- Joined
- Sep 4, 2012
- Messages
- 43,263
Really baffled as to why people are so willing to turn a blind eye to Strong's alarmingly atrocious decision making at UT.
Strong announced in February that he wanted to overhaul UT's offense into an up-tempo spread to adapt to their recruiting base. That was smart. But then he retained offensive coordinator Shawn Watson to implement those changes, even though Watson's entire resume revolved around running a methodical, pro-style West Coast offense. That was monumentally f***ing stupid and it predictably blew up in his face, resulting in Watson's playcalling duties being revoked one game into the 2015 season.
While Golden has always tried to fit a square peg into a round hole with his players and has been unwilling to make changes to his staff, Strong tried to fit a square peg into a round hole by keeping Watson to run an offense he had no experience with. Mind-numbingly stupid decision and a red flag that's impossible to ignore.
Not only was it a terrible move, but to publicly throw his OC under the bus like that was alarming. It was a public lynching, and Strong looked very bad while doing it. Funny thing is he did the same thing at Louisville when he publicly executed then OC Mike Sanford and replaced him with, you guessed it, Shawn Watson.
At the press conference where he lynched Watson, he looked overwhelmed and beaten. Maybe he's not cut out for a big stage and is better suited for a Group of 5 conference gig where he's the underdog.
UT hired Strong with the idea that they needed a complete overhaul of the soft country club mentality that had set in under Brown. Strong ran off half the team, and he hasn't gotten his footing yet. Problem at UT is that he might not get the chance to get his footing because they don't want to keep getting embarrassed on the field in the process of him attempting to change the culture.