College football: Florida assistant Charlie Strong heading to Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong is headed to Louisville to be the Cardinals' head coach.

Louisville hired Strong on Wednesday to help revitalize a program that sagged under former coach Steve Kragthorpe, signing him to a five-year contract that will pay him a base salary of $1.6 million a year.

Strong's sturdy defenses helped Florida win two national championships and for most of the past decade he has been considered a potential head coach.

Yet as season after season passed without a viable opportunity to move up the coaching ranks, Strong admits he wondered if he was ever going to get the chance to lead his own program.

"When we were offered this job, me and my wife (Victoria) and I looked at each other," Strong said fighting back tears, "because you just never thought it was going to happen."

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich, however, never had a doubt. He waited patiently while the Gators finished their regular season, spending his time talking to friends and fellow coaches of Strong looking for some insight.

"I said to (Florida coach) Urban Meyer, I said 'Urban, I'm on the hook here, you've got to tell me something negative,'" Jurich said. "He couldn't do it."

Strong's first mission will be to win back a fan base that fled in droves as the Cardinals struggled under Kragthorpe, who was fired on Nov. 28 after going 15-21 in three seasons.

"We're going to start over," Strong said.

Jurich hopes Strong can energize supporters who grew disenchanted with Kragthorpe as the program steadily slid from the heights of 2006, when the Cardinals won the Big East and the Orange Bowl and finished the season ranked No. 6 in the final poll under coach Bobby Petrino.

A crowd of just over 23,000 turned out for last month's season finale against Rutgers, a decline the program knows must stop with Cardinal Stadium expanding to 55,000 seats in time for next year's opener against rival Kentucky.

Not that Strong is feeling the pressure. He's waited his entire life for the opportunity. He becomes the 11th black head coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision and the fourth hired in the last month.

"Even when I was a defensive coordinator, I thought 'If I do my job, it may not happen for me … but it could pave the way for someone else,'" Strong said.