Charlie Strong: I Never Kicked Players Off of Team

Charlie Strong has been an interesting and somewhat polarizing character since he took over the Texas Longhorns. He had experienced enough success at Louisville to get the fans excited about what the future could hold, but then there were his five core values (Honesty, Treat Women With Respect, No Drugs, No Stealing, and No Weapons).

Break them and punishment would be swift and hard including the possibility of being dismissed from the team. Sure enough, nine players were eventually kicked off the team for violating a core value. However, now Charlie is saying he didn't kick anyone off the team.

via Twitter

Okay....so they all quit? That is essentially what Strong is claiming now. He didn't kick anyone off the team. he just suggested that another program would be a better one for them. In an interview with Coaching Search Strong had this to say:

Any time you take over a program, sometimes you’re going to be challenged. I’m one of those coaches where I make it about the players. I want them to always understand that I’m going to do everything I can to make sure they’re successful.

Now, some people don’t want to hear the message, and then when they decide that they want to run their own program, then I tell them, 'You know what? This may not be the place for you. There’s other schools that would love to have you, so I just think that’s probably where you need to go.'

What a load of crap. Charlie, when you tell someone that they probably need to go somewhere else you are essentially kicking them off the team. Wow. Yes, their actions are what sealed their fates, but he handed down the punishment.

Yes, it is still their fault, but Strong is the one that decided to make the consequence for their actions what they were. Is he wrong for doing so? No. More programs should be as hard on players that act like fools.

But he should own it like he has for the last year. Why he wants to try and say now that he never kicked anyone off the team is a mystery? Is he realizing that his heavy handedness is not looked kindly upon by recruits and so he is trying to back off of it? Has he been told to relax? I don't know.

Just like the players need to own their actions he needs to own his. Yes, they broke the rules that he set knowing full well what the consequences could be. Yes, the sense of entitlement that had permeated the program needed to go. Did suggesting to the bad apples that they leave do the trick? No! It was the threat of what the consequences could be weighed against the love of the game. 

Consequences that he set and enforced (enforcement being the key). 

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