No doubt about the final outcome now: Charlie Strong is done at Texas

One of these days, everybody involved in Kansas 24, Texas 21 will look back on it as a blessing.

Charlie Strong will walk away with $10 million and no doubt in his mind that he deserved to be fired, and Texas won’t have to feel guilty about doing what needed to be done.

Whether the final decision is rendered Saturday night, Sunday or sometime after Texas’ final game, there can be no more doubt about the final outcome here. Change is coming to Austin, and after more than a year of heated internal discussion about whether Strong was the guy to lead the Longhorns back to prominence, it won’t be controversial after all.

Kansas shocks Texas with program-lifting win

Texas President Greg Fenves wanted badly for Strong to succeed, but he needed some evidence in the last two weeks of the season to push back against the big-money boosters thirsting for Houston coach Tom Herman.

Instead, he got a putrid, six-turnover performance at Kansas, which hadn’t won a Big 12 game since Nov. 8, 2014.

Strong is 16-20 at Texas, and for all the recruiting success and the base of young talent he’s built for the future, the team continues to fail at the little things that mostly reflect on the quality of coaching. Penalties. Footwork. Special teams. Concentration.

But the good news is, nobody will be able to say Strong was treated unfairly here. He will walk away with a lot of money and perhaps an opportunity down the road to resurrect his head coaching career elsewhere.

It just didn’t work out, from an inconsistent offensive philosophy to a defense that regressed every year to squandering the historically significant production of running back D’Onta Foreman.

As shocking as it is that Texas actually lost to Kansas, there is no more argument to be made for keeping Strong. He made it easy for the Longhorn power brokers on Saturday. And in the end, maybe everyone should be thankful for that.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM WEEK 12