Most - and by most I mean 98.4 percent - of the coveragesurrounding Charlie Strong accepting the Texas job has focused on the supposedly reclusive coach managing the omnipresent and burning spotlight that comes along with being the head Horn. Public relations is important for any head football coach, especially at a job as big as Texas. But there's more to the job than being a figurehead, a politician and a talk show host.
The "football" and "coach" part of Strong's new job finds him inheriting a program at a crossroads. His predecessor didn't empty out the proverbial cupboard, but there's work to be done to get Texas back among the national elite.
Offense: Strong's first bear trap to shut is the quarterback position. Senior David Ash figures to return from a concussion that erased him from the final three-fourths of the season, but his ability to stay on the field is tenuous at best. Behind Ash is raw sophomore Tyrone Swoopes and incoming freshman Jerrod Heard. That's it. The other ten positions offer enough talent to win with good quarterback play but, as anyone who saw the Alamo Bowl knows, not enough to manufacture yards and points in the absence of good quarterback play. A timely and successful mending of the torn Achilles belonging to junior running back Johnathan Gray would certainly help.
Defense: Strong's most important recruit is already on the roster - junior defensive end Cedric Reed. Reed is currently weighing his NFL options, and Texas could use the Second Team All-Big 12 performers 77 tackles, 16.5 TFL and 10 sacks. The Longhorns' defense improved considerably throughout the fall, holding Baylor and Oregon well below their average scoring outputs with no help whatsoever from the other side of the ball, but Strong leaves behind a better defense than he inherits, at least initially.
Recruiting Class: Texas currently has 23 commits; luckily for Strong, the most important recruit (Heard) also appears to be the most solid. For what it's worth, the Longhorns' class is currently rated 12th by Rivals, 12th by 247, 13th by ESPN and ninth by Scout.
Coaching Staff: Reports out of Austin say tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator Bruce Chambers has already packed up his office, and offensive line coach Stacy Searels is in the running at Florida. Of the remaining staff members, the most likely to be retained - in this writer's opinion - are defensive ends coach Oscar Giles, wide receives coach/co-offensive coordinator Darrell Wyatt and running backs coach Larry Porter.
Support Staff: Strong will be encouraged by those in the athletics department to keep Patrick Suddes and his newly-founded player personnel department. DFO Arthur Johnson earned enough of Mack's trust to take the keys of the program in between head coaches.
Schedule: Brutal. Texas' non-conference opponents - North Texas, BYU and UCLA - went a combined 27-12 this season, and every Big 12 bunkmate has a legitimate reason to believe they'll be better in 2014 and 2013. Texas plays eight returning bowl teams next season, and the other four have either beaten Texas (TCU) or come within one catch, block or tackle of doing so (Kansas, Iowa State, West Virginia) within the past two years. Moving forward, no league fluctuates in quality on a year-to-year basis more than the Big 12, but Texas has non-conference games lined up with Notre Dame, USC, Maryland, Cal, Arkansas and Ohio State within the next decade.
Facilities: Long considered the gold standard in college athletics, Texas' facilities are now the gilded standard. Opened in 2002, Texas' indoor facility is nicknamed the Bubble, and it needs to be popped. While fully functional, the 'Horns' locker room and weight room won't drop the jaws of any well-traveled recruits. The bad news? There's not a lot of room for growth. The UT campus is boxed in midtown Austin, requiring players to hop a charter bus two blocks to the practice fields. The good news? Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is still a palace, Strong's new boss specializes in building new facilities, and it's not as if he'll have to park himself on the corner of San Jacinto and Dean Keeton peddling baked goods and lemonade to raise the necessary funds.
This is Texas. It's a pretty big job, after all.