Tepper: Charlie Strong made an impact, but the wins never followed

[caption id="attachment_27560" align="alignleft" width="300"]Photo by Diana Porter Photo by Diana Porter[/caption] All people will talk about is “16-21.” It’s the nature of the business in college football: you are what your record says you are. Nick Saban is a pigskin demigod with a 207-60 record — including a 116-18 record at Alabama. Todd Dodge is a college football laughingstock with a 6-37 record. Everything is viewed through the prism of the Ws and the Ls. That’s the legacy of Charlie Strong, who was fired by Texas on Saturday morning after three seasons. Charlie Strong won 16 games and lost 21 games, and therefore is — especially at a program with expectations such as Texas’ — a failure. To a certain extent, this is apt. The Longhorns were usually lackluster during the Strong era and failed to show improvement. There were the especially damning moments — an inexplicable loss to woeful Kansas earlier this month, a shutout loss to perennial Big 12 cellar dweller Iowa State last season — but “16-21” is more of an indictment on the Texas program’s continued inability to develop the talent once it arrives on The 40 Acres. It’s a sum of many small failures rather than a few large ones. But consider the circumstances into which Charlie Strong stepped three years ago. He left a surging Louisville program to take over a Longhorns program that may have been winning games but was also losing ground. The twilight years of the Mack Brown regime begat some winning records, but also a drop in recruiting dominance, a diminishing of their statewide standing in the shadow of surging Baylor and Texas A&M programs, and — fair or not — a reputation as a program with players that could do whatever they want, which often involved criminal activities and rarely involved working hard. Don’t forget: that was a main excitement around Charlie Strong. Even Texas fans who were less than thrilled with the choice of Strong in January 2014 appreciated his message of toughness and doing things the right way — his now-ridiculed “Core Values.” The toughness element is certainly open for debate, but there is little doubt that Texas has gained back a level of decency in the public eye. No longer is Texas considered a roster full of questionable characters; instead, Charlie Strong’s insistence on a near-zero-tolerance policy has improved the moral standing of the program (if a college football program can, in fact, have a moral standing). And let’s also not forget the recruiting side of it. According to 247Sports’ team recruiting rankings, Texas’ 2013 and 2014 recruiting classes (of which Mack Brown was largely responsible, though Strong was aboard on Signing Day 2014) ranked 17th and 16th in the nation, respectively — certainly good but hardly up to the Longhorns’ standard. Charlie Strong’s 2015 and 2016 recruiting classes? 10th and 7th…and most importantly, ranking ahead of the rival Aggies. But while the core values and the enhanced talent base is a pleasant verse in the Charlie Strong swan song, the chorus is belting “16-21.” You are what your record says you are, and Charlie Strong is 16-21 and unemployed.