Nah, dude. Milking a buyout always works better longterm for your career. See Corch Radio.Turn down offers. Travel the country on a "learning" tour. Be horrible at tv. THEN jump back in. You only get the choice grade A head corching job offers then.
I'm not exactly a Chuckie Weak fan but I do respect the guy for jumping back in immediately and trying to redeem himself.
That only works for some. But for a young coach and a minority coach it is always good to keep working that way you are not perceived to be in it for a check. Who needs another hurdle to jump anyway? Smart move on his part. I think this is an excellent hire. And I said sometime back that this was the job Butch should have taken when it came available. The sky is the limit there. UM doesn't recruit the west coast as hard as FSU and UF. So as Smart builds the program those kids that have to leave the state to play up north will stay home. A 4 star WR recruit like James Robinson from Lakeland would be staying home and not headed out of state. It definitely can be another football power in Florida.
Group of 5 team with no chance of moving up to the Power 5 as the SEC and ACC are closed and the Big 12 wisely realized that the PAC 12 network is floundering and that conference's mountain schools will be ripe for the taking in two years or so. Face it, beyond USC (which is private anyway), no P5 Conference wants a "directional" state school devaluing their (mostly) flagship University brand. Judy G at Temple Terrace State could have tried to grab the Florida (Poly)Tech(nic) moniker, (think VT) but Florida Senate Prez JD Alexander swatted her like a fly and made USF Polk County into FPU (Ironically, UCF was once Florida Technological University (FTU), but changed its name over protests from the private Florida Institute of Technology (FIT ) over who was the "real" Florida Tech and politicians wanting to identify it with the Central Florida area...But I digress).
No on-campus stadium (and the Ray Jay is now waaaay behind Hard Rock), no hope of P5, your big rival is UCF. USF has beaten P5 programs, as Randy Shannon well knows, but it won't translate to a Big 4 or 5 situation. Look at the state of Ohio: SEVEN D1 programs and only one is really followed in the state no matter how many P5 upsets. Strong should have waited, plenty of vacancies next year.
He took the job because no Power 5 teams wanted him for a vacancy.
I'm willing to bet Strong will be a flop in his return to the AAC, unless he can somehow get another Terry Bridgewater.
Forget the school's state politics.
Forget the school's name change history.
Forget Ohio and it's 6 P5 schools.
If we agree that the state of Florida is a hot bed for talent then lets just focus there. Regardless of what you may think of Charlie Strong kids in the state of Florida seem to love to play for this guy. Kids have backed this up by signing with his teams on NSD. Like Miami, USF has the luxury of playing in a pro stadium. And it's not a private school. Now let's not down play Ray Jay stadium; Tampa is in Florida and has proven to be a draw for NFL super bowl games. So as competitive as it is for teams to get a Super Bowl game you can expect the upgrades are soon to come. With that said, it will be on par with Hard Rock.
There is so much talent that leaves this state every year, I mentioned James Robinson who UM has never offered and there are so many more out there. Strong got a 5 year deal and is the biggest name coach so far; So I see this as a long term fit for him. If that is the case, those future games will be no cake walk.
As far as a coach, we all know that he is an excellent coach. However, as a Head Coach there are so many other factors that determines a HC's success or failure. I hope that he can put together a good staff like he had at L'ville and line those guys up and play. Bridgewater didn't make Strong. Strong showed the CF world that he was a good coach way before Bridgewater came on the scene.
