Is Charlie Strong Arizona's Best Choice As Their New Football Coach?

This is presuming that Mike Stoops, pictured above, leaves for Iowa State. So I am trying to get ahead of the curve!

I say yes. Charlie Strong is the defensive coordinator of the Florida Gators, who are playing for their second national title in four years, and Strong has been one of the top defensive coordinators in the country for 10 years.

Strong is an excellent recruiter and more importantly would bring a college emphasis to a league that for the last 35 years has been mostly trying and failing at being an NFL imitation. They run pro-style schemes on both sides of the ball, focus on Xs and Os more than recruiting, often go to the NFL for head and assistant coaches—and what is the result? USC is and has been that conference's only power.

It isn't East Coast bias—it is that USC and Washington are responsible for the Pac-10's two undefeated seasons since 1978.

USC can afford to continue to play NFL team if they want. But how many Pac-10 teams have USC's advantages: location plus tradition? Arizona actually has the potential to be a very strong regional program—and regional programs do win national titles from time to time—but compared to USC...come on. Arizona, in most cases, will be getting the players that USC doesn't want.

So they can either settle for competing with UCLA, Cal, ASU, and Washington for being No. 2 to USC, or they can run a completely different type of program. Incidentally, that is what Oregon has already done. So why not Chip Kelly? He is Oregon's head coach in waiting.

Also, Kelly is an offensive coach. The Pac-10 is filled with offensive coaches and needs a defensive emphasis. The better coaches, the ones that have actually won titles like the SEC and Big 12, traditionally have a mix of offensive and defensive coaches. The Pac-10 has always tilted heavily towards offense, and you see the result.

This isn't just "defense wins championships," by the way. After all, who says that a defensive coach can't have great offenses? Look at Bob Stoops at Oklahoma—or Pete Carroll at USC!

It comes down to instead of always hiring the same Pac-10 guys to run the same imitation NFL programs (and always the passing-oriented NFL teams at that—you don't see Pac-10 teams trying to emulate the NFL teams that emphasize the run game or defense), they need to get new blood, new philosophies, etc. into that conference.

They need someone who will hire college assistants, recruit college players, and run schemes that win on the college level...to build an outstanding college program.

That is what Arizona needs, and Charlie Strong is the best guy to do it. No big name head coach is going to leave the job that they have for Arizona. So it comes down to mid-major coaches and assistants.

Maybe Bronco Mendenhall, Kyle Whittingham, or Gary Patterson of Utah, TCU, or BYU would come, or perhaps Chris Petersen of Boise. (Pat Hill of Fresno State is a Pac-10 wannabe. Plus his accomplishments at Fresno are way overstated.) But none of those would represent the huge departure that Strong would represent.

As a matter of fact, Patterson would represent the only guy that isn't the type of hire that the Pac-10 already generally makes for coaches and assistants.

So call Patterson a very viable alternative to Strong, especially since Patterson has head coaching experience and it is easier to get Texas guys to Arizona than Florida guys. (Although do not pigeonhole Strong as an SEC coach—he has held assistant coaching jobs at Texas A&M, Southern Illinois, and Notre Dame.)

But as Strong would bring a clear defensive emphasis, very likely the read option offense (which Strong is familiar with not only from Meyer at Florida, but also from his time at Notre Dame and South Carolina), his knowledge of big-time programs that take football very seriously, and his proven ability to compete with the best for recruits (not only at Florida and Notre Dame, but also at clearly lesser jobs like South Carolina).

He would be a much better fit, especially when you consider that Strong has been an assistant head coach at Florida for eight years.

So Charlie Strong to Arizona. SEC to Pac-10. Not unusual at all, when you consider that the SEC has two Pac-10 guys in Rich Brooks (Kentucky) and Lane Kiffin (Tennessee) and recently had a third in Ed Orgeron (Ole Miss).

The SEC also has or recently had former ACC/Big East guys in Tommy Tuberville (Auburn) and Mark Richt (Georgia), former Big 12 and Michigan man Les Miles (LSU) a former Big Ten guy (Nick Saban of LSU and Alabama), and another former Midwestern/Western guy in Urban Meyer (Florida).

Getting new blood has clearly raised the level of competition for the SEC. No reason why it shouldn't do the same for the Pac-10.