Charlie Strong
Charlie Strong, is the former coach at both the University of Texas and the University of Louisville.
With USF likely headed towards a steep decline after this season (25 seniors, including QB Quinton Flowers) Strong is looking more likely to leave as each day goes by. A source told me last night that Strong is not happy in Group of 5 land, and is hopeful to get another shot at a Power 5 job sooner rather than later.
Of the current stats (as of 11/6) The following class of 2015 (Strong's first complete recruiting clas s at Texas) signees lead Texas in the following defensive categories:
Tackles (Malik Jefferson)
Sacks (Malik Jefferson)
PBU (Kris Boyd)
INT (De'Shon Elliott)
Strong was able to build up quite a program at Louisville, and while it started in the state of Florida, he recruited on a national scale. While he did sign several, several recruits from the sunshine state, he also signed recruits from states such as Alabama, California, and Tennessee among others (more on that in a bit)
Strong has coached at Louisville, Texas, Florida, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, South Carolina, and of course South Florida among others.
After talking with some sources around Charlie Strong and his staff the past several days, it has become pretty clear as to who would/would not likely come with him if he were to take the Ole Miss job.
"Strong is as loyal as they come, there's no doubt he would bring his boys with him," the source said.
Who are those boys, you ask? Let's break them down one by one.
Brian Jean-Mary, Defensive Coordinator
Jean-Mary has been with Strong since his days at Louisville. The number one thing that stands out about his reputation as a recruiter? Signing linebackers.
Among those that he has signed in his time as a member of Strong's staff and beyond in his various stops?
Five-star linebacker Malik Jefferson
Five-star linebacker Erick Fowler
Four-star linebacker Anthony Wheeler
Jean-Mary is someone who around the South Florida program you hear a lot of buzz about. He's been impressive turning around the South Florida defense, and would "definitely" move with Charlie Strong in his next stop.
He has recruited Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida especially well.
Georgia is a state that he has recruited well at each stop, but the majority of his work comes from recruiting the in-state area of the school he is coaching at. Mississippi/Memphis is an area that Jean-Mary would likely be put in charge of, and him being named as a Co-DC is something that will be discussed, if Strong is to be named the Head Coach.
Jean-Mary is originally from Apopka, Fla. and played football at App State (hence the Carolina recruiting ties, methinks)
Sterlin Gilbert, Offensive Coordinator
Gilbert joined Strong at Texas following a fast-rising career, one that started at Eastern Illinois after spending several years at the high school level.
He was the offensive coordinator for the final two season of Jimmy Garoppolo's career, and received several FCS-level awards in 2013. Following that, he had one year stops at both Bowling Green and Tulsa.
One would hope he hasn't bought a house at any of these places. I covered Gilbert's Bowling Green offense, and something that was different about his offense then (still does this now) is that he runs a spread offense, but focuses on downhill running. He doesn't get too cute with the read option, and likes a good pro-style quarterback who has the legs to get a first down if needed, but not as a priority.
His one year at Bowling Green, the team came in with high expectations. Matt Johnson had been heralded all off-season long as one of the "best QB's you've never heard of"
He broke his hip late in the first game of that season outside of the pocket, and Bowling Green counted on James Knapke from that point on.
Knapke ended up throwing for over 3,000 yards, and Bowling Green was able to salvage the season, but the thought crosses the minds of both Gilbert and Dino Babers, one would think, of what could have been.
Currently at South Florida, Gilbert has one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country in Quinton Flowers, and he has faced some criticism from local media about the way he uses him.
Gilbert doesn't see a James Knapke on the roster to back him up were Flowers to get hurt in the ground game.
Gilbert is the quarterbacks coach, and that has been his specialty in his time since joining Strong's staff as well.
The QB's he was responsible for signing?
Four-star Sam Ehlinger (Texas)
Four-star Shane Buechele (Texas)
That brings us into our next member of Strong's current staff who would likely head to Ole Miss with them, were Strong to get the job: Matt Mattox.
Matt Mattox, OL Coach
Mattox is another coach who rose quickly in the ranks, going from Coffeyville CC in Kansas to Texas in less than 10 years. Mattox spent time with Gilbert (see above) at Bowling Green and Eastern Illinois, and started his coaching career as a GA at the University of Houston.
He played for Art Briles for two years, and Briles was still the coach while Mattox was a GA.
Mattox is known as being good at developing talent, and he has signed recruits from the states of Texas, Florida, and Kansas during his time as an assistant with Strong.
