Charlie Strong has not been off to a good start at the University of South Florida and things got a little worse today.
On December 11, 2016, Strong was named the fourth head coach in USF history after being fired from Texas. Right before Butch Jones was hired on December 7, 2012, Strong apparently accepted the Tennessee job the night before but decided to remain at Louisville at the last hour, thus sending Dave Hart to contact Butch for the vacancy.
Strong faced his first obstacle at USF when defensive back Hassan Childs was charged with aggravated assault and possession of marijuana in March. He immediately booted Childs off the team. On Monday, another player, LaDarrius Jackson, was arrested and charged for sexual battery and false imprisonment. He is still with the team, but suspended.
It turns out that Jackson’s judge in court happened to be a USF graduate herself. Margaret Taylor wasn’t pleased at all with the state of the program.
“I graduated from USF, I’m an alumni, graduated from USF in 1989, long before there was a football team,” Taylor said to Jackson. “And while USF may not be the top-ranked school in the nation, I was never ashamed of being an alum until now.
“And, I have a message for your coach, as well. Coach Strong, if you are listening, in the last couple of months, there have been two arrests of your players for very violent felonies. This court, and I’m sure I’m not alone, questions whether you have control over your players. It’s fairly clear you do not have control of them off the field, and I guess only time will tell whether you have control over them on the field.”
Taylor then went on to highly question whether or not Strong should remain at USF after four months on the job.
I would implore you to think long and hard about whether being head coach at USF is a good fit for you before any other members of this community have to suffer at the hands of one of your players.
Strong then responded by saying he was apologetic for the recent arrests and says he’s working hard on building men of “character” and “discipline.” Here’s the video from the hearing:
Judge attempts to "send a message" to Charlie Strong and asks if he has control over football players after recent arrests.
(📹: r/CFB) pic.twitter.com/Ra8nhCK7BD
— FOX Sports Radio (@FoxSportsRadio) May 3, 2017
