Texas’ Bizarre and Shameful Handling of Charlie Strong Firing

Shortly after yesterday's overtime loss to Kansas, rumors started swirling that Texas head football coach Charlie Strong had been fired.

Even ESPN "broke" the story this afternoon that Strong had been fired.

Around the same time that ESPN began spreading the report that Strong was out, University of Texas Athletic officials began meeting to discuss how they could get one more game out of their head coach and not announce his official firing until after Friday's TCU game.

The sad part here is that Strong has no chance to survive at Texas, yet the school does not want to let him go for another five days. Don't feel too bad for Charlie; he will receive nearly an $11 million buyout when Texas makes it official over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Still, he completely overhauled the Longhorns football roster and was given three years to completely turn around the program. At 5-6, he is in danger of the missing the postseason for the second straight season, but an early win over Notre Dame and a big upset of Baylor were two major highlights for Strong and the program.

It will not take long for Strong to receive defensive coordinator offers from some Power 5 programs. It will also be interesting to see if he gets another immediate head coaching opportunity. Meanwhile, Texas is rumored to have only one coaching candidate in their sights, Houston's Tom Herman. The two have been linked together for the past few months and the Cougars' win over Louisville elevated his coaching value. It is a little surprising to me that Texas could be settling for another mid major college head coach who lacks head coaching experience at a major program. IN fairness to Herman, he did spend three seasons at Ohio State from 2012-14 as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. If they feel that Tom Herman is their best bet, why not give Strong another year to try and take the next step?