Daniel Spencer

Charlie Strong says he interviewed for around 20 head coaching jobs and kept getting rejected again and again, and says it wasn’t until Lou Holtz gave him a reason to keep interviewing that was bigger than himself that he landed the Louisville job “It really started for me just being an assistant coach and interviewing for all of these jobs, and I never could get one. I bet I interviewed for 20 jobs. I was an assistant, and I can remember I was at South Carolina with Lou Holtz and Mike McGee was the AD.” “They would actually interview me before I went on my interview. I would sit down with Coach Holtz, and he’d be like, ‘No, you can’t say that. This is the way we’re going to answer that.’ Then I’d go see Mike McGee, and he’d say, ‘These are the questions that the AD wants to hear, and these are the answers that you’ve got to give them.’ So then I would go on the interview, and people would say, ‘Well, he didn’t do a good job.’ And I’m sitting there like, ‘I know I did a good job.’ I’m not going to even hear that.” “So one day I went to Coach Holtz and I said, ‘Coach, I’m not doing it anymore.’ He said, ‘What do you mean you’re not doing it anymore?’ I said, ‘Coach, I just feel like I’m a token. I’m just going on all these interviews and I’m getting none of the jobs. Every time they say he’s a poor interviewer and he’s not prepared, and I was prepared. Coach had given me all the information. I was probably overly prepared.’” “He said, ‘You can’t do that.’ And I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘There are a lot of African-American coaches who are not getting the opportunity that you’re getting. So if you say you don’t want to do it, then those are guys who may not get that opportunity because they’re going to look at you and say, “Well, Charlie’s saying he doesn’t want to do this anymore.” So now, since he’s saying that, there’s no need in me going to interview someone else.’” “I can remember I was at the University of Florida and we had just won a national championship. Up until that time, whoever won a national championship, one of the coordinators got a job. And I didn’t get one.” “We go recruiting, and it’s Urban and myself, and Urban’s like, ‘I just got a phone call, and I feel bad for you, and I’ve got to tell you, one of our coaches is going to get a head coaching job and they didn’t ask about you.’ And I said, ‘You know what, Urban? I’m so over it now. The only thing I can do now is do the job that I do and hope that I do a good enough job that someone else, that they will look at another brother and he can get a job off of the work that I’m doing. I’m past that now.’”