The Texas Longhorns might decide to wrap up the Charlie Strong era soon.
The Longhorns have faceplanted to start the 2016 season. A 50-47 upset of then-No. 10 Notre Dame in a two-overtime affair to start the season seems like forever ago—Texas just dropped a 50-43 game to California before a 49-31 whipping at the hands of Oklahoma State.
Strong will be the first to take the blame.
“A high-ranking Texas official said on Sunday night that Strong is ‘very close’ to losing his job at the end of the season after back-to-back road losses to Cal and Oklahoma State,” Sports Illustrated‘s Pete Thamel wrote. “The official said that there will be no move made during the year on Strong.”
It sounds like Strong will make it through the 2016 season, but ponder this detail from ESPN’s Max Olson:
An unexpected sight today at Texas: Athletic director Mike Perrin showed up and watched the first half of Charlie Strong’s press conference. Strong said he didn’t know Perrin was coming today, then joked: “I guess he’s making sure I’m OK. I haven’t jumped off the stadium yet.”
Strong went 6-7 in his debut season and got worse last year at 5-7. It’s not easy to transition a program away from a name like Mack Brown, but Strong hasn’t met expectations.
If Strong wants to keep his job this offseason, he’ll need to find a way to best a schedule including heavy hitters such as Baylor, West Virginia and TCU. The last thing Texas wants to do is start over again after so many years with one coach, but the program might not have a choice if things don’t improve.
