Strong to Texas Fans: We Won't Be Playing for a National Title

Published on 23-Apr-2014 by Stacey Mickles

Football - NCAA    NCAA Football Daily Review

Share this article


Strong to Texas Fans: We Won't Be Playing for a National Title

Texas fans won't be happy to hear this at all.

Their new head coach, Charlie Strong, admitted that the Longhorns will not be playing for a national championship next season.

"We have everything available, and I don't know why we can't be successful," Strong said to the Austin American-Statesman.

"There's no reason for us not to be. Now, I can't tell you how soon it's going to be. Don't hold me to that. Don't say, 'Oooh, coach said next year we'll be in the national ...' We will not be in the national championship game."

I appreciate Strong's honesty, but you know this is going to piss off a large contingent of Texas fans who feel like they should be competing for a national championship every year.

Entitlement is a big issue in college football. The usual batch of programs are accused of having fans who feel like their team is destined to compete for a title every year, no matter the talent they have on that roster.

I can understand Strong trying to lower expectations for fans in his first season, but he isn't at Louisville anymore. This is Texas.

At Louisville, he could probably get away with that statement. Winning 10 games with the Cardinals is like a national title to them. Different animal at Texas.

The Longhorns were just playing for all the marbles back in 2009:

Texas fans expect their team to be back on top soon. If that expectation wasn't there, Mack Brown would still be roaming the sidelines.

If the team gets off to anything less than a sterling start this fall, Strong is going to be catching hell early and often, no matter how he tries to frame things.