So...about Charlie Strong at USF...

[RabidM 2,668]

I wanted Charlie to succeed so badly. He was such a nice guy and the recruits absolutely loved him.  He would have owned the state if he had been a good coach.  It's a shame he's so bad at the job.  Some things just aren't meant to be.  

[surlybalakris 29]

47 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

but you also forget, he beat ou- in his 2nd try- something Mack had only done once in his last 4 tries- and we didnt just beat ou- we fucking destroyed them that game, at no point were we behind, and we had a 2 score lead almost the entire 2nd half... and we could have finished with a 2 score victory if we didnt give them the big FU and kneel at the 4 yard line to close out the game.

beating ou with a mediocre team was coaching, you can claim otherwise, but it was.  

Beginning to think OUs master plan was to intentionally lose that game. Also, OU does suck.

[Barry_McCokiner 160]

2 hours ago, po elvis said:

i hear he might be UNC's next DC.

co head coach

[UDontKnow 10,450]

2 hours ago, gecko said:

The level of dysfunction at Bellmont in 2013 is what created the CS hire.  I don't think there were any "name" coaches out there that wanted anything to do with us.  He was literally the best we could do.  Dark times indeed.  I trust  those days are gone now that CDC is at the helm.

Stick to insurance gecko!

[South Austin 52,611]

I was about to say that USF should be happy with a 7-win season, but I didn’t realize they ended on a 5-game skid. 

[BurdineBandit 815]

31 minutes ago, Lidig8r said:

Stop. The ONLY reason we beat ou in 2015 was because we had Jay Norvell on staff. For the previous 8 years, Norvell had been the wide receivers coach at ou. He was let go in March 2015 and we picked him up as our wide receivers coach. After Watson, again, shit the bed against Notre Dame, Watson was relieved of play calling duties and this was assigned to Norvell. He knew ou inside and out ... knew their personnel, knew their tendencies and took advantage of those tendencies. Was it the Charlie Not-At-All who had anything to do with play calling or designing the offensive game plan? Hell no. Charlie Not-At-All assumed his role as a potted plant and Norvell was responsible for the victory.

Charlie Not-At-All assembled the worst three year record in Texas football history.

Charlie Not-At-All  oversaw the worst offensive production in a bowl game in Texas football history. 

Charlie Not-At-All Oversaw the two worst statistical defenses in Texas football history.  

Charlie Not-At-All had a revolving door of assistant coaches their entire tenure in Austin.

Charlie Not-At-All had a record of  2 wins and 17 losses when we were trailing at half time.  

Charlie Not-At-All had more shut out losses in three years than Mack had his entire career at Texas.

Charlie Not-At-All suffered the first shut out by an unranked team for the first time in 53 years.

Charlie Not-Strong-At-All was the very definition of incompetent. At Louisville, in 4 years, his team played a total of 2 ranked teams.

Special teams? Under Charlie Not-At-All, our special teams were a joke.  Under Mack Brown, between 2000 - 2010, we were second in the nation in terms of most punts blocked, most field goals blocked and fewest yards allowed on kick-off returns. Charlie No-At-All  never understood the importance of special teams and he has taken that incompetence to USF. .

His recruiting at USF is being regarded as underwhelming, they are on a 5 game losing streak and he is being exposed for what he is ... grossly incompetent on a felonious basis.

To say that he left the program in worst shape than Mack is ridiculous. Charlie Not-At-All's losing persona had infiltrated the locker room and turned us not just into a national after thought, but a national don't even think about at all. OH MY GOD.. we won a game. Let's body surf the coach because we are shocked we won!

Tom Herman is doing a masterful job of exorcising the stench Charlie Not-At-All left in our historically proud program.

He should have been shitcanned the moment he "bedazzled" the most recognizable logo in college athletics.

Thank God the nightmare is over.

TL;DR. Seems like you really, really don't like Charlie and you really, really might be a litigator.

[Pato del Muerto 52,603]

6 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I was about to say that USF should be happy with a 7-win season, but I didn’t realize they ended on a 5-game skid. 

