Strong served as the head coach at the University of South Florida from 2017 to 2019, University of Texas at Austin from 2014 to 2016 and the University of Louisville from 2010 to 2013. Prior to becoming head coach at Louisville, Strong held numerous assistant coaching positions. During his four-year stint at Louisville, he led the Cardinals to a 37–15 record and reached a bowl game each season, including the 2013 Sugar Bowl. After the 2013 season he left Louisville to become the head coach at the University of Texas. He was fired by Texas after the 2016 season with a 16–21 record in three seasons. One month after leaving Texas, Strong was hired at South Florida where he led the Bulls to a 21–16 record before being fired in 2019.
Strong's first full-time coaching job was at Southern Illinois in 1986, where he coached wide receivers. He later assumed defensive coaching duties at Florida, Ole Miss, and Notre Dame.
South Carolina
In 1999, Strong joined the South Carolina Gamecocks as defensive coordinator. His stifling defenses and charismatic personality created buzz that he would be possibly the first black head coach in the SEC, but job offers were slim. Sylvester Croom eventually broke the color barrier in the SEC coaching ranks in 2004.[4]
Florida
Strong was hired as defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators before the 2003 season. Florida head coach Ron Zook was fired midway through the Gators' 2004 season, but continued to coach until the bowl game; Strong served as interim coach of the Gators for one game, the December 2004 Peach Bowl. Florida lost the game, 27–10, to Miami. When Urban Meyer was hired as Florida's head coach, Strong was the only assistant coach retained from Zook's staff.
In a January 2009 interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Strong expressed his belief that race played a large part in the reason that he hadn't been offered a head coaching job in 2009. Strong, whose wife is white, especially cited prospective employers' discomfort with his interracial marriage.[5] Strong was a 2009 finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation's top assistant coach.
Louisville
He became the 21st head football coach at the University of Louisville on December 9, 2009.[6] In a telephone interview that day with ESPN.com columnist Pat Forde, former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy said of Strong, "When they see what he can do, you're probably going to have a lot of people disappointed they didn't hire him sooner."
Strong led Louisville to a victory in the 2013 Sugar Bowl over his former team, the Florida Gators, by a final score of 33–23.[7] It was the biggest upset victory in terms of point spread in any BCS bowl game since the inception of the BCS in 1998, as Florida entered the game favored by almost two touchdowns.
On January 23, 2013, Strong was given a $1.4 million raise which brought his annual compensation to $3.7 million and raised his buyout to $5 million.[8] At the time it made him 7th highest paid active coach in college football and highest paid coach outside the SEC, Big 12, and Big Ten conferences.[9]
Texas
On January 5, 2014, the University of Texas announced that Strong would be leaving the University of Louisville to accept the head football coach position at Texas to replace Mack Brown.[10] Strong's 5-year contract was worth $5 million annually.[11] He was formally introduced as Texas' 29th head coach the next day and became the first black head coach of the Texas football program.[1]
Texas athletic director Steve Patterson and university president Bill Powers stated their reasons for hiring Strong for the head-coaching position were Strong's commitment to the tradition of the UT Football program as well as the development of student-athletes.[12] Strong discussed his devotion to his athletes in his first press conference as the head coach of Texas, "I want to see [the players] develop on the field as well as off the field... The program is always going to be about physical and mental toughness."[12]
In his first training camp as Longhorns coach, Strong suspended or dismissed a number of players for legal and disciplinary reasons. Players went to training camp with blank white helmets and Strong said they would have to earn the right to have the Longhorn logo on them.
Texas under Strong started 2–4, which included a 20–17 nail-biter defeat to #12 UCLA and 31–26 close loss to #11 Oklahoma. The Longhorns rallied and finished 6–6, which included an upset win at home versus #23 West Virginia, 33–16, and a 48–45 shootout home win against Iowa State, Strong's first shootout win in the Big 12. A 41–7 loss to BYU at home, 28–7 loss to #7 Baylor at home, 23–0 shutout by #10 Kansas State in Manhattan, and a 48–10 home loss to #5 TCU proved to be blemishes to Strong's first season in Austin. Under Strong, the Longhorns earned a bowl bid in his first season. On renewing an old Southwest Conference rivalry, playing against Arkansas in the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl in Houston, Strong commented, "I grew up in Arkansas, grew up an Arkansas fan because it's a major university in the state," Strong said. "So many memorable games. Like I said, the '69 game was an unbelievable game. Growing up around it, you just know how big it was and how important it is to so many people." Texas lost the game by a score of 31–7.
