Friday, November 21, 2008

Nice While It's Lasted

Maybe Charlie Strong won't need to go too far to get that first head coaching job-unless he follows Meyer to Notre Dame, where they both coached as assistants. (And there are some other places Strong should be seriously considered for this offseason--it would just be a matter of how soon Weiss is fired and Meyer is hired. With what he has done with these new defensive players in such a short time, I would imagine Strong would prefer the Florida job, but he may not want it to be his first job, so he doesn't end up like Zook, following a legend in your first head coach job. Foley probably also would want to avoid this scenario.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

he is a good enough coach to become a head coach. lets hope strong stays with us for a good while longer.

Galapagos Gators said...

He brings up some good points... however, there is still a higher probability that Meyer will stay at FL. He only makes a case that its possible he could go to Notre Dame.

One thing is, he mentions his kids... which, one of them is still only 10. So, that is actually a case for Meyer staying longer.

Also, the head coach of Florida right now is a better job than the head coach of Notre Dame. Florida is a bigger program than Notre Dame right now.. at least to high school and middle school kids... which is what matters. So if he did go to Notre Dame, it would be purely for preference. Not that he wouldn't, just that there is more evidence for him staying at FL.

There is the other issue that he already turned down Notre Dame for Florida. And since then, ND has gotten less prestigious. Media coverage is at an all-time high for college football, and ND is playing worse than they ever have. Because of the media, the last 20 years mean much more than the previous 100 years. It's not like Indiana is a good high school football state. ND can only recruit with their name, and their name means nothing to middle and high school kids right now.

This would also mean that ND would have to buy out Meyer's and Weis' contracts, which is unlikely.

As for Strong, it seems like it would be a mistake to hire a first year head coach. Florida can choose almost any coach they want, they shouldn't choose a first year coach. However, you could argue that his 10 years (and counting) as an SEC D coordinator is as much experience as Meyer's 4 years at Bowling Green and Utah. He probably also has the most ties to UF of anyone besides Spurrier. His first coaching job was a graduate assistant in '83-'84. Later he coached LB's from '88-'89. Then he coached DT's from '91-'94. And now he has been DC since '03. That's 14 years coaching with UF. It would depend if there was another head coach that really stuck out, like Meyer in '04. Maybe Leach.