Standing before close dozens of players and a live SportsCenter audience, Charlie Strong said Monday that business as usual continues for Texas it prepares to host TCU on Friday.
"I spoke yesterday with (interim AD) Mike (Perrin). Greg (Fenves, the Texas president) has been up front. I'm told we will be evaluated after the TCU game."
Refuting multiple reports that Texas brass has elected to make a change, Strong said a decision has not been made on his future.
With that stated, Strong proceeded to state his case for keeping the job moving forward. Stating the talent is in place and the program is on solid foundation, Strong painted the picture of a program prepared to take off.
Strong also believes he should be the coach to lead the team to that proverbial national championship.
As for the TCU game, Strong has a significant challenge on his hands. The Texas players clearly responded with an emotional reaction to reports of his ouster -- a report surfaced that some players threatened to boycott Friday's game, which Strong denied. "That won't happen," he said. TCU has blown out the Longhorns in the two previous meetings since Strong's arrival, and Texas now must play with its top two centers battling injuries -- both missed Saturday's loss to Kansas -- while leaning on running back D'Onta Foreman, who carried a school-record 51 times on Saturday.
By prolonging the process a full week, UT president Fenves and interim AD Perrin have created a situation with three outcomes -- either the Longhorns lose and Texas will have dragged out Strong's ouster a week longer than necessary; they'll close with a win and then turn around and fire their head coach; or Texas will reverse course at the 11th hour and send Strong into a fourth season facing even more internal turmoil.
Strong repeated Monday that this week's game was about getting his seniors to a bowl game. But, clearly, Friday means much more than that.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.