Or you can look at what they did 2 years ago and see what he inherited, look at last year, then look at this year, and see the malaise. The more it becomes his team, the worse they perform. 

[Rimbo 26,122]

Great article.

Quote

Also, Charlie doesn’t seem to be very good at hiring assistant coaches.

Nawww, really?

Quote

They needed three comebacks from down double digits in the fourth quarter to win games. Their only conference wins were against Tulsa, ECU, and UConn, who won a combined two league games this season (because that’s how many games they played against each other).

Oh, dear. Why does this sound familiar? I've blocked out 2014-2016 from memory.

Quote

When Strong went to Texas, and suddenly most of the teams on the schedule could hang with the Longhorns on talent, ....

That's being somewhat charitable to the talent levels we had at Texas at the time, especially on OL and QB.

Quote

His teams look unprepared and undisciplined. They make the same mistakes over and over again. He makes terrible in-game decisions.

Oh, yeah! NOW I remember 2014-2016! Fuck this article.

Quote

Now I know exactly what Houston was thinking, because USF could and maybe should do the same thing.

Hire Tom Herman? I don't think he's available right now...

Edited November 26, 2018 by Rimbo

[Rimbo 26,122]

53 minutes ago, Lidig8r said:

Stop. The ONLY reason we beat ou in 2015 was because we had Jay Norvell on staff. For the previous 8 years, Norvell had been the wide receivers coach at ou. He was let go in March 2015 and we picked him up as our wide receivers coach. After Watson, again, shit the bed against Notre Dame, Watson was relieved of play calling duties and this was assigned to Norvell. He knew ou inside and out ... knew their personnel, knew their tendencies and took advantage of those tendencies. Was it the Charlie Not-At-All who had anything to do with play calling or designing the offensive game plan? Hell no. Charlie Not-At-All assumed his role as a potted plant and Norvell was responsible for the victory.

Charlie Not-At-All assembled the worst three year record in Texas football history.

Charlie Not-At-All  oversaw the worst offensive production in a bowl game in Texas football history. 

Charlie Not-At-All Oversaw the two worst statistical defenses in Texas football history.  

Charlie Not-At-All had a revolving door of assistant coaches their entire tenure in Austin.

Charlie Not-At-All had a record of  2 wins and 17 losses when we were trailing at half time.  

Charlie Not-At-All had more shut out losses in three years than Mack had his entire career at Texas.

Charlie Not-At-All suffered the first shut out by an unranked team for the first time in 53 years.

Charlie Not-Strong-At-All was the very definition of incompetent. At Louisville, in 4 years, his team played a total of 2 ranked teams.

Special teams? Under Charlie Not-At-All, our special teams were a joke.  Under Mack Brown, between 2000 - 2010, we were second in the nation in terms of most punts blocked, most field goals blocked and fewest yards allowed on kick-off returns. Charlie No-At-All  never understood the importance of special teams and he has taken that incompetence to USF. .

His recruiting at USF is being regarded as underwhelming, they are on a 5 game losing streak and he is being exposed for what he is ... grossly incompetent on a felonious basis.

To say that he left the program in worst shape than Mack is ridiculous. Charlie Not-At-All's losing persona had infiltrated the locker room and turned us not just into a national after thought, but a national don't even think about at all. OH MY GOD.. we won a game. Let's body surf the coach because we are shocked we won!

Tom Herman is doing a masterful job of exorcising the stench Charlie Not-At-All left in our historically proud program.

He should have been shitcanned the moment he "bedazzled" the most recognizable logo in college athletics.

Thank God the nightmare is over.

Stop beating around the bush, @Lidig8r, and let us know how you really feel. Enough of this wishy-washy appeasement...

[Rimbo 26,122]

3 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

take yer goddamned +rep

[Rimbo 26,122]

3 hours ago, closetojumping said:

 

It's not like USF's fanbase is legion or anything, but there was definitely a smugness about their hiring of Strong in the form of "we're getting a high quality coach on someone else's dime, hahahahaha" from various posts and threads I read at the time, probably right there on the same linked site in the original post. The media didn't really go that far, but in every article grading the coaching hires for that year, much of the blame for Strong's failure at Texas was put on Texas itself. The boosters, the fans, the entitled players, blah blah blah.

