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Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong lays out expectations for players

By Jack Crosby

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Jan 6, 2014; Austin, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns president Bill Powers (left) and head football coach Charlie Strong (center) and athletics director Steve Patterson (right) speak at a press conference in the Centennial Room of Belmont Hall at Texas-Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 6, 2014; Austin, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns president Bill Powers (left) and head football coach Charlie Strong (center) and athletics director Steve Patterson (right) speak at a press conference in the Centennial Room of Belmont Hall at Texas-Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports /

When Charlie Strong was named the new head football coach of the Texas Longhorns, one of the first things that everyone pointed out were the differences between he and former coach Mack Brown.

That was no more evident than after Strong had his initial meeting where he met with his new players for the first time recently, and he laid out his rules for the program, a breakdown of how his players will conduct themselves:

  1. Players will attend all of their classes and sit in the front two rows of all of their classes.  GAs, academic folks, position coaches will be checking constantly now.
  2. No headphones in class.  No texting in class.  Sit up and take notes.
  3. If a player misses a class, he runs until it hurts.  If he misses two classes, his entire position unit runs.  If he misses three, the position coach runs.  The position coaches don’t want to run.
  4. No earrings in the football building.  No drugs.  No stealing.  No guns.  Treat women with respect.
  5. Players may not live off campus anymore, unless they’re a senior who hits certain academic standards. The University will buy out the leases for every player currently living off campus and put them in the athletic dorm.
  6. The team will all live together, eat together, suffer together, and hang out together.  They will become a true team and learn to impose accountability on each other.  The cliques are over.
  7. There’s no time for a rebuild.  “I don’t have time for that.”  The expectation is that Texas wins now.
  8. Players will learn that they would rather practice than milk a minor injury.
  9. The focus is on winning and graduating.  Anything extraneous to that is a distraction and will be stamped out or removed.
  10. Strong met individually with seniors and key leaders and re-emphasized that the plan is to win now. They can lead the new culture or be run over by it.
  11. “I don’t want to talk about things.  I’d rather do things.  We just talked.  Now it’s time to do.”

This will be a culture shock for some of these players that are used to Mack Brown’s laid back approach, but Strong obviously has a plan to win, and if that’s what they ultimately want, they’ll abide by these.

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