South Florida hires Charlie Strong
Charlie Strong didn’t have to wait long to find another head coaching job.
South Florida announced Sunday the hiring of the former Texas coach to replace Willie Taggart, who left to become the head coach at Oregon last week.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Charlie, his wife, Vicki, and their children Tory, Hailee and Hope, back to the state of Florida and to our Bulls family,” USF director of athletics Mark Harlan said. “Charlie is a tremendous leader and mentor for our student-athletes and a widely-respected coach with a resume full of achievements at the highest levels of college football. He combines a drive to win with great integrity and deep, long-standing connections in the state of Florida. The future of USF football is very bright under his direction.”
Texas fired Strong at the conclusion of the season. The Longhorns finished the year 5-7 and were 16-21 in Strong’s three years with the school. He was hired to replace Mack Brown after Brown stepped down following the 2014 season.
USF enjoyed a resurgence under Taggart. The Bulls’ record improved in each of Taggart’s four seasons with the school and USF finished 10-2 in 2016. USF will play South Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl.
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Before he was hired at Texas, Strong was 37-15 in four seasons at Louisville. The Cardinals went 23-3 in Strong’s final two seasons and won the Sugar Bowl (2012) and Russell Athletic Bowl (2013).
Strong came to Louisville after spending seven years as Florida’s defensive coordinator under Ron Zook and Urban Meyer. Those Florida ties will prove valuable in recruiting as USF tries to keep its place in a suddenly-crowded state landscape. Central Florida rebounded to make a bowl game in 2016 after a winless 2015 and Miami went 8-4 under new coach Mark Richt.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