Well, now, for anyone who saw the guy's work over the last two years at USF, from almost losing to Stony Brook across to the current 5 game losing streak, what are the excuses? Is it the huge pressure of winning at USF? Onerous boosters? The cesspool of bad fans? Entitled players he's going to have to break and remold? Right. 

I thought it would go this way after seeing some of the crazy shit this guy enabled at Texas, but it is still gratifying to witness the schadenfreude with the fans and writers there. Strong seems like a decent guy and I still assume he can be a good assistant, but he's got zero business running a D-1 program. Taggart left him a terrific foundation to build on, and he's got no excuses for creating this kind of collapse, this quickly. 

So he'd make a great position coach, maybe even a coordinator?

3 hours ago, pepper brooks said:

this is 100% verifiably false.  

I also wait verification on this.

There weren't a lot of great options out there. And the story (which I believe to be legit) about us having Saban in hand until Mack sunk the deal would seem to support the notion that our AD was fucked up at the time.

[ztejas 43,538]

1 hour ago, AUS-97HORN said:

short answer is no... at the time it didnt, shit happens sometimes....

losing to Kansas was (and is) unforgivable.

you left out the UCLA kickoff twice moment and the Cal fail in Berkely

now, since you want to act all high and mighty, looking back, yes, all those fucked up things that happened do show a lack of preparedness and do show his inability to coach special teams and high-pressure situations, but you also forget, he beat ou- in his 2nd try- something Mack had only done once in his last 4 tries- and we didnt just beat ou- we fucking destroyed them that game, at no point were we behind, and we had a 2 score lead almost the entire 2nd half... and we could have finished with a 2 score victory if we didnt give them the big FU and kneel at the 4 yard line to close out the game.

beating ou with a mediocre team was coaching, you can claim otherwise, but it was.   However, as I have said above, that all went away losing to Kansas.  and my point was - I was a charlie fan until he failed at kansas, and even *I* knew he needed to be fired after kansas.   which was the point of my post-  

 

who in the FUCK was saying we needed to keep him after and the TCU destruction?   Those folks are the real wack jobs

This isnt Michigan. One win over OU doesn't mean shit just because our last HC was their bitch for long stretches at a time.

Funny how you don't mention him basically gifting OU 45-40. I was 100% done with him after that shitshow. 3 points off of 4 turnovers. Execution in that game was an abortion when it mattered.

Herman almost beat OU last year with a hugely inferior team, and now has the chance to make it 2-1 in 2 years.

So yeah, nice job Charlie. Thanks for the 3 straight 7 loss seasons, but hey! You didn't go 0-3 against Chokelahoma.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

1 hour ago, RabidM said:

I wanted Charlie to succeed so badly. He was such a nice guy and the recruits absolutely loved him.  He would have owned the state if he had been a good coach.  It's a shame he's so bad at the job.  Some things just aren't meant to be.  

He'd be a good quality control coach, maybe a recruiting coordinator.

[AUS-97HORN 11,823]

5 minutes ago, ztejas said:

This isnt Michigan. One win over OU doesn't mean shit just because our last HC was their bitch for long stretches at a time.

Funny how you don't mention him basically gifting OU 45-40. I was 100% done with him after that shitshow. 3 points off of 4 turnovers. Execution in that game was an abortion when it mattered.

Herman almost beat OU last year with a hugely inferior team, and now has the chance to make it 2-1 in 2 years.

So yeah, nice job Charlie. Thanks for the 3 straight 7 loss seasons, but hey! You didn't go 0-3 against Chokelahoma.

congrats you are 15X smarter than me.

 

is that what you want to hear?

 

Not sure why the fuck all the random assholes like you have decided to pop off because I said I had supported our coach until he royally fucked up...    Ive already said my whole fucking point was probably half the fan base supported him until Kansas, and then  who the FUCK supported him afterwards.  and I was one of the half that supported him before, and not afterward.

Supporting btw doesnt mean I was his god damned head-cheerleader, I was supporting him because I wanted us to win, and because he genuinely seems like a good human. I did not actively hate him until Kansas.    supporting does not mean i was pumping sunshine.

