Tampa – In front of a pack house at USF Marshall Student Center – Ballroom A, USF System President Judy Genshaft and USF AD Mark Harlan remarks, introduced Coach Strong to the public. The ballroom gave a gracious welcome and Coach Strong did the rest winning over his listeners with passion, directness and encouragement.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from today’s intro

– RECRUITING: Strong’s message will be somewhat similar to Taggart…will sell “The Process.” The football program is moving in the right direction and wants players who want to move with it. Is going to recruit/compete for the best players who will fit the mold. Not backing down from recruiting against the big three (Florida, Florida State, Miami).

– TAGGART: Extremely complimentary of the foundation Taggart and his staff built. Strong seemed to have that…instead of doing it his way, how can he add his spin on what already exist. A lot doesn’t have to change after you win 10 games but the progress has to be sustained.

– ON CAMPUS STADIUM: It is important to him. Elaborated on how an on campus stadium would help recruiting efforts and give the current player a sense of ownership. The way he addressed the public was as if the ball is moving pretty fast in regards to the on campus stadium and it will happen.

– EMPTY RAY JAY: Strong did not shy away from addressing lack of game day fan support. Doesn’t see a reason why Raymond James Stadium should not be full at every home game. Cited how the stadium stayed full when the Bulls were #2 in the BCS in the early 2000s.

– LEARNING CURVE: Strong rarely mentioned his days as the head football coach at Louisville or Texas. At most he mentioned he learned plenty and was thankful for both programs trusting him with their program but he is looking forward to pushing the Bulls to the next level.