Unfortunately, with all the blowout losses during the Charlie Strong era as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns (seven in 18 games now), there's plenty of perspective on the varying degrees of somber post-game press conference, but Strong admitted after the 50-7 destruction by the TCU Horned Frogs that Saturday was his worst day as a head coach.
The program's immediate future doesn't look especially bright with Strong making a variety of other disturbing admissions. Here's a quick recap of several:
Strong: "You gotta have pride. I just don't know how important it is right now. You look at some guys, and they're just happy to be here."
— Ted Emrich (@tedemrich) October 3, 2015
Other than senior wide reciever Daje Johnson saying that he didn't think guys played with enough heart against Notre Dame in the opener, this is the first time that anyone else has questioned the effort level of this particular team. Strong's comment echoed too many that he made last year and too many that were made by Quandre Diggs.
Strong: We have to learn how to compete and we don't know how to compete yet. We need pride.
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) October 3, 2015
Once again, Strong wanted his program to start showing some pride after the loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl. Ten months later, it's still not there.
Strong: "We need to have a guy who can take the team over. We don't have that guy. We need to find that guy." #Horns
— Chris Sadeghi (@chrissadeghi) October 3, 2015
After the remarkable performances by redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard against Rice and California in his first two starts, it looked like he was going to be that guy. For a number of reasons, the last two weeks have revealed the growth he still needs to accomplish as a player and that's impacting his ability to lead.
Strong also responded to a question about freshman cornerback Kris Boyd's halftime retweet, saying that players are not supposed to be on their phones during that time and that he was not aware of the situation, perhaps because Texas still doesn't have a SID to help him out.
As for senior wide receiver Daje Johnson, who left the game after the second offensive play when he took a hard hit and fumbled the football, Strong said that he didn't know where he was after the hit. Johnson left the game and did not return, so it's possible that he sustained a concussion on the play.