by After Memphis relieved Tommy West of his head coaching duties (effective at the end of the season) a handful of coaches were associated with the soon to be vacant position. Friday morning, I read that Memphis had narrowed the search to five candidates. One name conspicuously missing from consideration was Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong.
Frankly, I’m glad that Strong won’t be taking that job, especially if what West said is true, because the next guy at Memphis won’t have a fighting chance to succeed in the long-run.
I’ll digress, this post is not meant to talk about the Memphis job, it’s supposed to be about Strong, one of the best assistants in college football. The case has been made for the last few years for Strong to get a head coaching position, yet for some reason — possibly race — he has never been offered one, despite coaching elite defenses during his tenure at Florida. Take a look at the rankings:
| Year | Total Defense | Scoring Defense | Rushing Defense | Passing Defense |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 9th | 18th | 10th | 38th |
| 2006 | 6th | 6th | 5th | 33rd |
| 2007 | 41st | 46th | 10th | 98th |
| 2008 | 9th | 4th | 15th | 20th |
| 2009 | 2nd | 1st | 12th | 2nd |
Strong has coached a top ten defense four of the last five seasons. Furthermore, he’s considered one of the top recruiters among assistant coaches (he’s responsible for bringing some of the best defensive talents to Florida in recent years). It is mind-boggling that Strong has not been given a chance to be the head coach of BCS football program, let alone a non-BCS school. Former Gator offenseive coordinator Dan Mullen was given a shot at a BCS school for his first head coaching gig.
By his own accord, Strong believes that his race and interracial marriage are why prospective employers are hesistant to offer him a head coaching job. Prior to the BCS National Championship Game in January, Strong had this to say regarding his —and his wife’s— race after it was brought up regarding a job he interviewed for at a southern school a few years prior.
“Everybody always said I didn’t get that job because my wife is white[...] If you think about it, a coach is standing up there representing the university,” he says. “If you’re not strong enough to look through that (interracial marriage) then you have an issue.”
And it’s an issue that needs to be tackled. The same thing reportedly happened last season to Buffalo coach Turner Gill when he interviewed for the then-vacant Auburn job. Some said he didn’t get the job because his wife was white.
Consider this fact, there have only been two black head football coaches in SEC history: Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State and… Charlie Strong. Strong served as the interim head coach for the Gators in the 2004 Peach Bowl after Ron Zook was fired and declined to coach the team in the bowl game. And it’s not just a southern thing, as there are only a handful of black head coaches in the college football ranks. Off the top of my head I can only name three: Randy Shannon at Miami, Gill at Buffalo and Michael Locksley at New Mexico.
Regardless of his race, or who he’s married to, it’s about time that Strong gets serious consideration, and an offer from a college football program looking for a new coach. As a Gator fan I’d hate to see him bolt, but Strong is deserving and is way overdue for the opportunity to make his own name as the man in charge.
*Defensive rankings courtesy of cfbstats.com
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1Chili on Nov 16, 2009 at 9:16 am:
UVa should hire Strong. I could make a Jefferson-Hemmings joke or segue here but I won’t. Seriously, Strong would be a good hire for them.
2beercontrol on Nov 16, 2009 at 9:42 am:
rumor is strong is a hush, hush backroom deal for uva already. correct rumors have a lower batting avg than jason varitek, however.
3tallguy on Nov 16, 2009 at 10:24 am:
You think maybe it’s because he wants the Florida gig after Urban leaves for Notre Dame?
4Magglio Merkin on Nov 16, 2009 at 11:12 am:
Ron English at Eastern Michigan University.
5cgb on Nov 16, 2009 at 1:52 pm:
Strong to UVA would be interesting, does he have any recruiting ties to the area? I think Al Golden would be another strong canidate.
6Magglio Merkin on Nov 16, 2009 at 2:33 pm:
Ron English is black… not a good candidate.
/for clarity
7cgb on Nov 16, 2009 at 6:09 pm:
@tallguy I was thinking the same thing… However, I don’t know how Florida fans would feel about a defense minded head coach considering they’re 10-0 and hating every minute of it because they aren’t scoring with style.
8Tomas Verde on Nov 16, 2009 at 6:26 pm:
I was actually discussing the thought of Urban leaving for ND with a couple of friends. We were all in agreement that we would love to have Strong replace Meyer… if he were to leave, that is.
9fetch on Nov 16, 2009 at 7:45 pm:
You let this guy post here? Not a smart idea.
10Tomas Verde on Nov 16, 2009 at 8:24 pm:
Suck it, fetch.
/my goal is to write for more blogs than you… which is roughly 263, give or take.
11fetch on Nov 16, 2009 at 8:27 pm:
Pretty soon you’re going to have one less to write for, if you catch my drift.
/winnar
12Tomas Verde on Nov 16, 2009 at 8:29 pm:
You’re going to go into a drunken stupor and delete Beadlemaniacs?
/SouvenirCity’d
13younglefty on Nov 16, 2009 at 8:31 pm:
cgb you and I have discussed this before, but I like Derek Dooley for the UVA job.
14cgb on Nov 16, 2009 at 8:34 pm:
Haha, poor younglefty, I’ve been wanting to read his thoughts on Meyer, Weis and Notre Dame. As for Dooley I think a lot of middle of the road BCS schools are going to be all over his nuts.
15younglefty on Nov 16, 2009 at 8:39 pm:
Anybody have any ideas/thoughts on where Tommy Tuberville ends up? He’s too good to not have a job.
16cgb on Nov 16, 2009 at 9:01 pm:
Tuberville might get sucked up in the whole TV gig until the right opportunity comes up. I can’t see him coaching outside of the SEC or ACC. It looks like all the desirable jobs are taken for the foreseeable future. Tubs is an amazing coach, a little inconsistent, but he ran the table in the SEC. That’s an amount of street credit approximate to his weight in a heroin run.