I've been here in Austin for over 4 years working at UT Austin and have seen from the inside the rise and fall of both Charlie Strong and James Franklin. I also own my own company which grants me access to college football programs especially Texas. On top of all of that my next door neighbor is one of the Texas football coaches. Emmanuel Acho from the Longhorn Network also lives a few doors down and is a regular drinker of beers out of my garage fridge. I tell you all of that to help qualify my perspective on what is happening now at Texas.
In 2014 both Penn State and Texas were looking for new head football coaches. Texas hired Charlie Strong and passed on James Franklin. Yes Franklin was a serious candidate at Texas. Penn State hired Franklin.
Strong entered into what was perceived as a great situation with a sleeping giant that just needed to transition from an old coach who hung on too long. Penn State had started its transition already from its old coach who had hung on too long with the short tenure of Bill O'Brien.
April, after Strong arrived, the NFL draft took place. Not one Texas Longhorn was drafted. Not one. This was the first time in the history of the NFL draft. Strong systematically cleared house of bad egg players. Guys who were skipping class, disrespectful, lazy, etc. the senior class was cut in half. A few kids left the program.
James Franklin inherited a team decimated by sanctions post Jerry Sandusky. He also inherited a team lacking depth and an identity. The seniors and juniors in 2014 were not sold on the "sales man" style of coaching that Franklin brought to the table. In fact many Penn State fans (including a boat load here in the Den) also didn't embrace him. Franklin and Strong both had to start out with somewhat of a bare cupboard and rebuild their new programs.
Strong immediately met resistance to his hire. Multiple top level donors were not happy with the hiring. No joke many alumni I spoke with felt that they could woo Saban from Alabama for $10M per year. And unfortunately many of those same alums played the race card against Charlie. Internally the hiring of Steve Patterson as AD after the forced retirement of Deloss Dodds made for quite the rough environment for any coach let alone Strong. The university immediately introduced their own version of the STEP program charging big $ and changing seats in the stadium from what alumni had ever experienced before. This caused huge friction between athletics and fans like it did at Penn State. A change at President a year later from Bill Powers to Greg Fenves also made life a bit unsettled for Strong followed by the immediate firing of Steve Patterson as AD. They brought in a former player and Houston attorney Mike Perrin to help patch up the relationships and restore order to the kingdom. All that happened was a lack of leadership and continued transition. My colleagues in athletics have told me that the uncertainty of Perrins time at UT has really hampered progress. And left a lot of people in limbo as the future search for a new AD is still being worked out. Typically in this type of situation the university would hire a new AD before looking to replace a football coach so that the new AD can be there from the beginning.
The 2014 season saw Texas go 6-7 overall with a loss in their bowl game. Many alumni felt the season was building towards 2015 when they should bounce back into the upper echelon again. Penn State finished 7-6 with a Pin Stripe Bowl victory over BC.
In 2015 Texas started 1-4 while PSU started 5-1. Texas finished at 5-7. While Penn State lost their final 4 games finishing at 7-6 again. Texas had big wins over Oklahoma and Baylor and had 3 losses by 3 points or less. The general feeling was that Texas was inconsistent but if the ball had bounced their way they would have been 8-4. So fans were willing to give Strong another year to turn things around.
Penn State and Texas both fired their offensive coordinators after the 2015 seasons. Texas hired Sterling Gilbert and Penn State hired Joe Moorhead. Both teams finished with very strong recruiting classes in 2016 with Texas finishing in the top 5. Over the summer Texas was able to woo multiple recruits away from Baylor after the firing of Art Briles. These were highly ranked recruits. The future for Texas all of a sudden was looking really bright.
Both would be starting inexperienced QBs in 2016. Both would have new offensive systems. Both would be extremely young teams. Both coaches would start the year on a very short leash. I mentioned over the summer that the situations at Penn State and Texas couldn't be any more similar. At times you could take Texas articles and just replace a few names and you'd think it was written about Penn state.
Here's where Charlie went south while Franklin went north.
Texas played a very overrated Notre Dame to start the year and won. It was a great game. But one played by two bad teams. ESPN announced Texas is Back! They jumped into the rankings and everyone here thought okay National Championship or bust. Literally I had fans already booking flights to Tampa and the buzz around campus was wild. Sure you won a big game and everyone was excited. Totally understandable. But these fans are on another level of crazy. It's not a good crazy. It's a not knowing how the world works crazy.