In 2015, Strong's coaching staff got a top-10, recruiting class, competing with rivals Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU in in-state recruiting. During the spring, the coaches switched the offense to a spread offense, as the quarterbacks Strong recruits are used to this style since it is extensively used in high school, Strong noted.
Strong's first upset win against a top 10 team at Texas was in the Red River Showdown in his second year, beating Oklahoma 24–17.[13] Strong had begun the season 1–4, and coming into the game, the Longhorns program was noted by multiple national media outlets as being in trouble.[14] The Longhorns dominated the rushing attack with 313 yards on the ground and had two players rush for over 100 yards in the game. Both players (QB Jerrod Heard and RB D'Onta Foreman) were in their second years, signalling the success of Strong's recruiting at Texas. After the victory, the players picked up Strong and crowd-surfed him in the middle of the field, then Strong posed for photos wearing the Golden Hat.[15] Texas would finish 5–7, not eligible for a bowl game, but ended the season on a high note upsetting No. 12 Baylor. The offseason saw Strong bring in another offensive coordinator in Sterlin Gilbert from Tulsa, and a top-10 recruiting class. Texas started their 2016 campaign against No. 10 Notre Dame at home, in which Strong started freshman QB Shane Buechele and Tyrone Swoopes scored the game-winning touchdown to upset Notre Dame in 2OT. In the following AP poll, Texas was ranked for the first time under Strong, at No. 11.
Strong finished the 2016 season with a losing record of 5–7, the third season in a row he had guided the University of Texas football program to a losing season, after inheriting a program from Mack Brown who had achieved an 8–5 record in 2013 and winning records in 15 of 16 seasons at Texas. The low point of the 2016 campaign came in the next-to-last game of the season when the Longhorns blew a 21–10 lead in a 24–21 overtime loss to a Kansas team that had won only one game all season beforehand.
On November 26, 2016, Strong was fired from his position as head coach.[16]
On February 11, 2021, Strong was hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars as their assistant to the head coach and inside linebackers coach, reuniting with head coach Urban Meyer.[19]
Miami (FL)
On March 4, 2022, Strong was hired by the University of Miami as their co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.[20] On February 9, 2023, Strong indicated that he would not be returning to Miami after he was passed over for the defensive coordinator position.[21]
Gregory McIntosh Robinson was an American college and professional football coach. Robinson served as the head football coach at Syracuse University from 2005 to 2008. He has served as an assistant coach with several other college football programs and for three teams in the National Football League (NFL): the New York Jets from 1990 to 1994, the Denver Broncos from 1995 to 2000, and the Kansas City Chiefs from 2001 to 2003. With the Broncos, Robinson was a member of two Super Bowl championship teams. In more recent years he has served as the defensive coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin, in 2004 and for part of the 2013 season, and at the University of Michigan, from 2009 to 2010.
Major Lee Applewhite is an American football coach and former player who is currently the head coach for the South Alabama Jaguars. He served as head coach at the University of Houston from 2017 to 2018, where he previously served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. In 2013, he was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Texas under his head coach as a player, Mack Brown. Prior to Texas, Applewhite served as offensive coordinator at Rice University under Todd Graham in 2006 and at Alabama under Nick Saban in 2007. He was the youngest offensive coordinator among Division I-A schools at that time.
Randy Leonard Shannon is an American football coach and former player who is currently the linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator for the Florida State Seminoles football program. Shannon was the head coach at the University of Miami from 2007 to 2010 and has served as an assistant coach for the National Football League (NFL)'s Miami Dolphins and several college teams, including stints as the defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes, the Florida Gators, and the UCF Knights. He won the Frank Broyles Award as the nation's top collegiate assistant coach while at Miami in 2001.
Robert Patrick Petrino is an American football coach. He currently serves as the offensive coordinator for the Arkansas Razorbacks. He is the former head coach for the Missouri State Bears. Previously, he served as the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals football team from 2014 until being fired during the 2018 season. He previously held the post from 2003 to 2006. From 2008 to 2011, Petrino was the head football coach at the University of Arkansas. He was dismissed from that position in the spring of 2012 for covering up an extramarital affair with an athletic department staffer. Petrino also coached the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) for the first 13 games of the 2007 season. He spent the 2013 season as head football coach of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and 2020–2022 seasons as the head coach of the Missouri State Bears. He also was the offensive coordinator for the Texas A&M Aggies football in 2023.
