Strong Makes Solid First Impression at Big XII Media Days, Preaches Toughness

Following a summer of planning, recruiting and football camp, Texas coach Charlie Strong met the media for the first time leading up to fall practice as part of the annual Big 12 media days in Dallas.

Strong didn’t arrive in Dallas expecting to score points with the press, a role many claim his predecessor enjoyed. Remember Oregon coach Mark Helfrich sharing the podium with then-Texas coach Mack Brown at an Alamo Bowl preview? When Brown finished answering a question, Helfrich smiled, and as SBNation  reported, “By the end of the press conference, both coaches were cracking jokes as Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich turned to Brown as his counterpart was talking up the Ducks and said, “You’re really good at this.”

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Brown turned out to be plenty good between the lines, though his last four seasons didn’t meet the lofty expectations that his first 12 years created. However it turned out, Brown stepped aside following the season, prompting TCU coach Gary Patterson to weigh in Monday on expectations and differences between power schools around the state, pointing out that one coach (Brown) wasn’t retained following a 8-4 regular season and another got a raise (A&M’s Kevin Sumlin) after an 8-4 season, as several conference reporters, including Orangebloods.com’s Geoff Ketchum, pointed out via Twitter.

Gary Patterson on UT: "The hardest part about Austin is they fired a guy at 8-4, and down the road they give a raise at 8-4 (Kevin Sumlin)."

— Geoff Ketchum (@gkketch) July 22, 2014

While not playing Brown’s role as beloved media darling, Strong scored points in his own way, as Kirk Bohls wrote in Wednesday’s Austin American-Statesman. “Strong made his official debut at Big 12 media days and withstood a battery of questions for 90 minutes and escaped unscathed.”

Strong understands the act he’s following, as Stephen Nesbitt wrote in Wednesday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“I know this,” Strong said Tuesday. “I followed an icon in coach Brown — 16 seasons at the University of Texas, did an unbelievable job, won a national championship. The foundation has been laid. Now it’s up to us to build on it.”

Strong knows he has big footsteps to follow. Brown’s the second winningest coach in school history and gets credit for returning the program to the glory days of his mentor Darrell K. Royal. Brown’s record aside, Strong has the job for a reason, and he’s wasting no time, or mincing no words, in letting his players know what he expects of them.

Strong told the media that the attitude around the Texas program has changed and that change should help manifest improvement on the field, where the Longhorns are looking to get healthy on offense – quarterback David Ash (foot), running back Johnathan Gray (Achilles) and lineman Kent Perkins (knee) have all been cleared to practice) and bigger, strong, faster and, well, better on defense, an area where Strong’s teams excelled at Louisville. Louisville led the nation in overall defense in 2013.

Brown’s last four years left Strong a lot to build on, and the coach knows exactly how he plans to build on what Brown started. He spent the spring on a bus touring the state, explaining that job one was to put the “T” back in Texas.

“You can never become a team until you have a toughness about you,” he said in Bohls’ July 23 story.

The players, most of them anyway according to the Houston Chronicle’s Mike Finger , have bought in quickly, lest they draw Strong’s ire. As Bohls quoted senior Quandre Diggs Tuesday, “Whatever the boss man wants. Whenever he wants something done, he wants it done. I don’t find anything wrong with that.”

As Finger wrote in Wednesday’s Chronicle, “Strong has preached for months about wanting to make UT tougher. To accomplish that, he has stressed the mental sense of the word, with things as simple as expecting his players to show up early for meetings.”

And that’s the beginning. August is almost here. If Texas plans on improving upon last season’s 8-5 mark, it’s time to get down to brass tacks.

“Anything you do, you have to work for it,” Strong said in Finger’s report. “I want them to understand that. We’ve got to earn respect.”

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