 

[dcar00 14,367]

my reaction to Charlie was...

probably top 5 of guys we could get, defense will be better for sure.  then he hired Watson, gave wickline Co-OC duties, and had the worst statistical defense in his 2nd year.  was off the train after that.

if he can't even get his side of the ball to be average then time to move on.  thank god we lost to Kansas.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

10 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

congrats you are 15X smarter than me.

 

is that what you want to hear?

 

Not sure why the fuck all the random assholes like you have decided to pop off because I said I had supported our coach until he royally fucked up...    Ive already said my whole fucking point was probably half the fan base supported him until Kansas, and then  who the FUCK supported him afterwards.  and I was one of the half that supported him before, and not afterward.

Supporting btw doesnt mean I was his god damned head-cheerleader, I was supporting him because I wanted us to win, and because he genuinely seems like a good human. I did not actively hate him until Kansas.    supporting does not mean i was pumping sunshine.

 

what in the wide world of fuck are you blabbering about? nobody gives a shit about your support. the question is before kansas, did you think charlie strong was the right coach for the program, meaning he was capable of winning conference championships and occasionally competing for national championships.

if your answer to that is yes, question everything you think you know about football.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

Watson went rogue, bruhs.

[Magus Ossis 2,854]

1 hour ago, Tex Pete said:

Say what you will, but even paying Charlie Strong $5 MM to coach somewhere other than here is a steal.

This. I believed what I wanted to be true about him early on. It became increasingly difficult to defend his process or his results, though. Still seems like a nice guy, but I know a lot of nice guys whom I wouldn't pay 5 million bucks a year to coach TEXAS.

[Rimbo 26,122]

37 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

if your answer to that is yes, question everything you think you know about football.

Up until Charlie, I was always viewing the coaching staff and team through burnt orange tinted lenses. Charlie cured me of that, so that's nice.

I remain that way with Tom Herman. He might be the next MNC-winning coach at Texas. He might be John Mackovic Part II.

[Not a cat 5,704]

1 hour ago, Walden Ponderer said:

He'd be a good quality control coach, maybe a recruiting coordinator.

I assume quality control is organization speak for attention to detail and is therefore the exact last place you'd want Strong. But recruiting coordinator?  Now you're talking.

I think it would be hilarious if Mack ends up back at NC and Strong at Louisville.  It would be like the final episode of Newhart, [spoiler alert] it was all just a dream.

[SydneyCarton 48,176]

3 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

Up until Charlie, I was always viewing the coaching staff and team through burnt orange tinted lenses. Charlie cured me of that, so that's nice.

I remain that way with Tom Herman. He might be the next MNC-winning coach at Texas. He might be John Mackovic Part II.

Are you sure it was Charlie? You fucking insufferable Greg Davis and Mack Brown apologizing motherfucker.

[Rimbo 26,122]

Just now, SydneyCarton said:

Are you sure it was Charlie? You fucking insufferable Greg Davis and Mack Brown apologizing motherfucker.

Well, I obviously wasn't cured after GD and MB, was I?

[Juke_Em 47]

He's bad...really bad. I thought he could become the Gary Patterson of Florida at USF but it's not looking good.

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

5 minutes ago, Not a cat said:

I assume quality control is organization speak for attention to detail

No, actually. Quality control is NCAA speak for random staffer who does something miscellaneous. It can mean practically anything you want it to mean. Kind of like any play from a Charlie Strong playbook.

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

He seems like such a good guy - it's hard to hate him.  But my God he was a terrible hire.  Second worst hire in this millennium at the 40.

[High Plains Drifter 11,052]

2 hours ago, Lidig8r said:

He should have been shitcanned the moment he "bedazzled" the most recognizable logo in college athletics.

 

 

The cherry on the shit sundae imo.

[Vic Mackey 47,155]

24 minutes ago, Juke_Em said:

He's bad...really bad. I thought he could become the Gary Patterson of Florida at USF but it's not looking good.

Why would you think that? Patterson is actually a good coach and has proved it for a long time. Charlie is a shit coach and has proved that for a long time.

