Texas Football: 5 worst coaching hires in Longhorn history

Every team has had their run, or individual coaches sporadically over time that have brought their program down, and the Texas Longhorns are no different. Most recently, since the exit of Mack Brown, the Longhorns had fallen on some hard times themselves before the emergence of the program as a national contender this past season in more than a decade with head coach Steve Sarkisian in seat.

Previous to Sarkisian, and then previous to Brown, the Longhorns have had their share of poor coaches throughout their history.

Who are the worst Texas Longhorn football coaches of all time?

5. Edward Stewart (1923-1926)

Stewart coached the Longhorns for four seasons beginning 100 years ago. After his first season of 8-0 in 1923, the Horns regressed all the way to a 5-4 record by 1926.

In addition to running the football team, Stewart was also the basketball coach of the Longhorns and led them to a perfect 23-0 in the 1923 season. Subsequent seasons on the hardwood however saw Stewart’s teams with 17-8, 12-10 and 13-9 records.

Many believe the decline in performance of the football and basketball teams was due to Stewart’s non-athletic interests.

4. Edwin Price (1951-1956)

Price had a career record of 33-27 for the Longhorns in six seasons with the school. After going 23-8 in his first three seasons however, the Longhorns would see a drop off to a combined 10-19 over Price’s final three seasons. In 1956, Price went 1-9 which was the final straw and led to his resignation in 1956.

3. David McWilliams (1987-1991)

McWilliams is the only coach on this list with a 10 win season. Albeit the era in which he coached the Longhorns played more games each year, but nonetheless he has that accolade. Aside from a 10-2 mark in 1990 however, McWilliams’ record in the other four years combined would be 21-24, which is not good enough for the Longhorns.1991 would be McWilliams’ last season where he went 5-6.

2. Charlie Strong (2014-2016)

Strong never had a season with a .500 winning percentage during his three years in Austin besides his final one in 2016, but the team would only go 7-6 that year. And this is far below expectations for the Longhorns. Strong followed Longhorn coaching legend Mack Brown who had not had a 10 win season himself before Strong arrived since 2009. However, Brown did leave the Longhorns program in a relatively good place. Strong did nothing to improve that, which led to his firing in 2016.

1. Jack Chevigny (1934-1936)

13-14 was Chevigny’s record in three seasons as head coach of the Longhorns, with his best season coming in 1934 when the Longhorns went 7-2. It was downhill from there however as by 1936, The Longhorns had gone 6-12 in the two seasons following.

The regression of the program caused Chevigny to resign in 1937. He was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the state of Texas from there.