Texas Longhorns hire Charlie Strong: Was it the right move?

Sunday afternoon, the Texas Longhorns made it official that they have hired Louisville head coach Charlie Strong to become the 29th head coach in the history of the University of Texas football program.

But did they make the right hire?

In short, yes they absolutely did, but there’s still going to be some minor kinks that will need to be worked out along the way.

After years of nearly everyone around the college football world clamoring for Strong to receive a tremendous opportunity, the time has come for him to ultimately prove everyone correct.

We can’t sit back and argue that Louisville was that opportunity, because it wasn’t, and we knew that. Louisville was a resume builder for Strong to eventually take over a more high-profile job, and he absolutely took advantage of that.

In four seasons at Louisville, Strong led the Cardinals to four straight bowl appearances, including their shocking Sugar Bowl upset of the fourth-ranked Florida Gators in January of 2013. He posted two 11-win seasons and was named the Big East Coach of the Year twice in that span.

How was he able to accomplish this? Well, the first place you need to look at is recruiting. Strong, throughout the years, has built himself a reputation as one of the best recruiters in the land. For evidence of this, you only need to look at his quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater.

Strong took Bridgewater right from the grasp of the Miami Hurricanes. After his time at Louisville, Bridgewater is now headed off to the NFL where many have him pegged as the possible number one overall pick.

Now when you begin to ponder what this man can do in the recruiting hotbed of Texas in regards to recruiting and–more importantly–development, the thoughts are frightening.

But now for those kinks.

While Charlie Strong is walking into a recruiting hotbed where he can do some damage, he’s also walking into a media hotbed, which has the potential to do some damage to him.

As Yahoo’s Pat Forde reminded us all on Saturday, Charlie Strong is a man that once banned the Louisville media because he was essentially jealous of all the hype the basketball team was getting in their quest for a Final Four.

In Austin, pulling a stunt like this is about as possible as Strong not getting canned if he loses to Oklahoma three years in a row.

Still, we all have to remember that of all the traits that make Charlie Strong a great football coach–and man, one of the more appealing ones is that he’s smart. He knows that he’ll need to treat the media frenzy in Austin with care, and he will surround himself with advisers to help with this, if he feels a move like that is warranted.

Plus, it’ll be a lot easier to deal with the media when you’re winning football games, which Strong has proven that he can do.