Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Would he stay?

Cards fans: hope everyone back home had a safe and happy Fourth of July. My isolation, meditation and beer starvation here in India has granted me the clairvoyance to begin considering the most urgent of questions confronting the Louisville football program, one so obvious that even the man himself felt compelled to address it albeit indirectly: Should he prove successful, can Louisville hold on to Charlie Strong?

Sure, he hasn't won a single game as a college head coach yet. Sure, the graveyard of head coaches overflows with the corpses of many a promising head coach hyped as the one who would turn it around. And yes, his overall record as the Cardinals' head coach is 0-0, his overall head coaching record 0-1 (Florida's 2004 Peach Bowl loss to Miami). That just doesn't matter right now. It's the offseason and inflated expectations untampered by reality are free to reign. More to the point, genuine optimism about the football program is filling the air for the first time since the Petrino era.

The single and total reason for this, earned or not, is Strong. Cards fans adore him, are impressed by the mark he has made so swiftly on and off the field, are delighted by the sudden influx of quality recruits into the program. We are grateful that he has allowed us all to dream again of conference championships, BCS births, national prominence, and top-flight quality football.

Unfortunately, given our recent history with our head coaches before Kragthorpe, Louisville fans are conditioned to anticipate as a consequence of success the head coach's departure to supposedly brighter and better and greener pastures. It's how we lost John L. and how we lost Bobby Petrino, both of whom took flight from Louisville in a manner somewhere between "unceremonious" and "jumping out of the airplane with the last parachute and all women and children still on board."

For more than a decade Tom Jurich has sought to upgrade the program to the tier of its national competitors, therein nullifying the reasons a head coach wouldn't want to spend his career here. We now have the most excellent facilities in the country, a newly expanded stadium, a BCS conference bowl bid. The landscape now is such that if Louisville (or any other team) can dominate the Big East, it can legitimately compete for the national championship. In short, Louisville is a premier head coaching job now; Cards fans should start thinking that way. But we have been burned before, and so the question lingers: IF Charlie Strong proves successful, could we keep him?
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7 comments:

  1. Coach Strong has been an assistant for what, 24 years now? And he's been overlooked by multiple programs. We were the school that gave him his chance to prove wrong every other university that passed on him. I think that will go a long way down the road. The only reason I could see him looking elsewhere, should he excel here, is if the UF job opens up making him a viable candidate, or perhaps if the Big East were to lose their BCS status. Otherwise, I think (and hope) we can enjoy Coach Strong for a long long time to come. This is merely the beginning of a long and lustrous relationship!! GO CARDS!!!
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  2. I agree with both points made above. The biggest concern was losing the BCS status in the Big East. I think the BE needs to stay proactice and look to add up to 3 more solid football schools. So long as the Big East stays viable, there's always the selling point that it's the easiest road to the BCS.

    Also, the Gators coming calling to replace Urban Meyer one day is a distinct possibility, and one I doubt he could pass up.
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  3. To be completly honest, I don't believe or understand why you think Louisville is a premier program. The Big East is no higher then the 5th best football conference(SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve, and Pac-10 all comfortably ahead). Since the departure of Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia there is no power house team in the conference at all. Strong would leave Louisville for many teams. Including the obvious Florida programs or many of the SEC programs. I could name probably about 20 to 35 legit programs this side of the Mississippi he would go to in a heartbeat. My prediction is he will take over Tennessee in about 3 years. This is honesty from a UK fan; so feel free to get your hate on.
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  4. I don't think anyone has said that UofL is a "PREMIER PROGRAM" but it certainly has its virtues. One, you correctly point out that the Big East is one of the lesser power conferences. Well, that can be a plus. If you run the table or lose one game, you can play in a BCS bowl. Is it more advantageous to be a middling team in a middling conference? Maybe, maybe not. But if the goal is to build a program to compete for national championships, there are worse places to be than the premier program in the Big East.

    Louisville has the athletic budget to at least be competitive when it comes to contract extension talks. Money in the coffers, plus state of the art facilities, and it's certainly plausible.

    The rest is the human element that no one can predict, and Mr. Black alluded to. Does Strong fall in love with the community? Do his two young daughters find a school and grow attached? Is Strong the type of man that would rather build a legacy than just chase the next opportunity (bear in mind, he is 51). No one has the answers to these, and they will play out in due time.

    Mr. Blue & White, your opinion is legit and may be proven correct. But to contend that retaining him at Louisville is completely out of the question is just wishful thinking on your part I'm afraid.
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  5. Charlie is 51? Wow, add him to the list of UofL hotties. Go Cards!
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  6. Only time will tell, but I think we have a good chance to keep him. A couple of points:

    1. Anyone who saw Strong's first press conference on accepting the Louisville job knows how much UofL's hiring meant to him. He was overwhelmed with emotion at finally getting the shot that other programs had denied him. I truly believe his intent at this time is to stay and make Louisville a career. That puts us ahead of where we started with a certain UCLA basketball assistant who came here to groom himself for a return to his alma mater, and wound up staying 30 years and winning two national championships.

    2. Bobby Petrino was a climber who flirted with other jobs from day one, but Tom Jurich managed to keep him here until the NFL came calling. Jurich said at the time that he could have matched any offer from another college. I think the same holds true when it comes to Charlie Strong. I don't think Jurich is going to let another school come in and steal his football coach.
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  7. Thoughtful comments all around. To add my own two cents: The Big East obviously has to maintain its BCS bid... at the moment, it looks like things on that front are stable, at least for the near future. Let's hope it stays that way. To Blue and White: it's true that other programs will be attractive to Strong, a point implicit in the post; though I do think that "20 to 35 teams this side of the Mississippi" overstates it a bit. By "premier head coaching job," I refer to Louisville enjoying the most excellent facilities in the country, a recently expanded stadium (that was itself still pretty new), a BCS bid to the conference winner, a program still only a few years removed from a BCS birth. I think that qualifies it. The recruits he's brought in already suggests that all the right pieces are in place. Rick, I think you're right on the money, especially about Jurich. If he could coax Pitino here, keep Petrino here as long as he did, then he's the man for the job to keep Charlie Strong a Cardinal.

    Go Cards!
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Mr. Red is also known as Timothy Johnstone. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville.

Mr. Black is also known as Christopher Cunningham. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville.

CliffySmalls is also known as Cliff Elliott. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville.