Louisville Has a Strong Candidate

There is currently one coaching opening in the Big East and there might be another one in the coming days or weeks.

At Louisville, the Cards are seeking a replacement for Steve Kragthorpe, who was fired Saturday after three seasons at the 'Ville.

Among the possible candidates for Louisville: Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, Houston coach Kevin Sumlin, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, Central Michigan coach Butch Jones, Temple coach Al Golden, former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer and former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville. Did we leave anyone out?

Fulmer and Tuberville carry the biggest names, the other current head coaches -- Sumlin, Leach, Jones and Golden -- have all been successful and some even have ties to UL athletic director Tom Jurich from his days at Colorado State.

Jurich, who SI.com called "one of the shrewdest in the profession," has had the gumption to replace a Hall of Fame coach (Denny Crum) with Rick Pitino, is building a new state-of-the-art $238 million - $238 million! – college basketball arena and also is expanding Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

Now Jurich can make another bold statement -- hiring a coach that no one would even give an interview last season and should have been a head coach by now.

That would be Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, the best assistant coach in the land.

A Louisville source told FanHouse that Jurich plans to ask Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley for permission to speak with Strong Sunday, following the Gators' SEC Championship game with Alabama.

Strong is Jurich's top choice to replace Kragthorpe, the UL source said.

Strong has been the mastermind behind Florida's defense. This year, the Gators rank No. 1 in total defense (233 yards per game), pass defense (143 yards per game) and scoring defense (9.8 points per game) and No. 8 in rushing defense (90 yards per game).

In two of the past three seasons, Strong's defense shutdown a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback (Ohio State's Troy Smith and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford) and held both the Buckeyes and Sooners to season lows in points while winning the national title. Last season, OU had scored at least 58 points in six consecutive games until Strong's defense held the Sooners to 14 points.

Yet after the 2008 season, 22 FBS schools hired new coaches. Exactly how many teams interviewed Charlie Strong?

"None," Strong told reporters days before Florida's victory against Oklahoma for the BCS national title. "Not one interview. Nobody called me. Zero interviews."

There has been speculation that some university leaders have a problem hiring Strong, an African American, who is married to a white woman. Strong said a few years ago while interviewing at a Southern college, he heard his interracial marriage was the reason he wasn't hired.

"Everybody always said I didn't get the job because my wife [Victoria] is white," Strong said on Jan. 5 at the BCS title game media day. "If you think about it, a coach is standing up there representing the university," he said. "If you're not strong enough to look through that [interracial marriage] then you have an issue."

The Gators' defensive coordinator Strong had a message who questioned his wife's skin color.

"She makes no calls and she plays no defense," he said.

For whatever reason, no one has taken a chance on the 49-year old Strong. That should change next week.

Contact FanHouse reporter Brett McMurphy at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com

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