[ztejas 43,538]

1 hour ago, AUS-97HORN said:

congrats you are 15X smarter than me.

 

is that what you want to hear?

 

Not sure why the fuck all the random assholes like you have decided to pop off because I said I had supported our coach until he royally fucked up...    Ive already said my whole fucking point was probably half the fan base supported him until Kansas, and then  who the FUCK supported him afterwards.  and I was one of the half that supported him before, and not afterward.

Supporting btw doesnt mean I was his god damned head-cheerleader, I was supporting him because I wanted us to win, and because he genuinely seems like a good human. I did not actively hate him until Kansas.    supporting does not mean i was pumping sunshine.

 

You were supporting Charlie because you wanted us to win? I think "wanting us to win" would be more like calling for his head after 2 seasons barring a massive turnaround in year 3. 

I'm not a random asshole - I'm an asshole that will call you out for dumbass comments like "oh well he beat OU which Mack didn't do some years".

Mack had a shitty end to his tenure but everything prior to that makes him a Texas legend. Charlie doesn't deserve to be in the same sentence.

[PilotsError 2,321]

I believe the Wickline thing was Belmont's decision, not Charlie's.  

[Pescado_Rojo 19,429]

I don't remember the exact game, but he lost me pretty early in season 3 when, as the half was winding down he rushed the FG unit out like the goddamn keystone cops and missed a chip shot FG...with 3 time outs in his pocket. 

[SwanderedTalent 5,761]

45 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I'm not a random asshole - I'm an asshole that will call you out for dumbass comments like "oh well he beat OU which Mack didn't do some years".

that's why everyone likes you so much

[EZ$ 2,105]

I don’t know....I kind of miss kicking off both halves!!

[cfpisrigged 4]

51 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

I believe the Wickline thing was Belmont's decision, not Charlie's.  

Yea, whoever our AD was didn't want to pay the 900k that Oklahoma St wanted for him to take a lateral job so Strong was stuck with making him a playcaller.

[dcar00 14,367]

1 hour ago, Rimbo said:

Up until Charlie, I was always viewing the coaching staff and team through burnt orange tinted lenses. Charlie cured me of that, so that's nice.

I remain that way with Tom Herman. He might be the next MNC-winning coach at Texas. He might be John Mackovic Part II.

true but I don't see Herman having a complete blindspot for defense and he also doesn't seem to be the kind of guy to alienate BMD's.  He loves to recruit.

always will have a soft spot for last SWC aggy game and Steelers Roll Left

[Pam Cummings 9,663]

I thought he was shite after blowing the Cal game and he never won me back.

[alyeska 112]

worst coach in Texas Football history

good riddance

[Gut Wagon 8,087]

4 hours ago, RabidM said:

I wanted Charlie to succeed so badly. He was such a nice guy and the recruits absolutely loved him.  He would have owned the state if he had been a good coach.  It's a shame he's so bad at the job.  Some things just aren't meant to be.  

As an alum and 50-year fan of Texas sports, I always want our coach to win. But some part of me also wanted Charlie (and yes, Shaka) to succeed because having coaches of color might broaden the image of the university. What with all the "Klan" talk going on around that time, I guess I was hoping we could start two of our headline sports down the road toward a more socially acceptable future. Out with the old Mack and Rick, in with the new. Brighter days ahead and all that.

But then, before my eyes, I quickly realized neither of the new guys could coach his way out of a wet paper sack. And so, I turned on them both. Diversity ended up not mattering nearly as much to me as competence did. Oh, well.

[Treefidy 1,469]

4 hours ago, RabidM said:

I wanted Charlie to succeed so badly. He was such a nice guy and the recruits absolutely loved him.  He would have owned the state if he had been a good coach.  It's a shame he's so bad at the job.  Some things just aren't meant to be.  

Hmm, by owned the state you mean get run over by all the other programs because his strategy was "wait until the seasons over then go try to flip people and/or take the head cases that weren't picked up in the new early signing period"?

im pretty sure his recruiting philosophy is more of a next on the to do list than an actual thought out process.   Not arguing the players he gets love him, but you have to build a roster piece by piece not just grab guys where you can find them.  

