Fear Of A Black Football Coach: Charlie Strong Gets The UT Job And Someone's Not Happy.

In what's turning out to be a darn good week for black people in general, the college football season culminated with a thrilling BCS title game last night. The game was notable because both Auburn and Florida State started black QB's. It's hard to believe that not long ago, college teams wouldn't even consider putting a black guy behind center because it was widely assumed that they weren't "smart" enough to make decisions. Oddly, the same logic was once employed to prevent black coaches from assuming the helm of non-HBCU teams. Sure, we could coach positions, maybe run a defense, but lead the whole damn team? No way.

Thanks to some aggressive lobbying, black coaches have finally gotten a handful of head jobs at major colleges. Charlie Strong, who just jumped from Louisville to the University of Texas is the latest such example. But not everyone's happy.

Longtime booster Red McCombs is not a fan of Texas' decision to hire coach Charlie Strong away from Louisville, calling it a "kick in the face" during a radio interview Monday.

The hiring of Charlie Strong, Texas' first African-American head football coach, is critical to the growth of the sport and our culture, writes Jean-Jacques Taylor. Column

"I think the whole thing is a bit sideways," McCombs said of the selection process during an interview with ESPN 1250 San Antonio. "I don't have any doubt that Charlie is a fine coach. I think he would make a great position coach, maybe a coordinator.

"But I don't believe [he belongs at] what should be one of the three most powerful university programs in the world right now at UT-Austin. I don't think it adds up."

McCombs, the former owner of the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Vikings and co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, said on "The Blitz with Dat Nguyen and Jason Minnix" that he was stunned to learn Strong was the choice to replace Mack Brown.

He publicly lobbied last week for Texas to hire former NFL coach and ESPN analyst Jon Gruden.

"I think it is a kick in the face," McCombs said. "Beyond the fact of what actually happened. We have boosters that have a lot of knowledge about the game. When we decided to go get Mack -- from the time we decided to go get Mack to about 30 hours later to have a press conference here and it was done -- we had a lot of input before we went after him.

"So I don't know what the big rush was. I was kind of pleased that [Texas athletic director Steve] Patterson already said that he'd like to get it done in the middle of January. That seemed logical to me. I'm a team player, but I think they went about it wrong and made the selection wrong."

Texas named its McCombs School of Business after the benefactor, and he has a statue inside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. McCombs has donated more than $100 million to UT and is a close friend to Brown.

McCombs said he was certain Patterson couldn't go wrong on the hire during an interview with the San Antonio Express-News last week.

"I don't see how they can miss," McCombs told the paper. "They can get anyone they want. They can close their eyes and go 'Eeny-meeny-miny-moe' and end up with someone good."

I don't know exactly how to read this. McCombs, on the surface, comes across as a little butthurt about not having any input into the decision to hire Strong. If I cut a check for a cool $100M, I'd prolly want some say-so as well. It's also clear McCombs didn't like seeing his buddy, recently fired Mack Brown, to leave. He's also got some weird wet dream for John Gruden, but we all know that's never happening.

Still, I can't hate but notice this line:

"I think the whole thing is a bit sideways," McCombs said of the selection process during an interview with ESPN 1250 San Antonio. "I don't have any doubt that Charlie is a fine coach. I think he would make a great position coach, maybe a coordinator. But I don't believe [he belongs at] what should be one of the three most powerful university programs in the world right now at UT-Austin. I don't think it adds up."

Strong, it should be noted, took a UofL program from garbage to relevance, just won a huge bowl game, and was a hot prospect. Texas made the move to hire him quickly, and despite what some critics think, I think he's a good fit.

That doesn't matter, because qualifications be damned, McCombs just didn't think Strong was "ready".

Hmmmm, where have we heard that before?!?

Question: What do you think about this? Is Strong "ready"? How much more "ready" does one need to be?