When Urban Meyer put together the Jacksonville Jaguars’ staff, he brought several familiar faces from the collegiate game with him. Of course, Charlie Strong, who he named the second man in charge and interior linebackers coach, was one of them and a face that Jags fans not only recognized from Florida but from his time at the University of South Florida, too.
While those days are behind Strong, though, and his focus is on the professional game currently, it appears he’ll have an NCAA violation to deal with if he ever returned to college before the end of the 2022-23 academic period. On Friday, it was reported that USF received three years’ probation in addition to Strong (and other USF coaches) receiving NCAA penalties for having staffers participate in practice.
The Tampa Bay Times pointed to several specific events (that the staff was aware of) under Strong’s tenure that violated the NCAA’s rules. In 2018, there was one instance where a football staff member (who wasn’t authorized as an on-field assistant), aided with coaching the Bulls’ tight end group.
The following year, six other football personnel members who weren’t authorized to coach were also caught for similar actions. That group included a personnel member that led special team drills and film evaluations, three others who often participated on the scout team, and two who sporadically aided with coaching players during practice.
In addition to the aforementioned penalties, USF was also hit with a $10,000 fine in addition to 0.5% of the football and basketball program’s budget. They also will endure a reduction of the football program’s initial football scholarships (by two) for next season.
While none of these fines have anything to do with the NFL, fans will hope that none of these acts translate to the Jags. The reason for that is because the NFL’s fines are a lot more pricey for the organizations and coaches as Meyer witnessed in training camp.