Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong is expected to become the new Louisville coach today.

Strong will be leaving Gainesville and headed to Louisville today and will be announced at a press conference sometime this afternoon. He has also stated that he will return and coach Florida in the Sugar bowl game against Cincinnati on January 1.

“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Strong said. “I’m going into a great situation where I have a chance to build a program.”

As of right now, Strong said he has no plan to take anybody from the coaching staff with him to help build his football program. This will be the second coordinator in the last year to become a head coach. Offensive coordinator Dan Mullen became the head coach over at Mississippi State right after the 2008 SEC Championship game. Meyer said he was unsure whether Strong would stick to coaching throughout the bowl game since he would be taking a new head coaching spot. Mullen stayed on the coaching staff so he could help Florida through the BCS championship game last season.

Strong has been on this Gator staff for seven years and was definitely one of the top recruiters. Last week in the SEC championship game against Alabama, the Gators defense gave up 490 yards in the devastating 32-13 loss.

He started his career out at Florida back in 1983 when he was just a graduate assistant under Charley Pell’s staff. Then in 1999-2002 he was the defensive coordinator up at South Carolina under Lou Holtz.

It seems like Florida always has assistants leaving and being hired somewhere else. In 2007, coach Urban Meyer had to find a replacement for Doc Holliday when he left to become the West Virginia assistant coach.

We wish Charlie the best at Louisville.

(Quote gathered from Antonya English/Gator Report.)