Texas Football: Former HC Charlie Strong spurns Gators, lands with Bama

Former Texas football head coach Charlie Strong was hired by Alabama as a defensive analyst when it looked like he would choose Florida.

The coaching carousel continued to finalize itself more than a full month into the college football offseason. A former head coach of the Texas football program, Charlie Strong, was announced to be taking over as a defensive analyst on Feb. 17 with another blue blood. Head coach Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide is hiring Strong on as one of their defensive analysts for the 2020 season.

The Texas Longhorns football program saw Strong out of the door in Austin following the disappointing 2016 regular season. In 2016, Texas fell short of bowl eligibility in embarrassing fashion after losing to the Kansas Jayhawks on the road. That loss to Kansas still might be the worst of the decade for the Longhorns.

However, Strong wound up taking over as the head coach of the South Florida Bulls after he departed the Forty Acres. South Florida let go of Strong after a poor 2019 season that saw them finish with a record of 4-8. The Bulls saw their number of wins drop by three each of the three seasons that Strong was their head coach.

The official hiring of Strong by the Crimson Tide was reported by ESPN’s Chris Low.

Other coaching stops that Strong had during his journey at the college ranks included head coach of the Louisville Cardinals, South Carolina Gamecocks defensive coordinator, Florida Gators defensive coordinator (and interim HC for one game), and Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive line coach. Strong was the Texas head coach from 2014-2016. He took over after the retirement of another former Texas head coach, the legendary Mack Brown.

Both Strong and Brown are still coaching at the FBS level. Strong will now be on staff with Alabama, and Brown is entering his second year in a row as the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, with a Heisman contender behind center in to-be sophomore Sam Howell.

At one point, it looked as if Strong would be joining his former program, Florida, as a defensive analyst. But he chose to go with Saban’s coaching staff in the same role instead of joining Gators head coach Dan Mullen in Gainesville.

Strong will be joining another former Texas coach and player on the Alabama coaching staff, in ex-starting quarterback Major Applewhite. Prior to taking this job at Alabama, Applewhite’s last head coaching job was with the Houston Cougars. He saw the door with the Houston to make way for the hire of former West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Dana Holgorsen in the same role.

Three other significant coaches on the Alabama staff this year includes Mike Stoops, Steve Sarkisian, and Butch Jones. This is a pretty notable coaching staff that Saban is building for the coming season, which now includes Texas’ last head coach prior to Tom Herman.