If he so chooses, and he no doubt has, Charlie Strong can look back at what Louisville accomplished and smile. In four years, Strong took a program that had seemingly lost its way and delivered it back to the BCS.[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
The Cardinals, who went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl during the 2006 season under Bobby Petrino, managed just 15 wins and 21 losses in the three years that followed under Steve Kragthorpe. Louisville AD Tom Jurich found his way to Strong’s living room and offered the Florida defensive coordinator a chance to become his head coach. Strong jumped at the chance and made the most of it.
Four years later, Jurich faces the same task, though his search is likely to be very different. In hiring Strong, Louisville wanted someone who could fix a broken program. Strong delivered. After two 7-6 seasons, his teams took off. The Cardinals won the Big East in 2012 and then shocked fourth-ranked Florida in the Sugar Bowl. That team became Louisville’s first to start a season 9-0 before dropping two games late.
Before the season, experts, as detailed in Sports Illustrated, expected Louisville to claim the American Athletic Conference’s automatic bid to the BCS and continue its rise to national prominence. Strong’s Cardinals almost obliged. They continued their surge this past season, but a 38-35 loss to future Fiesta Bowl champion Central Florida cost the Cardinals the AAC title and BCS bid. Without an at-large bid to the BCS despite an 11-1 mark, the Cardinals put the exclamation point on their season with a 36-9 drubbing of Miami in the Russell Athletic Bowl in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Miami didn’t convert any of its 11 third down chances, managed just 174 yards of offense, and the Cardinals registered five sacks of Miami quarterback Stephen Morris. One-time Miami recruit Teddy Bridgewater had no such troubles, passing for 447 yards and three scores with a rushing touchdown to boot.
Though the NFL-bound Bridgewater got the headlines, the Cardinals made their mark in the model of their defensive minded coach. A defensive coordinator for the bulk of his career, Louisville excelled on that side of the ball. The 2013 team ranked first nationally in total defense, rush defense, sacks, first downs allowed and third down defense. Louisville also ranked second in scoring defense. All of which should be music to the collective ears of Texas’ fanbase.
In leaving Louisville, Strong understands those who say the coach who preaches loyalty walked away from his team. Strong understands and told the Louisville Courier-Journal the toughest part of the decision to take the Texas job involved leaving players he had recruited to help him achieve a goal.
“You always want to feel like the program is in better shape than it was when you went into the program,” Strong said, “and I think that’s what we’ve done.”
The choice to leave wasn’t easy, he told the LCJ, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to coach one of the nation’s historically powerful programs, where he knows expectations will start out high and only increase from there.
“I can’t wait to get started because at the University of Texas, I want to make sure that we build and represent the tradition and the history of this great program,” he said in his first appearance in Austin. “We will work like it’s fourth-and-1 or fourth-and-inches and make sure our Texas exes are so happy with the product that we put on the field. A program that has won four national titles, it’s time to put the program back on the national stage.”
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