Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the University of Texas Longhorns football program during Strong's tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue). As you may notice, Texas has been below average under Strong's tenure. All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model. More details about the program under Strong are after the chart below, including his contract linked below.
Charlie Strong (2014 - 2016*)
2014
The Longhorns finished the regular season at 6-6 and were bowl eligible, losing their bowl game to #22 ranked Arkansas 7-31. This season the Longhorns played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS. The Longhorn's best regular season game was a victory (33-16) over #67 West Virginia, their worst regular season loss was to #44 ranked UCLA (17-20). Overall, the Longhorns had the #71 ranked team with the #97 ranked offense and the #31 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2015
Texas finished the regular season overall at 5-7 and were bowl ineligible, while playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS. The Longhorn's best game was a victory (24-17) was over #2 ranked Oklahoma and their worst loss (0-24) was to #106 Iowa State. Texas had the #83 ranked team in total production with the #60 ranked offense and the #85 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2016
At the end of the regular season the Longhorn's were 5-7 playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, which means that their current strength of schedule is within one to two standard deviations above the "league's" average SOS. The Longhorn's best win was over currently ranked #58 Baylor (35-34) and their worst loss (21-24) was to currently ranked #125 Kansas. Texas at the time of Strong's departure had the #76 ranked team in total production with the #51 ranked offense and the #93 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2016 NCAA Head Football Head Coaching Changes
Georgia State and Trent Miles
Fresno State and Tim DeRuyter
Purdue and Darrell Hazell
LSU and Les Miles
Florida International University and Ron Turner
Baylor and Art Briles