There are some who would say I am not in a position to write this, I will argue that I am. I have been a Texas Longhorn fan for most of my adult life. I bleed orange and this has never wavered even when having a losing season. With that being said, there is a lot of talk that it might be time to replace Mack Brown as head coach of the Texas Longhorns. I have very torn feelings about this, when I look at a picture of Mack I see the Longhorns. Very much like most Cowboy fans can still see Tom Landry I am sure.
Mack has been a long time coach starting his career in 1973 coaching as a student coach for Florida State. The early part of his career was as a wide receiver coach at Southern Miss , Memphis State, and then Iowa state before heading to LSU. His first head coaching job was at Appalachian State in 1983. He was there a year with an improvement to the team before heading to the Sooners in 1984 under Barry Switzer. He then moved to Tulane in 1985 and became the school’s Athletic Director. He led Tulane to the first bowl win in over 40 years playing out at the Independence Bowl.
In 1988 he was named the head coach of North Carolina where in 1992 he had a fantastic season ending in a victory at the Peach Bowl. On December 5, 1997 he was recruited to Texas for the start of what has been arguably a very successful career. He has after-all been the coach who has 9 consecutive 10 wins seasons. So why would anyone even begin to suspect it might be time for him to move over? We Texas fans are used to winning and having amazing recruits when we lose players. Yes we are aware that we cannot always win and I think for the most part we have handled the last few seasons fairly well. I personally don’t think Mack is ready to leave, I think like all things he may be in a rut but I do think it is one that he is trying to get himself and the team out of. He is a smart man and has been around this game a time or two. His mid-season replacement of Manny Diaz seemed harsh to me but at the same time this is his team and if a change was called for then Mack would be the person that knew that. I might argue that this change was a knee jerk reaction to criticism that he has lost his touch as a coach. Greg Robinson seemed to help them have a slightly better game this last week where we saw the Longhorn’s take their first conference game with a win over Kansas State 31-21. How will they fare with heavy hitting opponents like OU, Tech and Baylor remains to be seen but in this Longhorn’s opinion my loyalties are dyed in Orange not Brown. I think there is life left in this football team. If it is in fact time for Mack to leave he will know this and one would hope he will want to see what is the best for the team. There are a lot of names being tossed around right now for replacements, Saban, Briles, Peterson but I would like to remind everyone that Mack Brown IS Texas Football and he wants to see us win as much if not more than anyone else. He has a lot vested in these boys and he knows what they are capable of. Let’s get our faith back in the Horns and the get this Texas team back where it needs to be! Hook Em Horns!
