Texas fires Charlie Strong

UT students we spoke with are split when it comes to hiring Tom Herman as the new football coach.

Texas hired Houston coach Tom Herman to replace the fired Charlie Strong, the Associated Press is reporting.

Herman started Sunday’s news conference by calling it an “unbelievable opportunity to be a part of the Longhorn family”.

Strong’s only bowl team during his Texas tenure came in his first season, when the Longhorns finished 6-7 and lost to Arkansas, 31-7, in the 2014 Texas Bowl.

All of that was to be expected.

It didn’t take long to announce a new coach after the Texas Longhorns fired Charlie Strong following another disappointing season.

Herman thanked University of Houston officials for the last two seasons. Things progressed far enough between Herman and the Tigers that a report broke on Thanksgiving night that Tom was headed to LSU and a contract would be finalized on Saturday morning.

Herman lifted Houston with winning and public persona that pledged an “H-town takeover”.

Herman’s quick turnaround of the Houston program is encouraging for those at Texas.

Herman’s most important recruiting pitch may be to keep junior D’Onta Foreman from going pro.

Players took to Twitter to express their feelings about Strong’s dismissal. Herman hopes to change that.

Herman will enjoy a whirlwind of early support that Strong never really got. Some of the things Herman does will be similar to how Strong ran things, he said.

Texas didn’t waste any time in the search for former head coach Charlie Strong’s replacement.

Texas now has seven commitments, including five ESPN 300 recruits: QB Sam Ehlinger, defensive ends Ta’quon Graham and Lagaryonn Carson, and receivers Damion Miller and Montrell Estell.

But the decision to fire Strong boiled down to losses, Fenves added: “In the end, the results over three seasons were not there”. Until 2010, a campus dorm was named after a past leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Fenves and Perrin have been in their jobs less than two years.

“We love that man”, said linebacker and Mesquite Poteet alum Malik Jefferson about Strong.

Herman’s contract will need to be approved by the UT System Board of Regents. He returns to Texas, where he was a graduate assistant from 1999-2000. Needless to say, Herman and his staff will have to hit the ground running, several of the blue chip targets in the state of Texas are early enrollees, and the dead period is rapidly approaching. Major admitted to having a relationship with a student trainer in 2009 while he was an assistant head coach and running backs coach under Mack Brown, but it wasn’t made public til years later. Of his 18 years in football, 12 have been spent in Texas, including his one-year playing career spent at Texas Lutheran in Seguin, Texas. That case is pending before the state Supreme Court. “He showed me when he was in Ohio State that he was not only a very good coach, but a dynamite recruiter”.