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Martin Fennelly: Charlie Strong a great hire for USF

 
Charlie Strong is the fourth head coach in USF history. [AP photo]
Charlie Strong is the fourth head coach in USF history. [AP photo]
Published Dec. 12, 2016

TAMPA — Strong hire.

Charlie Strong is now the fourth head coach in USF history. I guess he didn't want to be Willie Taggart's defensive coordinator in Oregon after all. He wants to be here.

That's good news for USF and for its fans.

You would have thought there were millions of them by the interest in this coaching search. Hold that thought, everybody, and show up when the team plays.

USF athletic director Mark Harlan showed up and played. He got the man he was after, and that was important at this point in USF history.

This school has been left out of the Big 12 with all those other schools. They couldn't be left out again.

Strong is a great hire for USF, splashy even.

USF can hope that Strong isn't just around to rehabilitate his coaching reputation before taking another job, a bigger job. Only Strong can prove that by sticking around. He's 56. Is he going to springboard at 58 or 60?

But even if he does, USF will get his best shot, and that's good stuff.

Lane Kiffin would have been a splash. Would have been fun, but there was all the uneasiness that would come with him. The same would have happened with bringing Greg Schiano back to Tampa.

Everyone came with question marks.

Strong's hiring made the most sense.

Strong is back in the state where he made his coaching reputation in his four turns with the Florida Gators, helping produce real defenses, championship defenses. USF needs that kind of Strong.

It doesn't need the Charlie who oversaw that mess at Texas, where he was a major flop, 21 losses in three seasons, low-lighted by awful defense.

USF needs the Florida Charlie. Or the Charlie who was a rising star at Louisville, where he went 37-15, where his guys beat Florida in the Sugar Bowl, success that landed Strong the Texas job.

Fortune has smiled on USF.

Think about it.

Could USF have hired Charlie Strong when he was on his previous trajectory?

Not a chance.

Think USF could have beaten out Texas for Strong?

Not a chance.

Well, here was the chance.

Yes, this Charlie comes from the Lone Star with some dings and dents and scratches.

But there's a very good coach inside there.

By the way, Strong is the second consecutive African-American head football coach hired at USF. Considering the appalling paucity of black head coaches in the top flight of NCAA football, it means something. Maybe Florida and Florida State will get around to this one day.

USF needs a Charlie Strong who won't mess with a good thing, namely that offense led by Quinton Flowers and Marlon Mack.

Think Strong won't know that?

Think the guy doesn't know the deal here?

This was a big W for USF. And to think Harlan had never hired a head football coach before. Not bad for a first shot out of the box.

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Will we get Texas Charlie or Louisville Charlie?

I'm betting Louisville Charlie, eager to show what he can do all over again.

People will be watching. People in Texas. People in Kentucky. People in Florida. People will be curious all over College Football America to see what Charlie Strong does after the fall. He has something to prove, and that's never a bad thing.

A lot of eyes will be on USF.

That's never a bad thing, either.

Strong hire.