Louisville Football Fans: How would you feel about Charlie Strong returning?
By Derek Snyder
How would you feel if former Louisville football head coach Charlie Strong returned to coach the defense next season?
To be clear, I am not saying that it’s going to happen. It’s actually more probable that Bobby Petrino starts a local rock band. However, how would you feel as a Louisville football fan if Charlie Strong came back to replace Todd Grantham?
Let me be the first to say that I don’t think for one minute that Grantham is going to be fired after this season.
But for this scenario, let’s say he does get fired after the bowl game and Charlie Strong is still out there for hire.
Charlie Strong struggled defensively at Texas and that may even be an understatement. To be more specific, the Longhorns finished as the 96th ranked defense in 2016. That is just terrible and inexcusable, which is a big reason why they couldn’t win and he was ultimately fired.
However, in Strong’s last year with the Cardinals, Louisville finished as the number one team in America in total defense. That’s pretty impressive for a school coming out of the American Athletic Conference, but that may just be the point.
Louisville didn’t play very many high-powered offenses when he was with the Cardinals. It’s not like they put up those numbers against Clemson and Florida State. In 2013, the best offense they played was probably the Blake Bortles led UCF football team.
With that being said, he did bring some big-time defensive talent into the program. Here are some of the players he had on that 2013 football team:
- Preston Brown (LB)
- Gerod Holliman (S)
- Sheldon Rankins (DL)
- DeAngelo Brown (DL)
Not to mention, he also had players like Calvin Pryor and Lorenzo Mauldin as well.
Therefore, how would you feel as a Louisville football fan if Charlie Strong came back to coach the defense?
He has had success at Louisville before, but would he mesh well with current head coach Bobby Petrino? Or would he even be able to continue to recruit NFL talent at the collegiate level?
It’s definitely an interesting scenario to consider, but not one that I believe would ever happen.
Todd Grantham will still be coaching this defense for another couple of years, unless he finds another job before then.
However, even though I am in favor of Grantham staying, his margin for error is getting a lot smaller as the 2016 season has rolled along.