Texas coach Charlie Strong to questions about his future

As the Texas Longhorns prepare to play the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kansas Saturday, rumors about the future of Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong have again come to the surface.

This season has arguably been even more disappointing for the Longhorns, as many teams need a couple of seasons to start figuring things out under a new coach.

Texas has made a decision to fire football coach Charlie Strong, a university source told the Austin American-Statesman on Sunday.

Perrin, who has been publicly supportive of Strong all season, didn’t say Strong would return. “They’ve continued to work through some really, really hard situations, and I’ve said it before, I feel like we have the right kind of kids in our program. We’ll discuss where things stand after that”, Perrin said.

But after discussions among UT officials on Sunday, it sounded like athletic director Mike Perrin might meet with Strong either Sunday night or Monday morning – before Strong’s weekly press conference at 11 am CT on Monday, sources said.

With top administrative support, Strong appeared relatively safe until Saturday’s 24-21 overtime loss at lowly Kansas. The past two seasons, Strong led the Longhorns to a 5-7 and 6-7 record. When he was asked if he knew what the defeat meant for his future, a visibly distraught Strong became choked up as he said, “No idea”. He said, “No, I don’t”. The decision to fire Strong was first announced on Sunday afternoon by HookEm.com, and it was confirmed by ESPN’s Brett McMurphy.

It’ll take a $10.7 million buyout to remove Strong of his duties as he is in year three of a five-year contract. If Texas sticks to its public plan of waiting to “evaluate” him, Strong will undoubtedly be faced with more of the same speculation.

If you’ve got a shot at a job like this, you have to consider it, pressure and politics and all.. This isn’t the bad team from the first two Strong seasons, blown out mercilessly by their conference rivals and outside of it.

But close losses at California, Oklahoma State and in the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma put an end to any fuzzy feelings.

Following those three straight losses, Texas then recovered to beat Iowa State, but they slipped again by falling to Kansas State.

To add more joy to the story, it was the the Jayhawks’ Senior Day. The game was thought to be Beaty’s best shot to win his first Big 12 game, a measuring stick of the progress the program was making.

The key: With KU still competitive while trailing 14-10, Kansas receiver LaQuvionte Gonzalez lost a fumble after getting chased down from behind by the Longhorns’ Jeff McCullough. Quarterback Shane Buechele threw three interceptions, the last of which allowed Kansas to win with an overtime field goal.