Texas Football Rumors: Sterlin Gilbert to Join Charlie Strong at USF

Two former coaches from the Texas football staff will join reportedly join Charlie Strong at South Florida.

With Charlie Strong getting fired by Texas at the end of November, it meant that everyone on his staff’s futures were in jeopardy too. This included offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert, who had joined the team before the started of the 2016 season. Tom Herman would get hired just hours afterward to become the Texas football coach and cleaned house. This includes bringing in former Houston defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, among other staff members from Herman’s former employer.

After getting let go, South Florida hired Strong to become the head coach. He took over after the school’s win in the Birmingham Bowl, and is now developing his coaching staff and team for 2017.

Regarding the coaches that will join Strong, according to 247Sports.com’s Josh Newberg, Gilbert and offensive line coach Matt Mattox will reportedly join USF’s staff. These two have coached together at four spots over the past four years (Illinois, Bowling Green, Tulsa, Texas).

Gilbert had been hired to “fix” the Texas football offense, and ended up producing a 2,000-yard rusher and Doak Walker Award winner, D’Onta Foreman. True freshman quarterback Shane Buechele also barely missed out on a 3,000-yard season and had 21 passing touchdowns.

Despite these accolades, the Longhorns still finished 5-7, leading to Strong getting fired. He had produced below .500 seasons in his first two seasons as well.

Strong’s progress compared to Herman’s will be interesting to watch in 2017 and beyond. These programs aren’t quite tied together given the conferences they’re in. But there may be eyes on both coaches to see if one outperforms the other, especially with Herman taking over what had already been started in Austin.

How much of an impact will this potential hire of Gilbert at USF make? Can Buechele and the Longhorn offense adjust under a new coordinator?