It’s official: Louisville football coach Charlie Strong will leave to coach the Texas Longhorns next season.

I have mixed feelings about this.  I’m sorry to see him go, but I’m frankly not convinced he’s the guy who can build a truly lasting winner (a la Nick Saban) at either Louisville or Texas.  He certainly turned the program around after Steve Kragthorpe failed to build on Bobby Petrino‘s success.  He is perhaps one of the premier defensive coaches and recruiters in the game (or he managed to identify and hire the right staff). This showed in Louisville’s defensive success this season and in the clearly improved quality of recruits now at the school compared to five years ago. Continue reading →