Strong needs to act fast
Charlie Strong. (Will Gallagher/IT)
In Shawshank Redemption, the exchange between Andy and Red about hope is very moving and full of perspective.
Red remarks that hope is a dangerous thing. He says there is no room for hope in prison. Andy replies that prison is where hope is needed the most.
By the end of the movie Andy’s advice to Red was, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.”
Texas fans need hope and they need hope now. Texas football has problems. In order to manage through problems, especially when you have a large constituency that votes with their wallet, you have to act swiftly and act decisively.
The Tylenol scare in 1982 forced Johnson and Johnson to act swiftly and decisively. They pulled every bottle of Tylenol off the shelves, repackaged the product in triple-seal tamper resistant packaging, promoted caplets, which are more resistant to tampering, gave a discount to customers and used their 2,250 sales people all over the world presenting the changes they made to the medical community.
Johnson and Johnson acted swiftly and decisively and have become a case study in crisis management for just about every business school in the country. Texas is 4-7 with one game left. Momentum is as low as any time that I can remember in the program. Even after the 5-7 year in 2010, the program was thought to have hit a speed bump and had an anomaly of a season.
I had someone call my radio show last week suggesting that the issues at Texas were systemic and that Texas was not a good job anymore. That guy was an emotional mess but that is where the fan base is – an emotional mess.
Texas plays Baylor on Saturday in Waco and without a miracle upset and an exemption because of too many bowls and not enough successful teams, the Longhorn season will be over.
Charlie Strong needs to act swiftly and decisively.
Strong needs to start announcing changes right away even if he does not have some of the roles filled yet. Changes need to happen and happen as quickly as possible to allow the new staff members to spend as much time recruiting and closing out the 2016 class before the dead period in mid-December.
Texas Tech, who ended its regular season by beating Texas on Thanksgiving has already informed several recruits of changes to the Red Raider coaching staff saying that co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Mike Smith and cornerbacks coach Kevin Curtis would not return for next season.
Strong needs to communicate with recruits and with his fan base in a swift and decisive manner.
Sunday. Maybe Monday.
