Texas Football: Why Year Three Will Be Charlie Strong’s Year
By Tyler Brett
Charlie Strong is under a ton of pressure to start winning at Texas. Entering his third year on the Forty Acres, Strong needs results on the field if he hopes to protect his job long term. Looking at his track record, there’s plenty of reason to believe that this will be Charlie Strong’s year.
Strong made a name for himself as a defensive coordinator in the SEC, working at South Carolina and Florida from 1999 to 2009. He was one of the hottest names in coaching searches around the country and he ended up taking his first head coaching job at Louisville in 2010.
The Cardinals had fallen on some tough times prior to hiring Strong. In the two years before Strong came on, Louisville went just 9-15. Strong was able to make improvements immediately, putting his signature on the team right away. Even so, the Cardinals went just 14-12 in his first two years on the job. While definitely an improvement, it was far from a rousing success.
But in year three, things really took off for Louisville. Charlie Strong had been able to stock the roster with physical and talented players who were finally ready to come into their own. The Cardinals went 11-2 in 2012, highlighted by their dominant 33-23 Sugar Bowl performance against a heavily favored Florida team. The next season, Louisville was even better, going 12-1 and rising to No. 15 in the final AP poll.
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Flash forward to 2016 where Strong is entering his third year at Texas where he has a two-year record of 11-14. He has had back-to-back elite recruiting classes for the Longhorns, highlighted by the No. 7 composite recruiting class last year. There is a clear difference in this roster from the one that he inherited with more toughness, athleticism, and talent across the board. Wins over Oklahoma and Baylor last season showed what this team was capable of.
Nowhere has that talent upgrade been more apparent than on the defensive side of the ball. Malik Jefferson found the field immediately as a true freshman in 2015 and now enters his sophomore season as the preseason Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. He’ll be joined at linebacker by some of the best recruits in the 2016 class with Jeffrey McCulloch and Erick Fowler set to make their mark.
Texas has once again become a destination for elite recruits to come to under Strong. Every position has become deeper and stronger with potential stars at just about every spot on the roster. There’s no denying Charlie Strong has an eye for talent and a knack for recruiting it to Austin.
Now he just needs that talent to come through on the field. Texas has a difficult stretch to open the season that will test this young roster and provide a brutally honest assessment of exactly where this Longhorn team is in terms of competing on the national stage. A strong showing in September could get a lot of critics off Strong’s case. Another start like 2015, where the team started 1-4, and the grumbling around this program will only intensify.
One of the biggest differences with this Texas team and Strong’s Louisville program heading into year three is that the Cardinals had already found their quarterback by this time. Teddy Bridgewater was coming off a solid freshman season in 2011 where he threw for 2,129 yards and 14 touchdowns while completing 64.5 percent of his passes. In 2012, he led the Cardinals offense with a breakout effort, throwing for 3,718 yards and 27 touchdowns, completing 68.5 percent of this passes.
Texas ranked No. 118 in the nation in passing last season with Jerrod Heard and Tyrone Swoopes combining for just 1,751 yards and nine touchdowns while completing just 55.2 percent of their throws. This offseason has seen Texas embroiled in yet another quarterback derby where they could turn to true freshman Shane Buechele to lead them. While he could turn out to be a truly special player under center, Texas should expect to see some growing pains if he gets the starting job.
There’s also questions about the defense. While the talent level and NFL potential of this defensive roster has exploded under Strong, the depth chart is still riddled with freshman and sophomores. That inexperience hurt the Horns in 2015 as they allowed 452.6 yards of offense per game. The potential of this young defense has to bear fruit and start producing in 2016 if Texas hopes to turn the corner.
Charlie Strong installs his program from the roots and it can take time for that approach to bear fruit. There is palpable pressure to produce winning football at Texas in 2016. His track record suggests that he’s up to the challenge but there remains serious questions on both sides of the ball. Will he be able to get this program rolling with his vision this fall?