Were all in on the tournament right now, but I just cant get enough info on Coach Strong and the progress hes making with the team right now. Heres an excerpt from the OB War Room this week... Strong gets very involved with his top recruits. He led the recruitment of DT Poona Ford, who, along with QB Jerrod Heard, were the most important recruits of the 2014 class, in my opinion. Strong led the recruitment of players such as QB Chris Leak and DE Carlos Dunlap at Florida. Every coach is responsible for an area and responsible for a position, Strong said. But I tell the coaches to have five guys call me a night. When a recruit understands that the head coach is involved, then he knows that he becomes a special recruit. Strong said Dunlap was one of the most challenging players to coach, because Dunlap was so physically gifted, even as a freshman at 6-7 and 260 pounds, he didnt think he needed coaching. But then Carlos was humbled (by some off-the-field issues), and he really started to listen and took off, Strong said. From what were told, the Carlos Dunlap of Texas right now is Daje Johnson, a kid who has to decide if hes going to allow himself to be coached and buy in. Strong, Tommie Robinson and the rest of the coaching staff have invested a lot of time and energy in Johnson to let him know hes wanted if he wants to buy in. Its make or break time for some players on offense right now - a unit already short on leadership. (Brown) ****** Strong knows who the problem children are. They know their coach knows, too. Why? Because he has told them. Weve reported for a month that 15 to 20 players were told two weeks into off-season workouts their effort and attitude had to change. Weve reported in the past week, players were given questionnaires and asked to provide 5 names of teammates whove shown great effort and attitude and to provide 5 teammates who hadnt. When Strong asks a player about things hes heard and that player says theres been a wrong impression or that things have changed, Strong has gone about checking for himself. Were told a surprise drug test a couple weeks ago was part of that. If you tell Charlie Strong something, it better be so, because thats how he operates. And he wants to know who he can trust - whether its players, his player personnel department or his on-field coaching staff. Strong doesnt mind investing his time, sweat and heart in a kid whose on the fence. He loves that challenge. His assistants call that Strongs fathering nature. Strong has taken the locks and key-card access devices off of all the doors leading to the coaches offices in Moncrief-Neuhaus to encourage players to come hang out around the coaches. Charlie raises these guys, said QB coach Shawn Watson. We want the players around us. Theyre starting to be up around our offices now, which is really good. Were going to be in a foxhole together. The more you get to know each other, the closer you are, the faster you get through issues. According to Strongs former players, he loves to push kids to rethink bad choices. Hell tease them, trash talk them, hug them, make time for them, listen to them and start the process all over again. But only for so long. Only to a point. At some point, Strong needs to see buy-in. And if he feels like hes getting played, hell try to find out. And thats where Strong is different from some other coaches. Other coaches want plausible deniability. They might want the bad-cop assistant coach or in-your-face leaders on the team to try to reach a player who they think is cutting corners or not living up to his word. The kid might be too talented for that coach to lose. So the kid will get numerous talks from the bad-cop assistant or the leaders on the team, but the scholarship is never really threatened because the kid produces on Saturdays. Strong wont tolerate a player like that. Hell root him out eventually - but only after addressing that player at least once directly about any potential problem. At the end of the day, most guys worth their salt want a coach to discipline them and tell them what direction to go and how to do it. They respect you more than one who doesnt, said Texas offensive coordinator Joe Wickline of Strong. Hes going to do it. CB/S Leroy Scott and LB Chet Moss were dismissed for a violation of team rules on Sunday. Those two knew the expectations because Strong himself had told them. Im told those players feel like they let Strong and their teammates down. But they had been warned, Im told. Now, they and everyone else in the Texas locker room knows their coach means business. Those player dismissals had been known by the team for more than a week. But now everyone else knows, too. Two days before spring football. Were Scott and Moss sacrificed before spring practice to send a clear message to others down to their last strikes that they could be next? Its possible. The problem children have been warned. Scholarships have been pulled. For most, these 15 spring practices will be just about football and how to execute as a remade team under a new coach. For others, it will be about so much more, such as if they will be Longhorns in the fall.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 18:36:51 +0000
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