AUSTIN, Texas — A former Texas Longhorns football coach is heading back to the pros.
On Wednesday, NFL Network reported that Charlie Strong would join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their new defensive line coach.
Strong coached the Longhorns from 2014 through 2016, and his tenure in Austin is viewed negatively, as the team never finished with a winning record in his three seasons as coach. Under Strong, the Longhorns accumulated a 16-21 record, going 12-15 in conference play.
Perhaps the most famous moment during Strong’s tenure came in the 2016 season opener against Notre Dame, which the Longhorns won 50-47 in a two-overtime thriller. The game’s ending also prompted ESPN announcer Joe Tessitore, who was calling the game, to infamously exclaim, “Texas is back!”
Later that season, the Longhorns would lose to the one-win Kansas Jayhawks for the first time since 1938, which paired with a loss to TCU the following week cemented Strong’s demise.
After his Longhorn tenure, Strong served as the head coach at South Florida from 2017 to 2019 and followed that up with assistant coaching gigs at Miami, the Jacksonville Jaguars and most recently at Alabama.