Before they knew what was happening Texas fell hard back to reality and started losing to teams they had no business losing to. And the defense in a conference that has NO defense at all looked like it could be one of the worst ever. This set many fans off because Charlie was known for being a defensive master at Florida.
Charlie remained very loyal to his coaching staff including defensive coordinator Vance Bedford who was way out of his league running the defense. While the offense started to really take off the defense started giving up over 600 yards per game. For Texas that's unheard of. Charlie demoted Vance midway through the year and the former defensive coordinator took over the D himself. Nothing changed. In fact things seemed to get worse.
The biggest indication of how bad things had gotten was the demoting of stud Linebacker Malik Jefferson to second string. Malik is going to play for a long time in the NFL but the fact that he pretty much gave up half way through the year tells you everything you need to know about how much the players care about what's going on. I was told by my neighbor who is on the offensive side of the coaching staff that there was not only a divide in the locker room but also with the staff. They could see nothing was getting better and the defensive players weren't buying in. The players love Charlie as a person but the defensive coaches have dropped the ball for him. Instead of dropping Bedford at the end of 2015 he stayed too loyal to an old friend who was drowning. He should have let him go and went out to find a top level coordinator to match the hiring of Sterling Gilbert on the offensive side.
Franklin on the other side made a number of big hires this year to guy's that weren't friends of his previously. Limegrover not only is an offensive line coaching stud he also has Offensive coordinating experience. Moorhead has head coaching and quarterback coaching experience. These were big time hires. Bob Shoop left and Franklin promoted Brent Pry who has been a stud coordinator with the help of Sean Spencer at D Line.
It has been the coaching staff that has helped the development of this team and put them in position to be a 9-2 team. I believe the chemistry of our staff with our players is the true X factor.
Charlie is not a public speaker. In fact his interviews are painful. Factor that into a brutal environment behind closed doors and you have a recipe for disaster.
If you haven't been following things over the last two days be glad. The university has made a mess of handling the situation. ESPN and a bunch of other major networks all reported Charlie was fired yesterday (Sunday). The players had a meeting. They started tweeting about it as well as other folks who are Texas insiders. Then the AD Mike Perrin came out and said nothing has been decided and we will wait til the end of the season to evaluate things. So what is it? Are you putting out a lame duck coach to coach against TCU after Thanksgiving just to officially fire him the next day? What a PR nightmare that is for the university and Strong. To top it all off I was told that Charlie and everyone knows that it's over. They asked him how he would like to handle things and he said let's wait til after Friday (the TCU game). Well today at his Weekly press conference, Strong got up and made the admin look like idiots and pretty much said they'd be stupid to fire him because they are going to win a national championship very soon. Now the university, to their alumni especially, look to have lost control of the situation. This won't end well.
Here's what will happen at Texas. Texas should lose to TCU because no matter how hard they play their defense is still horrendous. If they lose Charlie will be gone. If they win things are going to get very messy. The players will probably carry him off the field and it will not be good. They will probably mess things up with Tom Herman. I can tell you that they are already very afraid of his apparent big drinking issue. I've been told it's a major red flag for them. Luckily for Herman this administration hasn't done anything by the book and they may just overlook everything to please the people.
Don't be surprised to hear Tom Herman, Jimbo, Les Miles and Mike MacIntyre from Colorado be the top candidates for Texas. Everyone wants Herman but Fenves is going to take over the search and he and Herman may not jive. The alumni desperately want Herman. I hope they get Herman as he would be a great fit and I think he will do well at Texas. Recruits will flock to UT. However, don't be surprised if they go with someone other than Herman.
So here we are. Texas is in another transition while Penn State is looking at the potential of a 10 win season and the chance to play for a B1G championship. Our young players are extremely talented and getting better each week. Confidence is oozing from our team and the coaching staff has done a marvelous job preparing them and adjusting in games.
Texas will very soon compete for a National Championship in fact I think this is the Brady Hoke situation of the Big12. Brady Hoke was a great guy, good recruiter, but bad in game coach at Michigan. They fire him. Bring in the guy everyone has wanted, Harbaugh. He inherits an absolutely loaded team full of seniors and juniors and leads them now to a 10-1 year with one game left before a B1G championship game. This will be exactly what happens at Texas. Whomever comes in next will inherit an absolutely LOADED team that will be scary good if they find the right person to put the pieces together.
