South Florida, ex-Texas coach Charlie Strong agree on deal

The University of South Florida wasted little time hiring a replacement for Willie Taggart.

And it landed the coach that seemed to be the popular choice: former Texas coach Charlie Strong.

The school announced the hire midday Sunday, four days after Taggart’s departure to take the head coaching job at Oregon.

“Charlie is a tremendous leader and mentor for our student-athletes and a widely-respected coach with a resume full of achievements at the highest levels of college football. He combines a drive to win with great integrity and deep, long-standing connections in the state of Florida. The future of USF football is very bright under his direction,” said Bulls athletics director Mark Harlan in a statement released by the school Sunday.

Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel was the first to report Sunday morning that the school and Strong were closing in on a five-year deal. Terms of the contract, including its length, were not announced.

“I am humbled that we have a shared commitment to take this university and this football program to even greater heights,” Strong said in the release.

The former Texas Longhorns coach met with South Florida officials in Tampa on Friday and Saturday, according to multiple reports. ESPN reported Sunday that South Florida offered Strong the job on Saturday, but that he returned home to Austin, Texas, to discuss it with his wife, Victoria, and his three children. Strong’s wife is from Lakeland.

South Florida officials did not announce when Strong would be formally introduced, although reports Sunday evening indicated a news conference is planned for Wednesday. The new coach is also scheduled to meet with the Bulls’ players on Wednesday.

Attempts to reach current assistant coaches and players with ties to Manatee County on Sunday were unsuccessful.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, interim coach T.J. Weist will continue to coach the team through the Birmingham Bowl against South Carolina on Dec. 29.

The hire of Strong as the fourth coach in program history — following Jim Leavitt, Skip Holtz and Taggart — marks the time a USF coach has been a head coach at what is now a Power 5 program prior to taking the job. Interestingly, South Florida is scheduled to open the 2020 season at Texas.

Strong was fired Nov. 26 after three seasons as head coach at Texas and four at Louisville. Prior to his first head coaching job at Louisville, he spent more than 25 years as an assistant, primarily on defense, including 13 seasons under three coaches at the University of Florida. Six of those seasons were spent as defensive coordinator under Urban Meyer, helping the Gators win two national championships.

Those years helped Strong forge deep and extensive connections throughout Florida and helped him earn his reputation as a top-flight recruiter. He maintained his ties by continuing to heavily recruit the state during his time at Louisville and Texas. With the Longhorns, with whom he went 16-21, reached one bowl game and never had a winning season, his last two recruiting classes ranked among the top-10 nationally. Such ties and recruiting skills figure to be huge when it comes to USF.

“… Some of the best football talent in the country is right here in the Bay Area and throughout the state of Florida, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to work with the young men in the USF football program and build on the strong foundation already in place,” Strong said in a statement.

Strong inherits a team that’s loaded with talent.

Taggart rebuilt a program that won 2, 4, 8 and 10 games in his four seasons, including winning 17 of his final 21 games. Taggart left USF for Oregon three days after the Bulls received their second consecutive bowl invitation.

The team’s two-deep roster features 21 underclassmen and 18 of the 22 starters for most of the games this season are juniors or younger. Reigning AAC offensive player of the year Quinton Flowers, who is already being included on preliminary lists of 2017 Heisman contenders, is scheduled to be a senior. If three-time 1,000-yard rusher Marlon Mack remains in school for his senior year, 17 of the players who started the regular-season finale against Central Florida would be back.

Though Strong was guaranteed at least $5 million per year at Texas — a figure South Florida cannot match (Taggart was making only $1.8 million annually), the 56-year-old will not be taking a pay cut for the first two seasons. In fact, he will end up with a raise thanks to his Texas contract terms.

Had strong not taken another job, he would have been owed his full base salary in each of the next two seasons (approximately $10 million total) from Texas. However, the amount Texas must pay is reduced by 50 percent of what he earns each of the next two seasons. So, if South Florida is paying him $2 million per year, Texas’ payment would be reduced by $1 million. Assuming the figure was a flat $5 million, that means Texas would still have to pay Strong $4 million. That is on top of whatever USF is paying him.

This report contains material from Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel

This story was originally published December 11, 2016 at 10:54 PM with the headline "South Florida, ex-Texas coach Charlie Strong agree on deal."