A much-scrutinized visit to Tulsa was a good thing for Charlie Strong

Charlie Strong and Sterlin Gilbert laugh now about how Texas president Greg Fenves and athletic director Mike Perrin flew with Strong to Tulsa last December to meet with Gilbert. And how it became something less than a clandestine visit.

When the Texas group arrived at Gilbert’s home, Strong said he felt like he was being watched — and Gilbert pointed out a camera crew down the street. That meant a highly uncommon involvement by a school’s higher-ups in attempting to hire an assistant coach played out in public.

It was exactly what it looked like.

“When you’re looking to go hire a coach and you say the seat is hot, he’s sitting there going, ‘I don’t know now,’ ” Strong says. “But with (Fenves and Perrin) showing their support it was like, ‘OK, they are behind him.’ ”

Gilbert says it was flattering — “You look up and the president, athletic director and coach Strong are sitting in your house” — but says he saw it simply as a sign of their “commitment.”

“That’s really what it was about,” he says. “Those guys are committed to the program.”

Gilbert brought along offensive line coach Mike Mattox from Tulsa (both received three-year contracts). And even the unintentional publicity from that unusual visit might even have been beneficial.

“It wasn’t bad,” Strong says, “because you saw two people saying, ‘Hey, we’re right here with him.’ ”

And it’s only one instance, according to Strong, of an increased level of support he feels from the Texas administration — and especially from Perrin, who replaced the unpopular Steve Patterson on an interim basis last September, then signed on at least through the 2017-18 school year.

“He has given me everything I’ve asked for,” says Strong of Perrin. “We have a great relationship. It just comes down to putting it together. Getting a staff together, putting a product on the field that is competitive.”