Ex-Texas football HC Charlie Strong ranked among worst hires of decade

Throughout the last decade, the Texas football program keeps undergoing rebuilds under different coaching staffs to try and get this team back on top of the college football world. Texas started the 2010s with Mack Brown trying to recapture some of the magic he found with this team in the first dozen years or so at the helm.

But Brown would eventually retire (for the first time), which ushered in the era under former Texas head coach Charlie Strong and his staff. There were definitely some promising points at different timeframes during the Strong coaching regime.

There was never really any sustained success under Strong, though.

This was evident in a recent list published by Will Backus of 247Sports that tabbed Strong as one of the “worst coaching hires of the last decade”. Strong actually ranked as the fourth-worst coaching hire of the last decade in this 247Sports list.

Here’s more on what this ranking had to say about the stint for Strong as the Texas head coach from 2014-2016.

"Strong takes most of the blame for Texas’ modern woes. He entered a tough situation when he took the job in Austin by replacing Mack Brown. In 15 years with the Longhorns, Brown won a national title and two Big 12 championships, amassing a total record of 158-48. Strong, meanwhile, enjoyed an incredibly successful four years at Louisville, winning 23 games from 2012-13. So it is a bit of a head-scratcher that, in three years with Texas, Strong failed to have a single winning season. Since Strong was hired, Texas has been mired in mediocrity."

Former Texas football head coach Charlie Strong ranks among the worst coaching hires of the last decade in the FBS

While much of the blame that falls on Strong’s shoulders for the struggles that the Longhorns have undergone as a program in the last few years is not fair to place entirely on him. He certainly wasn’t the right fit at the right time, but there are many other factors at play that caused this football program to struggle so much in terms of sustaining success since the early 2010s.

Nonetheless, the record that Strong posted during his time in Austin is nothing to write home about. He finished up his three seasons as the Texas head coach with a record of 16-21 (.432 winning percentage). Texas fans also won’t forget about what was the nail in the coffin for Strong, when his team fell short to the Kansas Jayhawks on the road to cap the 2016 regular season.

That’s what gave way to Texas hiring their third head coach in less than a decade following the conclusion of the 2016 season in Tom Herman.

In many of the same ways that there was promise during the Strong era, Herman had some real potential during his time as the Longhorns’ head coach. But turmoil on the field and on the recruiting trail also led to the departure of Herman a little over one year ago.

Granted, Herman posted a much better record on the field than Strong ever did.

That leads us to where we are now with second-year head coach and former Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian leading the way for the Longhorns. Sark and his staff will be looking to do something that the other two head coaches couldn’t since Mack left, sustain success on the field and on the recruiting trail.

All in all, though, Strong has continued to float around various college and NFL coaching jobs since his time with the Longhorns came to an end roughly a half-decade ago. He’s now the co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach of the Miami Hurricanes after getting hired to join the staff under new head coach Mario Cristobal a few months ago.

The only head coaching job at the FBS level that Strong held since his time on the Forty Acres came to an end in 2016 was with the South Florida Bulls. He also lasted three seasons with the Bulls (from 2017-2019), where he posted a record of 21-16 (.568 winning percentage).