I like people who set high expectations and will except nothing less.
What is the process of earning it?
What bothers me about Strong is he preach's discipline, even kicks people off of the team for minor transgressions. But his teams on the field are some of the most undisciplined teams I've ever seen. This is the reason Strong is living on borrowed time. That and the fact that they get blown out by Notre Dame/Kansas St/Iowa St.
It says something about Strong's coaching abilities that one week they can beat Oklahoma and the next week get shut out by Iowa St.
There are a couple of ways to earn it. If you want a quick fix (flash, style, excitement) then hire a coach who will provide you with a quick fix. If you feel like the foundation of your program is faulty (lazy, entitled, country club atmosphere) and you want to tear it down and rebuild then you hire a coach who will tear it down and rebuild.
What you don't do is say that you want a full rebuild, hire a coach who is going to perform a full rebuild, and then ***** and complain that you didn't get a quick fix.
The administration and fans decided that the culture of the program had gone bad and needed to be reset. They hired Charlie Strong to do that. They guaranteed him a certain number of years to tear the house down and then rebuild it with a solid foundation. They asked him how long it would take. He said four years. It's been two.
The administration and fans wanted the cancerous players gone. They wanted that attitude gone. They wanted that atmosphere gone. Strong told all the players what the deal was when he signed on. Those who didn't want to be part of the new way of doing things either left on their own or got sent packing. You can say minor transgressions all you want. I am a coach. And I would kick my best player to the curb without a second thought if he were a cancer festering in my locker room. Cancers spread. I don't care how talented you are. If you aren't on board you better find a different ride. The super talented may have a longer leash, but even that leash can only extend so far.
Strong said all these things were going to happen. The fans cheered. Then Strong did it. And the fans bitched and complained. In the past two years he has completely torn out the bad foundation. He is starting the rebuild now (3 Freshman All Americans in his first full recruiting class). In the next two years he will finish the rebuild.
Why are Strong's teams sometimes undisciplined? They start more true freshmen than they start Juniors and Seniors combined. That's what the fans asked for. They asked for the entitled players to be sent away. Who did they think was going to replace them?
Why are Strong's teams sometimes undisciplined? His coaching staff has been in disarray since his arrival because boosters, fans, and the athletic department keep getting involved in decisions that aren't up to them. The head coach was given a salary cap for his coaching staff (first time in school history this has been demanded by the athletic department) and so he couldn't afford to bring all the coaches that he wanted. He was also forced to accept coaches onto his staff that he didn't want, because the boosters thought he was nothing better than a "position coach" and couldn't be trusted to assume control of such matters.
He was forced to keep Mack Brown's recruiting coordinator, TE coach Bruce Chambers, because of his recruiting connections in Texas. Never mind that Chambers hadn't been an effective position coach in over a decade, and that his idea of "recruiting" was to just mail out offers to the players in the state that had the highest Rivals' rating. But Charlie "needed" him because Charlie isn't a Texan, he's a foreigner. And only a Texan knows how to recruit Texas. Never mind that foreigners like Saban, Miles, Fisher, Meyer, and numerous other coaches have occasionally plucked top talent from the state on more than one occasion.
He was forced to hire Les Koenning as his WR coach because his offensive staff didn't have enough "Texas guys" on it. Koenning couldn't coach, couldn't recruit, and Charlie fired him after one year.
He was forced to bring Watson with him from Louisville as his OC because his top two choices for OC were deemed too expensive. The money he saved by bringing Watson was then supposed to be used to pay OL coach Wickline's buyout at Oklahoma St. But after the hire had already become public and any chance of Wickline returning to OSU had been wiped away, the athletic department just decided they didn't want to pay that buyout anymore, and forced Strong to name Wickline the Offensive Coordinator so that they could bypass it. This, despite the fact that Watson would still be calling the plays. Suffice it to say, Wickline was not happy that his "promotion" came with no extra money and no extra responsibilities. It was in name only. And he was made even more unhappy when OSU sued him for breach of contract and he had to settle out of his own pocket because the UT athletic department wouldn't help him.
That sounds like a really fun working environment to be a part of. Shockingly, the coaches that Strong has brought in on his own to replace those coaches have all garnered positive reviews. His WR coach did an admirable job filling in as OC after Watson demonstrated that he just wasn't capable of running the offense that Strong wanted. His TE coach is their best recruiter. His new OC runs the type of offense that Strong wants. And his new OL coach has implemented this offense at three different schools.
Long story short, here is how you earn it. You want a job done? You search for the right guy to get the job done. Then you ask him what he needs to get the job done. Then you give it to him. And then you get the hell out of the way.
You don't impede his progress at every possible step and then get angry at him for not somehow being able to get the job done faster than agreed. Every coach has a process. Strong outlined his process at the very beginning. Everybody signed on and then jumped off at the first sign of any obstacle that needed to be overcome for the process to succeed.
Maybe the lazy, entitled, country club atmosphere wasn't coming from the locker room...
Fix that. And then it will have been earned.
