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Charlie Strong: Texas Longhorns lack leadership, no longer the ‘big dog’

By Patrick Schmidt

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After their second losing season in the last five years, is Texas still an elite college football program?

Charlie Strong had a tall order in his first season as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns. Strong wasn’t the first choice to succeed Mack Brown as the head coach in Austin but he’s tasked with the responsibility of leading a resurrection of one of the blue bloods in college football.

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After a 6-7 season in his first season that was full of players dismissed because they didn’t buy in to the new culture and shoddy quarterback play and even worse production from the running game, Strong didn’t silence the critics who wondered aloud if he was the right man for the job.

Will the second year be any different?

Strong met with the media on Monday to address the quarterback competition between Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard but the biggest takeaway wasn’t about x’s and o’s or depth charts, but rather how Texas gets back to where they belong at the top of the Big 12 and the college football world.

Texas had a losing record for the second time in five years in 2014 and that is simply unacceptable for a program accustomed to double-digit win totals and competing for conference and national titles. To that end, one of the biggest points of emphasis for Strong this spring is finding out how much fight is in this team.

Texas had one losing season in the 16 years Strong’s predecessor patrolled the sidelines and averaged 9.875 wins per season as one of the best coaches of his era, but the end of his time in Texas left players entitled and not working as hard as they needed to be successful.

Strong cited that as a reason behind their 6-7 campaign in 2014 when they had the 90th ranked passing offense and the 101st rushing attack. Texas didn’t do the little things and they didn’t do the big things necessary to get out of a state of mediocrity they have been in this decade.

So when does Texas bite back and realize the burnt orange jersey they wear and the longhorn logo on their helmet makes them special?

Is it this year? Three years from now when Strong has a roster full of his own players? Will it be in a few years and with a different coach?

This much is clear. 6-7 is not acceptable. The fans expect and deserve better and Strong is fully aware of that after spending the last year ingratiating himself in the Texas culture and what it means to be the head coach at one of the most prestigious programs of all-time.

The most important step in “biting back” and assuming their role as the big dog is finding a quarterback who can lead a team that was devoid of leadership last year.

Whoever wins the job this year doesn’t need to be Vince Young or Colt McCoy and compete for the Heisman but they need to inspire their teammates and rally the team around them like Young and McCoy did.

I don’t know if either Swoopes or Heard is capable of that today, but it’s on Strong and his coaching staff to bring that out of them or find someone who can.

Like Strong said, there are no excuses in Year 2 and it is time to take unleash his players and see if they rise to the challenge and accept the fight and bite back or if they’re content with being mediocre.

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