[patrickdrinksbeer 793]

He seems like such a good guy - it's hard to hate him.  But my God he was a terrible hire.  Second worst hire in this millennium at the 40.

steve patterson?

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

Just now, patrickdrinksbeer said:

steve patterson?

yup

[A’Dam Psycho 1,471]

7 hours ago, gecko said:

The level of dysfunction at Bellmont in 2013 is what created the CS hire.  I don't think there were any "name" coaches out there that wanted anything to do with us.  He was literally the best we could do.  Dark times indeed.  I trust  those days are gone now that CDC is at the helm.

I don’t understand why people keep saying this. Saban was option 1. Option 2 was between Strong, Franklin, Briles, and Mora. Texas went with Strong. This whole Charlie was our fifth option baffonery is aggy manufactured nonsense

[Rimbo 26,122]

1 hour ago, dcar00 said:

true but I don't see Herman having a complete blindspot for defense and he also doesn't seem to be the kind of guy to alienate BMD's.  He loves to recruit.

always will have a soft spot for last SWC aggy game and Steelers Roll Left

I have a soft spot for those two games, too, but more because of a certain QB Of Soul than the coach.

[IBuryPaul 273]

6 hours ago, Texas25 said:

So the 3 blocked extra points in a row against Oklahoma State, the missed extra point to lose to Cal, and the muffed snap punt against Oklahoma State to lose that game didn't do it for you? That is just the tip of the iceberg

2014 AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl. 'Nuff said.

[Treefidy 1,469]

4 hours ago, Rimbo said:

So he'd make a great position coach, maybe even a coordinator?

I also wait verification on this.

There weren't a lot of great options out there. And the story (which I believe to be legit) about us having Saban in hand until Mack sunk the deal would seem to support the notion that our AD was fucked up at the time.

Mack certainly put his stamp on the program on the way out by not leaving 48 hours earlier, though moving down the list to Charlie was a criminal act perpetuated by the worst AD in program history.   

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

Okay, smartasses, I dare any one of you assholes to name another coach who managed to add an entirely new unit of measurement to the lexicon. One Watson of offense is indelibly etched in the fabric of the space time continuum, all thanks to Charlie Strong. Let's see anybody top THAT accomplishment.

[Thetexashammer 1,062]

5 hours ago, Tex Pete said:

Say what you will, but even paying Charlie Strong $5 MM to coach somewhere other than here is a steal.

[ztejas 43,538]

11 minutes ago, Treefidy said:

the worst AD in program history.   

Um. What?

Edited November 27, 2018 by ztejas
Ah sorry. Thought you were talking about DeLoss. Yes, fuck Patterson.

[cfpisrigged 4]

16 minutes ago, A’Dam Psycho said:

I don’t understand why people keep saying this. Saban was option 1. Option 2 was between Strong, Franklin, Briles, and Mora. Texas went with Strong. This whole Charlie was our fifth option baffonery is aggy manufactured nonsense

Saban was never an option that was unrealistic.

[Rimbo 26,122]

30 minutes ago, cfpisrigged said:

Saban was never an option that was unrealistic.

You're right that it was never unrealistic, because the deal was in hand until Mack scuttled it.

[dcar00 14,367]

40 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

I have a soft spot for those two games, too, but more because of a certain QB Of Soul than the coach.

last time i will ever step foot inside batshit stadium.  it was a glorious night. it felt good to take that one from those cockmunchers. 

side note/CSB - had to scalp so wore no orange until I got my ticket in A&M section.  me and one other guy in front of me were the only Horns anywhere close.  As Ricky and JB and Westbrook were kicking their ass, every once in a while he'd turn around and I'd nod.

I swayed with them and did their stupid cheers. when the gun sounded and there was the big melee on the field, the aggy around me began to get really unruly, yelling for the corps to kick their(our students who had come on the field) ass.  as I left this old army and his wife said "you are the nicest  t-sipper we've ever met."  I said yeah "well not all fans are complete assholes".  of course it flew right by them.

took forever to get out of that shithole but the beer was as cold and the tunes were as good as they've ever been on that ride back to Austin.