Something that Ole Miss would have to be curious of with Mattox, is whether or not he prefers to sign and develop HS talent, or if he would rather sign JUCO's from his home state (Kansas) and build from there.
His most notable signee as a recruiter is Patrick Hudson, who originally signed with Art Briles and Baylor (the irony) before asking out of his NLI following his dismissal as head coach. Hudson was rated a four-star by Rivals, and was dangerously close to gaining his fifth star.
Charlie Williams, WR coach
Williams has been all over the map, including several stops in the NFL. Most notable of his time at the collegiate level is the stops he had at South Carolina, TCU, Miami, and North Carolina.
Lou Holtz was the head coach while he was in Columbia.
While at North Carolina, Williams signed five-star Dwight Jones, who chose the Tar Heels over Tennessee and Florida among others. Jones didn't exactly pan out, but it was a sign that Williams placed recruiting in-state as a priority, just as he did at Texas.
While at UNC, he coached Hakeem Nicks, Greg Little, and Brandon Tate. While Nicks' NFL career was cut short, he was still a first round selection. Little was picked in the second round, and struggled with the fundamentals after leaving UNC.
Williams is originally from California, and still spends some time recruiting in that vicinity, but not to the extent that it gets in the way of his primary recruiting territory, which seems to be Texas and Tennessee among others.
Justin Burke, TE coach
The last of the likely members of his current staff who would potentially make the move to Oxford with Strong, Burke is also one of the youngest coaches in the country.
Burke played for Strong at Louisville, and spent time on his coaching staff at Louisville, Texas, and now South Florida. Burke was a quarterback, so one has to wonder how natural the fit is for him coaching TE.
In his previous roles, Burke was listed as a member of quality control, and also spent time as a GA when he was at Louisville. He worked with Teddy Bridgewater on a pretty regular basis during that period, as well as DeVante Parker.
Burke's only known internship? Working with Nick Saban and company as a recruiting intern for a brief period of time before linking back up with Strong.
There isn't much to be said about his recruiting outlook, he is rather unknown outside of the fact that he primarily recruits Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee for USF right now.
Let's break down Strong's overall signee numbers, by state, during his days at Louisville:
Alabama- 4
California- 4
Georgia- 11
Kentucky- 13
Ohio- 6
Virginia- 2
Arkansas- 2
Florida- 35
Kansas- 1
New Jersey- 3
Texas- 1
Tennessee- 1
Iowa- 1
Indiana- 3
North Carolina- 1
South Carolina -1
Louisiana- 1
Now let's do the same for his signees while at the University of Texas:
Arizona- 1
Louisiana- 8
Texas- 59
Florida- 7
South Carolina- 1
California- 2
Mississippi- 1
Maryland- 1
New York- 1
Before you ask, the signee from Mississippi was from EMCC, not at the high school level.
Would he be able to pull Shaun King (former Bucs QB) from the Tampa area? He's thought of as the best recruiters on this USF staff not named Charlie Strong, and per several sources close to King, he turned down the chance to join Taggart's staff at Oregon this past off-season.
New pipeline states?
They aren't new, but the presence of both Florida and Texas would grow. but be careful with your fascination with recruiting in the state of Florida, with Butch Davis, Lane Kiffin, Mark Richt, Jimbo Fisher, and Scott Frost all fishing in the same waters. (for now)
The three schools Strong recruited the most in his time at Louisville in the state of Florida, Miami Northwestern, Norland, and Miami Southridge is still putting out multiple D1 athletes on a yearly basis. Some realistic recruits coming up from these schools include-
Class of 2018
Four-star CB Nadab Joseph (Norland)
Three-star CB Nigel Bethel (Northwestern)
Three-star DE James Head (Southridge)
Three-star CB Traquan Butler (Southridge)
Three-star OLB Billy Joseph (Northwestern)
Three-star DE Da'Vontae McCrae (Northwestern)
Class of 2019
Four-star OT Mark Fox (Northwestern)
Three-star DE Samuel Brooks (Northwestern)
Three-star OT Wardrick Wilson (Norland)
Three-star OLB Diamante Howard (Southridge)
Three-star DT Calijah Kancey (Northwestern)
Class of 2020
Rivals is yet to rate the class of 2020, but DE Samuel Anaele and OT Isaiah Walker are a couple names to remember, and they both play at Miami Norland.
Mississippi would be a priority for Charlie Strong and his staff the moment they got to Oxford, there's no doubt about that. With the amount of talent in the state for next year's class, it wouldn't be outlandish to predict that Ole Miss could sign more than half of their class from in-state/Memphis.
