Charlie Strong, announced Sunday as Texas' head coach, is ready for the football component that comes with his new position.
Whether he is ready for everything else that has nothing to do with football is what makes the move a surprising one for both Strong and the Longhorns. Being at Texas means dealing with billionaire donors, the political tensions between the school president and board of trustees, and the media, including the Longhorns' own cable network.
Strong showed no interest in those aspects of the job at Louisville, where the demands are nowhere near what comes with donning the burnt orange. Eric Crawford, the longtime Cardinals beat writer for the Courier-Journal and now a columnist for WDRB 41, recounted how Strong and the school had their issues over his decidedly low profile when it came to public relations.
At Louisville, Strong could get away with it because he delivered on the field, going 35-17 in four seasons with two conference championships and a BCS bowl win. Strong signed quarterback Teddy Bridgewater over the hometown Miami Hurricanes, then helped develop him into one of the top quarterbacks in college football and one of the top prospects in the 2014 NFL Draft.
That recruiting prowess, along with his strong defensive pedigree, are exactly what Texas needs. For all the lofty rankings on signing day, Mack Brown's final few classes lacked an impact quarterback. That defensive talent rarely coalesced into a unit that delivered performances worthy of the sum of its parts.
The hope from Strong has to be that delivering wins will appease Texas, as it did at Louisville. Otherwise, a surprising fit could prove to be a bad one for both parties.
Follow Dan Greenspan on Twitter @DanGreenspan.
