Charlie Strong RESTART?

Commentary by Fred Pahlke on the Texas Longhorns and Head Football Coach Charlie Strong

Texas Head Coach Charlie Strong would like to “restart” the season. Yes, lets have a mulligan, a do-over, wipe the slate clean and maybe play a rum dumb sisters-0f-the-poor school to guarantee a win.  I wonder if the Longhorn fans could go back  20 months, the day of hire for Strong, and they too would like a “restart” on the choosing of the former coach at Louisville.  How about that Texas fans? Want to tell the truth?  Would you like to have someone else coaching your team in Austin?

It was a blowout loss in South Bend to Notre Dame Saturday and the 38-3 score really didn’t tell the tale of the defeat.  Over 500 yards for the Irish, around 150 for Hook’em. It showed that Texas might not have hit the bottom after last year in which Texas didn’t go bowling for the first time in recent memory.  This current Texas team does need something, a “restart” might be in order. But if that world mean Notre Dame again, not on your life.  These two programs are historic but Texas is as low as it can go.  Not for the Fighting Irish. 

What does UT need?  How about everything AND the kitchen sink.  Sink rhymes with stink and Texas currently “STINKS” as bad a dead skunk that has been driven over a dozen times by a 18-wheeler.  Seriously speaking, this Bevo is ready for the meat packing division of the nearest feed lot on the South side of Austin.

As mentioned, would the Texas fans go back 20 months for the “restart” when Strong was hired?  He ran off a significant number of former Head Coach Mack Brown’s players for one reason or another.  Were they really that bad for the program?  Did Mack make mistakes in bringing in players with “character flaws” to play for the Horn’s?  Were they THAT bad for the program?  You tell me but I have always respected Brown as a coach of men and that “stink” goes back to those dismissals. 

Where does Strong go from here?  I take it that the players still with Texas that were Brown’s recruits are good with him, and his two recruiting classes are also with him and his mindset.  Where does that get him if the team is getting their ass handed to them, seemingly on a regular schedule?

Strong’s comments show some discourse on the state of the program and in how down this group of Horns are.

”Our goal is to win the (Big 12) championship,” the Coach said. ”We know this week we have to go play well … millions and millions of people are involved in this program and we have to give them hope. They have to see progress.”

Win the Big 12?  When?  What year?  Not going to happen in the near future. How about in five, ten years?  OK, go play well against Rice and see where that will get you.  Well, I guess it will get you a win, one win, but it won’t make the faithful that happy. Will it?  Hope? Progress?  Texas, right!  The eyes are bloodshot, and the hope and progress seem like they might be in Waco, Ft. Worth, Norman, Stillwater, and Morgantown.  But in Austin? Not on your watch Charlie.