. . . your poorly coached, over-matched, over-rated football team can't cash? Texas coach Charlie Strong making promises, can he deliver? By JIM VERTUNO (AP Sports Writer) October 7, 2015 5:00 PM AP - Sports AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Shortly after 11 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2014, Texas coach Charlie Strong made a promise: five-loss seasons would ''never happen again'' in the Longhorns program. Less than a year later and with his team struggling at 1-4, Strong returned to the same podium at his weekly news conference and made yet another pledge: ''This is the week that we get this thing going.'' Texas fans are wondering if any of this is going to come true. Strong's pledge about five losses seemed reasonable at the time. Texas had won three in a row to become bowl eligible in his first season and seemed to be rising. Texas is just 1-6 since then. Fans are grumbling, Texas players are taking locker room grievances public and chirping at each other on Twitter and it's an open question around college football on whether Strong could be fired after this season - or sooner. The Longhorns haven't even played No. 10 Oklahoma yet. That comes come Saturday, when the Sooners (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) are heavily favored to hand Strong that fifth loss just halfway through the season. ''It does look gloomy,'' Strong said Monday. ''It's funny. I guess people think I'm dying. ... I say to people all the time, 'I'm OK.''' It's hard to find anyone in Austin who is laughing. (you can read the rest of it here http://sports.yahoo.com/news/texas-...making-promises-deliver-194956637--ncaaf.html )
With very few exceptions, never, EVER be the coach to follow the "legend." Examples: Pete Carroll followed at USC by Lane Kiffin Bill Snyder at KSU followed by Ron Prince Steve Spurrier at UF followed by Ron Zook Phil Fulmer at UT followed by Lane Kiffin/Derek Dooley/Butch Jones Jim Tressel at tOSU followed by Luke Fickell Llloyd Carr at UM followed by Rich Rodriguez/Brady Hoke Someday, OU is going to have to replace Bob Stoops. I do not envy who will end up in that undesireable position. They might get paid $5 million per season (or with the way coaching salaries are headed, $25 million per season in a few years), but he will never be as beloved, as successful, etc etc as the previous championship winning guy. Always, ALWAYS follow the guy that follows the legend. In some cases, it helps to be 2-3 coaches removed from the legend. Expectations are dirt cheap by then
Things only seemed good under Gibbs after looking through the lens of the Schnelly and Blake years. Had Gibbs won a conference title or two he might have been forgiven for the average years but he didn't. Add to that, he was 1-5 against very mediocre Texas teams, 1-5 against Nebraska, and 0-5-1 against Colorado.
Too much inconsistency. One year we were 5-4-2 and 6-6 another season. I went to the Nebraska game in 1994. Walked up to the ticket window 30 minutes before kickoff and bought my ticket - something that would have been unthinkable during my time on campus (1975-1978). There were at least 20,000 empty seats inside the stadium.