Johnny Chavis, nicknamed "The Chief", is an American football coach who is the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the Birmingham Stallions of the United Football League (UFL). He previously served as defensive coordinator for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team and former defensive coordinator, linebacker coach, and associate head coach at the Tennessee Volunteers football, LSU Tigers football, and Texas A&M Aggies football programs.
Eugene C. Chizik Jr. is an American football coach who was most recently the defensive coordinator and Assistant Head Coach for Defense at North Carolina. A veteran of the coaching ranks, Chizik previously was UNC's defensive coordinator for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, and served as the head coach of the Auburn football team from 2009 until the end of the 2012 season. Chizik's 2010 Auburn Tigers football team completed a 14–0 season with a victory over Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game, and quarterback Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy. Chizik played college football at the University of Florida in 1981 for head coach Charley Pell.
Nicholas Holt V is an American football coach who is currently the head coach of Skorpions Varese of the Federazione Italiana di American Football. Previously he was co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Purdue University for three seasons from 2017 to 2019. Before that he was the defensive coordinator at Western Kentucky from 2013 to 2016. Earlier in his career, Holt was defensive coordinator and assistant head coach of the Washington Huskies, defensive coordinator and defensive line coach of the USC Trojans, and head coach of the Idaho Vandals from 2004 to 2005.
Darrell Ray Dickey is an American football coach currently working as an Offensive Analyst for the Georgia Bulldogs.
The 2007 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Mack Brown. The Longhorns played their home games in Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium (DKR).
Reginald Wayne Herring is an American football coach and former player and most recently the linebackers coach for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). A former linebacker at Florida State University, he began his coaching career in 1981. He has now coached for 36 years across college and the NFL. Herring arrived in Denver to coach linebackers in 2015 after previous stops in the league with Chicago (2014), Houston and Dallas (2008–10). Herring has coached nine linebackers who have made Pro Bowl appearances during their careers, including outside linebackers DeMarcus Ware (9), Mario Williams (4), and Connor Barwin (1), and inside linebackers Zach Thomas (7), Keith Brooking (5), Lance Briggs (7), Brian Cushing (1), Sean Lee (2) and DeMeco Ryans (2). Herring also served as the interim head football coach for the University of Arkansas in the 2008 Cotton Bowl Classic.
William Lawrence Muschamp is an American football coach and former player who is a defensive analyst at the University of Georgia. He previously served as the Bulldogs' co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach from 2022 to 2024. Before his time at Georgia, he served as head football coach at the University of Florida from 2011 to 2014 and at the University of South Carolina from 2016 to 2020.
Vance Juano Bedford is an American football coach who last served as defensive coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin for head coach Charlie Strong. He is also a former professional player, with one season each as a defensive back in the NFL and USFL.
William Mack Brown is the former head coach of the University of Texas Longhorn football team. During his tenure, the Texas Longhorns football team under Mack Brown had a winning record in 15 of 16 seasons.
Manuel Alberto Diaz II is an American football coach who is the head football coach at Duke University. He previously served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Pennsylvania State University from 2022 to 2023 and as the head football coach at the University of Miami from 2019 to 2021.
The 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Daniel John Durkin is an American football coach who is the defensive coordinator for the Auburn Tigers. He was formerly the head coach for the University of Maryland. Durkin began serving as the head coach of the University of Maryland football team in 2015. Following the practice-related death of player Jordan McNair, Durkin was placed on leave in August 2018. Matt Canada was named acting head coach until further notice.
The 2015 Texas Longhorns football team, known variously as "Texas", "UT", the "Longhorns", or the "Horns", was a collegiate American football team that represented the University of Texas at Austin as a member of the Big 12 Conference in the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team played its home games at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, where the team is based. The Longhorns were led by second-year head coach Charlie Strong. Shawn Watson and Joe Wickline ran the offense. Vance Bedford served as defensive coordinator. They finished the season 5–7, 4–5 in Big 12 play to finish in a three-way tie for fifth place.
The Texas Longhorns football team represents the University of Texas at Austin in college football.
The 2017 South Florida Bulls football team represented the University of South Florida (USF) in the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They played their home games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, and were led by first-year head coach Charlie Strong. The Bulls competed as members of the East Division of the American Athletic Conference. They finished the season 10–2, 6–2 in AAC play to finish in second place in the East Division. They were invited to the Birmingham Bowl where they defeated Texas Tech.
Justin Burke is an American football coach who is the offensive coordinator for the UTSA Roadrunners football team.
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