Current USF commits/targets that Strong could be interested in offering at Ole Miss?
CB Kendrick Torain
OLB Dequan Jackson
OG Sebastian Sainterling
He seems to have quickly built some in-roads at Robert E. Lee HS in the Jacksonville area.
Ole Miss would also re-enter the picture for several targets from the state of Florida, including, ironically, Charles Strong. others:
CB C.J. Smith
S Keidron Smith
WR Jermaine Eskridge
RB Jashaun Corbin (can be seen in Oxford on a regular basis, has family in the area)
RB Destin Coates
WR Dominick Watt
WR Antoine Green (currently committed to FSU)
QB Michael Penix Jr. (currently committed to Tennessee)
The state of Texas for Ole Miss would also likely see some growth under Strong. It would no longer be just Allen HS, he has built up good relationships with several schools in the state, here are just a few:
Gilmer
South Grand Prairie
Houston Lamar
Katy
Plano
Sachse
Southlake Carroll
Dallas Skyline
I can't for certain say whether or not he would win on the field, but it's clear that Strong knows how to win in the house and on the recruiting trail.
Whether or not he would keep any members of the current staff would be interesting to see play out. It seems he has a pretty good idea of what his staff would look like, and the only openings, assuming everyone takes the same title, would be DB's, DL, and RB's, not to mention the fact that teams are permitted to add an additional member to their staffs this off-season.
Strong isn't one to send out 400+ offers on an annual basis, and that was part of the problem had at Texas. He likes to evaluate, over a course of time, and, as one source said, he considers the recruiting process to be a "marathon, not a sprint."
The thing about that, though, is when you take a deeper look at the way Strong finished in December/January as head coach at Texas:
2014: six of 23 signees committed in this period, including one four-star. (Strong was named head coach in January, weeks before signing day) Texas signed the 20th ranked class nationally.
2015: (first full recruiting cycle as head coach) : 14 of 29 signees committed in this time period, including one five-star and eight four-stars. Texas signed the 12th ranked class nationally.
2016: 12 of 28 signees, committed in this time period, including one five-star and six four-stars. Texas signed the 11th ranked class nationally.
Charlie Strong, is the former coach at both the University of Texas and the University of Louisville.
With USF likely headed towards a steep decline after this season (25 seniors, including QB Quinton Flowers) Strong is looking more likely to leave as each day goes by. A source told me last night that Strong is not happy in Group of 5 land, and is hopeful to get another shot at a Power 5 job sooner rather than later.
Of the current stats (as of 11/6) The following class of 2015 (Strong's first complete recruiting clas s at Texas) signees lead Texas in the following defensive categories:
Tackles (Malik Jefferson)
Sacks (Malik Jefferson)
PBU (Kris Boyd)
INT (De'Shon Elliott)
Strong was able to build up quite a program at Louisville, and while it started in the state of Florida, he recruited on a national scale. While he did sign several, several recruits from the sunshine state, he also signed recruits from states such as Alabama, California, and Tennessee among others (more on that in a bit)
Strong has coached at Louisville, Texas, Florida, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, South Carolina, and of course South Florida among others.
After talking with some sources around Charlie Strong and his staff the past several days, it has become pretty clear as to who would/would not likely come with him if he were to take the Ole Miss job.
"Strong is as loyal as they come, there's no doubt he would bring his boys with him," the source said.
Who are those boys, you ask? Let's break them down one by one.
Brian Jean-Mary, Defensive Coordinator
Jean-Mary has been with Strong since his days at Louisville. The number one thing that stands out about his reputation as a recruiter? Signing linebackers.
Among those that he has signed in his time as a member of Strong's staff and beyond in his various stops?
Five-star linebacker Malik Jefferson
Five-star linebacker Erick Fowler
Four-star linebacker Anthony Wheeler
Jean-Mary is someone who around the South Florida program you hear a lot of buzz about. He's been impressive turning around the South Florida defense, and would "definitely" move with Charlie Strong in his next stop.
He has recruited Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida especially well.
Georgia is a state that he has recruited well at each stop, but the majority of his work comes from recruiting the in-state area of the school he is coaching at. Mississippi/Memphis is an area that Jean-Mary would likely be put in charge of, and him being named as a Co-DC is something that will be discussed, if Strong is to be named the Head Coach.
