South Florida Football: 5 reasons why Bulls will stink in 2017

5. New head coach Charlie Strong is merely mediocre

There has been plenty of justifiable excitement around the fact that South Florida was able to replace its head coach with a Power Five veteran. Charlie Strong certainly has an impressive pedigree. He was a position coach under Steve Spurrier and Lou Holtz. Strong was also Holtz’s defensive coordinator at South Carolina and then served in that capacity for Urban Meyer at Florida.

Once he became a head coach at Louisville, he quickly restored the team to the prominence of its first stint under Bobby Petrino. His final year with the Cardinals ended in a 12-1 season, but finished only second in the American Athletic Conference. Shut out of a major bowl game, the Cardinals were unable to follow up on their Sugar Bowl victory over Florida the previous year.

Strong, though, had the advantage of coaching in a conference that had been gutted by defections. His 11-2 championship season came after West Virginia departed for the Big 12. The 12-1 follow-up in 2012 came in a league that replaced Pittsburgh and Syracuse with UCF, Memphis, Houston, and SMU.

Once he moved on to a Power Five opportunity in Austin, Strong floundered. With the Longhorns, Strong went to just one bowl game in three seasons and never posted a winning record. This all happened despite the numerous advantages Texas enjoys in the Big 12. The question must be asked whether Strong is an opportunistic coach rather than a truly transcendent one.