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As the regular season nears its close, college football fans have their eyes on one of two things: the College Football Playoff and the coaching carousel that is already in progress. Several
programs have already pulled the trigger on new hires. But there’s one in particular where that trigger seemed a little premature: Texas’ firing of Charlie Strong to replace him with Tom
Herman. There is no doubt that Strong’s record of 16-21 over his three seasons in Austin, Texas, left a little more to be desired. But during those three seasons, it felt as though Strong’s
tenure as the first African-American head coach for the Longhorns was doomed from the start. The fact is that Strong was never really given a chance or the support he needed. From the very
beginning, the all powerful Texas boosters — the very boosters who had put pressure on Texas to make the coaching change it ultimately did — didn’t support his hiring; one only need to think
back to Longhorn booster Red McCombs’ comments in 2014 following Strong’s hire, when he said Strong “didn’t belong” at Texas and called the hire a “kick in the face.” It didn’t help matters
when Strong’s only administrative lifeline and the man who hired him, former Longhorn athletic director Steve Patterson, was fired in just his second year on the job, tightening the already
short leash the University had on Strong. But that short leash was disadvantageous from the beginning, too. After all, Strong was succeeding Mack Brown, a well-respected and accomplished
coach who also had already watched the program begin to decline, especially at the quarterback position, in his last several seasons. Strong came in with Brown’s players on the roster, not
his own, and was expected to make it work anyways. So when he didn't after three seasons, just one season after his recruits finally composed the majority of the roster, Texas decided
to let him go and bring in the coaching market's hottest commodity to replace him. Texas ignored the respect Strong’s players had for him, evident from the threatened boycotts by his
players after reports of his firing leaked a week early ahead of the Longhorns’ season finale. It ignored that Herman’s Houston team had just as much of a tendency to lose to inferior teams
as it did to show up for its games against nationally ranked teams. It simply decided that a change needed to be made, and it prematurely pulled the plug on Strong’s tenure to make the
splashy move of signing Herman. Ultimately, it’s a move that could appear successful as soon as next season in the win-loss columns, but it won’t be due to any coaching change. The fact is
that Strong built Texas into a deep pool of young talent, a pool which he admits is about one year away from competing at the heights the University and its fans were expecting. With
freshman quarterback Shane Buechele, sophomore linebacker Malik Jefferson and junior running back D’Onta Foreman as its core — in addition to the top-10 recruiting class they have coming in
— the Longhorns are set to contend as soon as next season, and they have Strong to thank for that, even if Herman is the one who will get to reap the benefits. There’s no doubt that Herman
is a good football coach. But it seems that Texas was quick to forget that so is Strong. He built up a young core for the program, and most importantly, he helped develop his players as both
athletes and men. So while Charlie Strong might no longer be the head coach at Texas, we should expect him to find another job — and thrive in it — very soon.