Jean-Mary is originally from Apopka, Fla. and played football at App State (hence the Carolina recruiting ties, methinks)
Sterlin Gilbert, Offensive Coordinator
Gilbert joined Strong at Texas following a fast-rising career, one that started at Eastern Illinois after spending several years at the high school level.
He was the offensive coordinator for the final two season of Jimmy Garoppolo's career, and received several FCS-level awards in 2013. Following that, he had one year stops at both Bowling Green and Tulsa.
One would hope he hasn't bought a house at any of these places. I covered Gilbert's Bowling Green offense, and something that was different about his offense then (still does this now) is that he runs a spread offense, but focuses on downhill running. He doesn't get too cute with the read option, and likes a good pro-style quarterback who has the legs to get a first down if needed, but not as a priority.
His one year at Bowling Green, the team came in with high expectations. Matt Johnson had been heralded all off-season long as one of the "best QB's you've never heard of"
He broke his hip late in the first game of that season outside of the pocket, and Bowling Green counted on James Knapke from that point on.
Knapke ended up throwing for over 3,000 yards, and Bowling Green was able to salvage the season, but the thought crosses the minds of both Gilbert and Dino Babers, one would think, of what could have been.
Currently at South Florida, Gilbert has one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country in Quinton Flowers, and he has faced some criticism from local media about the way he uses him.
Gilbert doesn't see a James Knapke on the roster to back him up were Flowers to get hurt in the ground game.
Gilbert is the quarterbacks coach, and that has been his specialty in his time since joining Strong's staff as well.
The QB's he was responsible for signing?
Four-star Sam Ehlinger (Texas)
Four-star Shane Buechele (Texas)
That brings us into our next member of Strong's current staff who would likely head to Ole Miss with them, were Strong to get the job: Matt Mattox.
Matt Mattox, OL Coach
Mattox is another coach who rose quickly in the ranks, going from Coffeyville CC in Kansas to Texas in less than 10 years. Mattox spent time with Gilbert (see above) at Bowling Green and Eastern Illinois, and started his coaching career as a GA at the University of Houston.
He played for Art Briles for two years, and Briles was still the coach while Mattox was a GA.
Mattox is known as being good at developing talent, and he has signed recruits from the states of Texas, Florida, and Kansas during his time as an assistant with Strong.
Something that Ole Miss would have to be curious of with Mattox, is whether or not he prefers to sign and develop HS talent, or if he would rather sign JUCO's from his home state (Kansas) and build from there.
His most notable signee as a recruiter is Patrick Hudson, who originally signed with Art Briles and Baylor (the irony) before asking out of his NLI following his dismissal as head coach. Hudson was rated a four-star by Rivals, and was dangerously close to gaining his fifth star.
Charlie Williams, WR coach
Williams has been all over the map, including several stops in the NFL. Most notable of his time at the collegiate level is the stops he had at South Carolina, TCU, Miami, and North Carolina.
Lou Holtz was the head coach while he was in Columbia.
While at North Carolina, Williams signed five-star Dwight Jones, who chose the Tar Heels over Tennessee and Florida among others. Jones didn't exactly pan out, but it was a sign that Williams placed recruiting in-state as a priority, just as he did at Texas.
While at UNC, he coached Hakeem Nicks, Greg Little, and Brandon Tate. While Nicks' NFL career was cut short, he was still a first round selection. Little was picked in the second round, and struggled with the fundamentals after leaving UNC.
Williams is originally from California, and still spends some time recruiting in that vicinity, but not to the extent that it gets in the way of his primary recruiting territory, which seems to be Texas and Tennessee among others.
Justin Burke, TE coach
The last of the likely members of his current staff who would potentially make the move to Oxford with Strong, Burke is also one of the youngest coaches in the country.
Burke played for Strong at Louisville, and spent time on his coaching staff at Louisville, Texas, and now South Florida. Burke was a quarterback, so one has to wonder how natural the fit is for him coaching TE.
In his previous roles, Burke was listed as a member of quality control, and also spent time as a GA when he was at Louisville. He worked with Teddy Bridgewater on a pretty regular basis during that period, as well as DeVante Parker.
Burke's only known internship? Working with Nick Saban and company as a recruiting intern for a brief period of time before linking back up with Strong.
There isn't much to be said about his recruiting outlook, he is rather unknown outside of the fact that he primarily recruits Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee for USF right now.
