South Florida Football: Charlie Strong could build first AAC powerhouse

By Aman Kidwai | May 10, 2017

Dec 15, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; University of South Florida head coach Charlie Strong speaks with the media at University of South Florida Campus. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

Charlie Strong could build South Florida football into the first real American Athletic Conference powerhouse.

For the schools left out in the cold from the financial security blanket of “Power Five” status, maintaining success can be difficult when their best head coaches end up on every short list once the higher-paying power conference jobs open up.

Just this past offseason, Houston lost Tom Herman to Texas, Temple lost Matt Rhule to Baylor, Western Michigan lost P.J. Fleck to Minnesota, and Western Kentucky lost Jeff Brohm to Purdue. Those schools are left hoping they can strike lightning again just a couple of years after already making a home-run hire.

Cincinnati had done a pretty good job of maintaining success despite rapid coaching turnover. The Bearcats watched Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly, and Butch Jones leave for Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Tennessee, respectively, after three-year stints.

Even though the Bearcats averaged 9.4 wins over an eight-year span, nobody considers Cincinnati a national power. They were on the cusp but Tommy Tuberville, the fourth coach in the succession, couldn’t build on that success. Moving from the Big East to the American Athletic Conference didn’t help.

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Another coach who left a Group of Five program for greener — think piles of money — pastures was Willie Taggart, who moved from South Florida to Oregon. Taggart bounced after four seasons, going 18-4 in his last 22 games.

His replacement, the venerable Charlie Strong, likely won’t skip a beat and could end up building a national power.

As an assistant, Strong has worked on the staff of every University of Florida head coach from Charley Pell (1984) to Urban Meyer (2009), coaching on multiple national championship winners.

He served as a graduate assistant for a Texas A&M team led by Jackie Sherrill which won the Cotton Bowl in 1985 and worked on the staffs of Billy Brewer (Ole Miss) and Lou Holtz (Notre Dame, DL, and South Carolina, DC) before getting his first head coaching gig at Louisville in 2010.

After going 23-3 across his third and fourth seasons with the Cardinals, he accepted arguably the best head coaching job in the country at Texas. But his tenure with the Longhorns had its complications.

Texas mega-booster Red McCombs, whose name graces the nation’s 17th-ranked business school, called the hire a “kick in the face” and added that “I think he would make a great position coach, maybe a coordinator.”

Despite Strong’s 30 years of experience, almost exclusively at major programs, and head-coaching success, McCombs could only begrudgingly admit he might be a good coordinator.

Why would he say that? [Thinking emoji]

McCombs’ thinly veiled racist comments sparked a divide between pro-Strong and anti-Strong factions within the Texas booster and alumni communities before his tenure in Austin even began.

He went 16-21 in three years, which simply isn’t good enough for Texas, reasons be damned. It didn’t matter that Strong inherited a culture in disarray, didn’t have the full support of the Texas Football family, and still showed signs of progress.

The Longhorns notched an upset win over chief rival Oklahoma in 2015 and a season-opening victory over Notre Dame in 2016. Strong signed the 15th and 7th-ranked recruiting classes, according to Rivals, in his last two seasons. He was moving in the right direction, but not quickly enough.

Losing to Kansas and seeing Tom Herman soar at Houston while other in-state competitors also succeeded ultimately did him in. Texas made Strong’s dismissal official on November 26, 2016.

Just under three weeks later, USF announced him as Taggart’s successor.

The Bulls return a majority of their starters from last year’s 11-win team, including Quinton Flowers, one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Last year as a junior, Flowers led a top-10 offense by S&P and FEI efficiency ratings and already holds a slew of program records.

“It’s not like you’re walking into a situation,” Strong told CBS Sports, “where a guy got fired.”

Strong should be able to hit the ground running at USF and, at 56 years old, may not be as much of a flight risk as a Fleck or Herman. He could build something great in Tampa.

Nestled in a fertile recruiting territory, Strong is well-suited to continue USF’s trend of finishing on or near the top of the AAC’s recruiting rankings. With Herman no longer at Houston, the Bulls are the favorites for the top spot in the class of 2018 and beyond.

Next: Way-too-early 2018 NFL Mock Draft

If USF can recruit like it did under Taggart — or re-set the G5 ceiling the way Houston did with Herman — and hold onto Strong, the Bulls will start making waves nationally.

Miami was once nothing. Florida State didn’t do much before Bobby Bowden. Anything is possible in Florida.