite the politician and the local and national media adored him. This kept him in his job the past few years after things quickly headed south. Strong is a very solid coach but will have to adjust to this environment.
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