Let's break down Strong's overall signee numbers, by state, during his days at Louisville:
Alabama- 4
California- 4
Georgia- 11
Kentucky- 13
Ohio- 6
Virginia- 2
Arkansas- 2
Florida- 35
Kansas- 1
New Jersey- 3
Texas- 1
Tennessee- 1
Iowa- 1
Indiana- 3
North Carolina- 1
South Carolina -1
Louisiana- 1
Now let's do the same for his signees while at the University of Texas:
Arizona- 1
Louisiana- 8
Texas- 59
Florida- 7
South Carolina- 1
California- 2
Mississippi- 1
Maryland- 1
New York- 1
Before you ask, the signee from Mississippi was from EMCC, not at the high school level.
Would he be able to pull Shaun King (former Bucs QB) from the Tampa area? He's thought of as the best recruiters on this USF staff not named Charlie Strong, and per several sources close to King, he turned down the chance to join Taggart's staff at Oregon this past off-season.
New pipeline states?
They aren't new, but the presence of both Florida and Texas would grow. but be careful with your fascination with recruiting in the state of Florida, with Butch Davis, Lane Kiffin, Mark Richt, Jimbo Fisher, and Scott Frost all fishing in the same waters. (for now)
The three schools Strong recruited the most in his time at Louisville in the state of Florida, Miami Northwestern, Norland, and Miami Southridge is still putting out multiple D1 athletes on a yearly basis. Some realistic recruits coming up from these schools include-
Class of 2018
Four-star CB Nadab Joseph (Norland)
Three-star CB Nigel Bethel (Northwestern)
Three-star DE James Head (Southridge)
Three-star CB Traquan Butler (Southridge)
Three-star OLB Billy Joseph (Northwestern)
Three-star DE Da'Vontae McCrae (Northwestern)
Class of 2019
Four-star OT Mark Fox (Northwestern)
Three-star DE Samuel Brooks (Northwestern)
Three-star OT Wardrick Wilson (Norland)
Three-star OLB Diamante Howard (Southridge)
Three-star DT Calijah Kancey (Northwestern)
Class of 2020
Rivals is yet to rate the class of 2020, but DE Samuel Anaele and OT Isaiah Walker are a couple names to remember, and they both play at Miami Norland.
Mississippi would be a priority for Charlie Strong and his staff the moment they got to Oxford, there's no doubt about that. With the amount of talent in the state for next year's class, it wouldn't be outlandish to predict that Ole Miss could sign more than half of their class from in-state/Memphis.
Current USF commits/targets that Strong could be interested in offering at Ole Miss?
CB Kendrick Torain
OLB Dequan Jackson
OG Sebastian Sainterling
He seems to have quickly built some in-roads at Robert E. Lee HS in the Jacksonville area.
Ole Miss would also re-enter the picture for several targets from the state of Florida, including, ironically, Charles Strong. others:
CB C.J. Smith
S Keidron Smith
WR Jermaine Eskridge
RB Jashaun Corbin (can be seen in Oxford on a regular basis, has family in the area)
RB Destin Coates
WR Dominick Watt
WR Antoine Green (currently committed to FSU)
QB Michael Penix Jr. (currently committed to Tennessee)
The state of Texas for Ole Miss would also likely see some growth under Strong. It would no longer be just Allen HS, he has built up good relationships with several schools in the state, here are just a few:
Gilmer
South Grand Prairie
Houston Lamar
Katy
Plano
Sachse
Southlake Carroll
Dallas Skyline
I can't for certain say whether or not he would win on the field, but it's clear that Strong knows how to win in the house and on the recruiting trail.
Whether or not he would keep any members of the current staff would be interesting to see play out. It seems he has a pretty good idea of what his staff would look like, and the only openings, assuming everyone takes the same title, would be DB's, DL, and RB's, not to mention the fact that teams are permitted to add an additional member to their staffs this off-season.
Strong isn't one to send out 400+ offers on an annual basis, and that was part of the problem had at Texas. He likes to evaluate, over a course of time, and, as one source said, he considers the recruiting process to be a "marathon, not a sprint."
The thing about that, though, is when you take a deeper look at the way Strong finished in December/January as head coach at Texas:
2014: six of 23 signees committed in this period, including one four-star. (Strong was named head coach in January, weeks before signing day) Texas signed the 20th ranked class nationally.
2015: (first full recruiting cycle as head coach) : 14 of 29 signees committed in this time period, including one five-star and eight four-stars. Texas signed the 12th ranked class nationally.
2016: 12 of 28 signees, committed in this time period, including one five-star and six four-stars. Texas signed the 11th ranked class nationally.
