Charlie Strong is beginning to learn the scrutiny former Texas Longhorns coach Mack Brown had to endure on a consistent basis.
Not only did Strong watch his Longhorns fail to earn a victory Saturday against 12th-ranked UCLA to drop to 1-2 in 2014, but he also watched his team fail to execute before the opening kickoff took place.
Diehardsport.com was one of several media outlets to report that UCLA won the pregame coin toss. The Bruins captains elected to defer until the second half, meaning they retained the right to choose whether to kick off or receive. But any team that defers until the second half wants the football to start the second half.
Deferring meant that the Longhorns were given the choice to kick off or receive to start the game. And they chose to kickoff. The Bruin Online Report tweeted the sequence of events that took place.
Texas Longhorns website takes down "Black is the new Brown" Charlie Strong T-shirts from website
So UCLA wins the toss and elects to defer. And then Texas chooses to kickoff. So UCLA will get it twice.
— Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) September 14, 2014
Jim Mora was seen on the big screen mouthing "We get the ball twice?" — Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) September 14, 2014
Charlie Strong is not pleased.
— Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) September 14, 2014
The ref even turned the microphone off to explain to the Texas captain what he was doing. And they still chose to kick. — Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) September 14, 2014
Strong has had a rough go of his first season. He dismissed five football players and suspended three others near the beginning of the team's fall practice in August.
Then earlier this month, he suspended four more players - one of the players, offensive tackle Desmond Harrison, was one of the ones he suspended in August.
The Longhorns also lost 41-7 to BYU in Austin, Texas last week, Texas' worst home loss since their 66-3 blowout at the hands of UCLA in 1997.
What made the loss worse was the fact that Texas had the game against the Cougars circled on its calendar after last year's 40-21 loss at BYU.
"They weren't ready to play. Same thing as last year," Strong said, told the Dallas Morning News after the game taking responsibility.
On Saturday, the Longhorns weren't even ready for the coin toss. Now, Longhorns fans will start to find out whether Strong will earn his $5 million salary in 2014.
Do you think Charlie Strong will be able to return Texas to college football's elite? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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