Texas will erupt again but first they have to move on from the Charlie Strong era. If he stays and they have another meh year the alumni will revolt.
In 2014 both Penn State and Texas were looking for new head football coaches. Texas hired Charlie Strong and passed on James Franklin. Yes Franklin was a serious candidate at Texas. Penn State hired Franklin.
Strong entered into what was perceived as a great situation with a sleeping giant that just needed to transition from an old coach who hung on too long. Penn State had started its transition already from its old coach who had hung on too long with the short tenure of Bill O'Brien.
April, after Strong arrived, the NFL draft took place. Not one Texas Longhorn was drafted. Not one. This was the first time in the history of the NFL draft. Strong systematically cleared house of bad egg players. Guys who were skipping class, disrespectful, lazy, etc. the senior class was cut in half. A few kids left the program.
James Franklin inherited a team decimated by sanctions post Jerry Sandusky. He also inherited a team lacking depth and an identity. The seniors and juniors in 2014 were not sold on the "sales man" style of coaching that Franklin brought to the table. In fact many Penn State fans (including a boat load here in the Den) also didn't embrace him. Franklin and Strong both had to start out with somewhat of a bare cupboard and rebuild their new programs.
Strong immediately met resistance to his hire. Multiple top level donors were not happy with the hiring. No joke many alumni I spoke with felt that they could woo Saban from Alabama for $10M per year. And unfortunately many of those same alums played the race card against Charlie. Internally the hiring of Steve Patterson as AD after the forced retirement of Deloss Dodds made for quite the rough environment for any coach let alone Strong. The university immediately introduced their own version of the STEP program charging big $ and changing seats in the stadium from what alumni had ever experienced before. This caused huge friction between athletics and fans like it did at Penn State. A change at President a year later from Bill Powers to Greg Fenves also made life a bit unsettled for Strong followed by the immediate firing of Steve Patterson as AD. They brought in a former player and Houston attorney Mike Perrin to help patch up the relationships and restore order to the kingdom. All that happened was a lack of leadership and continued transition. My colleagues in athletics have told me that the uncertainty of Perrins time at UT has really hampered progress. And left a lot of people in limbo as the future search for a new AD is still being worked out. Typically in this type of situation the university would hire a new AD before looking to replace a football coach so that the new AD can be there from the beginning.
The 2014 season saw Texas go 6-7 overall with a loss in their bowl game. Many alumni felt the season was building towards 2015 when they should bounce back into the upper echelon again. Penn State finished 7-6 with a Pin Stripe Bowl victory over BC.
In 2015 Texas started 1-4 while PSU started 5-1. Texas finished at 5-7. While Penn State lost their final 4 games finishing at 7-6 again. Texas had big wins over Oklahoma and Baylor and had 3 losses by 3 points or less. The general feeling was that Texas was inconsistent but if the ball had bounced their way they would have been 8-4. So fans were willing to give Strong another year to turn things around.
Penn State and Texas both fired their offensive coordinators after the 2015 seasons. Texas hired Sterling Gilbert and Penn State hired Joe Moorhead. Both teams finished with very strong recruiting classes in 2016 with Texas finishing in the top 5. Over the summer Texas was able to woo multiple recruits away from Baylor after the firing of Art Briles. These were highly ranked recruits. The future for Texas all of a sudden was looking really bright.
Both would be starting inexperienced QBs in 2016. Both would have new offensive systems. Both would be extremely young teams. Both coaches would start the year on a very short leash. I mentioned over the summer that the situations at Penn State and Texas couldn't be any more similar. At times you could take Texas articles and just replace a few names and you'd think it was written about Penn state.
Here's where Charlie went south while Franklin went north.
Texas played a very overrated Notre Dame to start the year and won. It was a great game. But one played by two bad teams. ESPN announced Texas is Back! They jumped into the rankings and everyone here thought okay National Championship or bust. Literally I had fans already booking flights to Tampa and the buzz around campus was wild. Sure you won a big game and everyone was excited. Totally understandable. But these fans are on another level of crazy. It's not a good crazy. It's a not knowing how the world works crazy.
Before they knew what was happening Texas fell hard back to reality and started losing to teams they had no business losing to. And the defense in a conference that has NO defense at all looked like it could be one of the worst ever. This set many fans off because Charlie was known for being a defensive master at Florida.
Charlie remained very loyal to his coaching staff including defensive coordinator Vance Bedford who was way out of his league running the defense. While the offense started to really take off the defense started giving up over 600 yards per game. For Texas that's unheard of. Charlie demoted Vance midway through the year and the former defensive coordinator took over the D himself. Nothing changed. In fact things seemed to get worse.
The biggest indication of how bad things had gotten was the demoting of stud Linebacker Malik Jefferson to second string. Malik is going to play for a long time in the NFL but the fact that he pretty much gave up half way through the year tells you everything you need to know about how much the players care about what's going on. I was told by my neighbor who is on the offensive side of the coaching staff that there was not only a divide in the locker room but also with the staff. They could see nothing was getting better and the defensive players weren't buying in. The players love Charlie as a person but the defensive coaches have dropped the ball for him. Instead of dropping Bedford at the end of 2015 he stayed too loyal to an old friend who was drowning. He should have let him go and went out to find a top level coordinator to match the hiring of Sterling Gilbert on the offensive side.
Franklin on the other side made a number of big hires this year to guy's that weren't friends of his previously. Limegrover not only is an offensive line coaching stud he also has Offensive coordinating experience. Moorhead has head coaching and quarterback coaching experience. These were big time hires. Bob Shoop left and Franklin promoted Brent Pry who has been a stud coordinator with the help of Sean Spencer at D Line.
It has been the coaching staff that has helped the development of this team and put them in position to be a 9-2 team. I believe the chemistry of our staff with our players is the true X factor.
Charlie is not a public speaker. In fact his interviews are painful. Factor that into a brutal environment behind closed doors and you have a recipe for disaster.
If you haven't been following things over the last two days be glad. The university has made a mess of handling the situation. ESPN and a bunch of other major networks all reported Charlie was fired yesterday (Sunday). The players had a meeting. They started tweeting about it as well as other folks who are Texas insiders. Then the AD Mike Perrin came out and said nothing has been decided and we will wait til the end of the season to evaluate things. So what is it? Are you putting out a lame duck coach to coach against TCU after Thanksgiving just to officially fire him the next day? What a PR nightmare that is for the university and Strong. To top it all off I was told that Charlie and everyone knows that it's over. They asked him how he would like to handle things and he said let's wait til after Friday (the TCU game). Well today at his Weekly press conference, Strong got up and made the admin look like idiots and pretty much said they'd be stupid to fire him because they are going to win a national championship very soon. Now the university, to their alumni especially, look to have lost control of the situation. This won't end well.
Here's what will happen at Texas. Texas should lose to TCU because no matter how hard they play their defense is still horrendous. If they lose Charlie will be gone. If they win things are going to get very messy. The players will probably carry him off the field and it will not be good. They will probably mess things up with Tom Herman. I can tell you that they are already very afraid of his apparent big drinking issue. I've been told it's a major red flag for them. Luckily for Herman this administration hasn't done anything by the book and they may just overlook everything to please the people.
Don't be surprised to hear Tom Herman, Jimbo, Les Miles and Mike MacIntyre from Colorado be the top candidates for Texas. Everyone wants Herman but Fenves is going to take over the search and he and Herman may not jive. The alumni desperately want Herman. I hope they get Herman as he would be a great fit and I think he will do well at Texas. Recruits will flock to UT. However, don't be surprised if they go with someone other than Herman.
So here we are. Texas is in another transition while Penn State is looking at the potential of a 10 win season and the chance to play for a B1G championship. Our young players are extremely talented and getting better each week. Confidence is oozing from our team and the coaching staff has done a marvelous job preparing them and adjusting in games.
Texas will very soon compete for a National Championship in fact I think this is the Brady Hoke situation of the Big12. Brady Hoke was a great guy, good recruiter, but bad in game coach at Michigan. They fire him. Bring in the guy everyone has wanted, Harbaugh. He inherits an absolutely loaded team full of seniors and juniors and leads them now to a 10-1 year with one game left before a B1G championship game. This will be exactly what happens at Texas. Whomever comes in next will inherit an absolutely LOADED team that will be scary good if they find the right person to put the pieces together.
Texas will erupt again but first they have to move on from the Charlie Strong era. If he stays and they have another meh year the alumni will revolt.
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