The reason UT fails to become national champs...Mack Brown, of course!

I agree with alot of what you say. UT could have had Stoops before he was at OU. I like Mack, it's hard to hate a guy like him, but I just don't know if he has it in him to win it all. Ideally, I'd like for UT to win one with him, but I'm not sure that could happen.

I think UT would have won another MNC if Stoops had been here. JMO.

 

Seriously. Who was Texas gonna get better than Mack Brown besides Bob Stoops.

 

From an OSU Perspective (Hindsight of Cooper, new perspective with Tressel):

-Many (I would say most but I know I would get shot down) coaches could recruit at OSU or Texas. It's very easy to get a top 10 class every year when you coach for a top university, stay off probation, and win on a consistent basis (maybe not win National Championship but good enough to win 10 games a year and be on TV quite a bit).
-Cooper was known as a better recruiter than coach/motivator. He pulled alot of top prospects not only from Ohio but from across the nation (David Boston from Texas for example). Plus for a while in the 90's OSU had as many players (or more) than anyone going in the 1st round (Pace, Stringer, Eddie George, Glenn, Galloway, Boston, Katzenmoyer, Springs, etc)
-Cooper wore out his welcome pretty quickly at OSU at least with the fans. The University and reporters in town took the stance about how can you dislike someone who wins 10 games every year? Funny thing was as soon as he was canned the administration and reporters sided with the fans and said he could not win Big Games (Michigan and Bowl games). Cooper was a really nice guy and had a lot of loyal supporters within OSU and the media.
-In came Tressel who surprised most fans (I had 2 friends play for him at YSU in college so I knew he was a quality Coach just didn't think he was this good). Many fans heard the rumors of Stoops leaving Oklahoma, Gruden coming to OSU, Walt Harris returning from Pitt or Chris Spielman coming out of no where to be the coach, so "Only getting a 1-AA coach" was a hard sell, well right up tot eh point that they introduced him at the OSU-Michigan basketball game and he said in 310 days (when we played Michigan next) that the fans would be proud of our team. Suddenly as re-born.

Here was the biggest differences between Cooper and Tressel:
1. Cooper recruited the best players possible and adjusted his systems around them.
2. Tressel has a system that he recruits the best players for the system.

-Tressel still has had great recruiting classes (just because when you recruit for OSU, like Texas) you usually don't have to go very far down the list of prospects at a position to find someone interested
-One example is Cooper recruited large, often over weight linemen. You know the guys who are 6'4 and 330 pounds as HS seniors, and end up being 6'5/360 pounds (which is fine if they move like an Orlando Pace but more often you get someone who is too large to do much). Tressel will take a big 6'4 300 guy who can run (Like Rob Simms who is playing LT this year), but more often he takes a 6'5/240 HS senior who plays DE/TE, gets him in the workout program and nutrition program, redshirts him, and hopefully he ends up with a 6'6/280 athlete a couple years later. This years O-line is the same as last years but all 4 seniors were told to lose weight. This years O-line (the 4 seniors) all lost between 15-45 pounds (Adrain Clarke who was so fat last year went from 380 to 335). This year our O-line will be doing much more pulling (per the coaches), should be faster, and hopefully will not run out of gas so early. Meanwhile our under classmen on the O-line are growing. Nick Mangold who played last year at C was only 265 pounds (which is small for a big time D1 player, gained 10 pounds since last year)

I would never wish bad for any coach. But Texas has lots of talent. If you could get a better coach/motivator I think you could still have tons of talent and possibly a better record. But that's just my $.02

 

mduke-
My post was long but in one part I mentioned how OSU fans were disappointed that we only got a "1-AA coach". Many of us wanted the big name (Stoops, Gruden for example) but a nobody (Tressel) did a pretty nice job for us

 

I am split on this issue right down the middle.

Part of me says look at where UT was the year before Brown got there. Getting smoked on their home field by UCLA 66-3 on the way to a 4-7 season. Throw a loss to Baylor in there as well. This was Ricky Williams junior season! Since Mack arrived, UT has had three 9-win seasons and two 11-win seasons. UT finished in the top 6 the last 2 years. Does that get a coach fired?

On the other hand, the last five seasons have had some devestating losses. NCState and Stanford come to mind. A 3-game losing streak to OU doesn't go over too well in Austin (duh!). 63-14 was one of the darkest days in UT football history and IMO UT still hasn't gotten over that game. Then the Big 12 Championship game against Colorado (should have won) and the loss to Texas Tech last year. Winning either one of those games would have put UT in a BCS bowl and beating Colorado would most likely put UT in the national championship game. The million dollar question is would UT have even been in that position without Mack Brown?

Personally, I think another loss to OU will put Mack Brown in the hot seat. That will be the game of the year and IMO the winner will run the table and play for the national championship.

 

As I said, I like Mack. Nice guy, great representative, blah , blah. But, don't think the big dollar alumni will stand for another two or 3 losses against OU. I don't think a loss this year will put him in the hot seat yet, but if they lose in 2004 as well, watch out.

Also, if he has two straight seasons of less than 9 wins, I think he's in trouble.

The question is, who would want a job where the expectations are so high that you could be fired for 9 win seasons? Tressel was one obviously. The money, location and prestige makes it a top 5-7 job in the country. Some say it's in the top 3 along with Notre Dame.

I think a guy like Belotti would do very well here, provided he gets a solid DC. Recruiting at Texas would be easier than recruiting at Oregon.

 

I think UT should fire Mack Brown and HOUSTON should hire him!!!
Yes, that's the ticket!

GO COUGS!!!!!!













(yes, I'm bitter... )

 

I have a policy on Mack Brown.

I always agree with anything bad said about him. I don't even have to read it.

He's terrible. He sucks donkey balls.



No, strike that. He sucks Reville's balls.




and I say that as a loyal Longhorn

 

Both UT and OSU had terrific secondaries last year, but for the record UT's front 7 was not close to being as good as OSU's (OSU had like 6 really good DLs plus faster, stronger LBs). You would have to go back to the early 80's I think to find a completely dominating UT defense that macthes OSU's from last year.

I do agree with the major premise however that you replace the coaches with these 2 teams and UT would have had a NC in the last 3 years. Tressell prepares wonderfully, plus on game day he just inspires confidence and plays to win--got to really admire that.

I am not sold on Mack as a long term fixture--but he has at least 2-3 years more to knock on the NC door before considering replacing him. He reminds me a lot of Cooper I agree--terrific recruiter, but very stubborn to the point of repeating mistakes, stuck against the key rival, and whose team always seems worse than the sum of their parts on gameday.

 

Problem is they cant beat *cough* Texas Tech *cough* every year......

Gotta be a bummer huh?

 

part of me hates mack for the "we ran out of time" "it was the wind" things he does, but damn, firing the guy in year 6 after what he's done? are you F-ing crazy! he takes a 4-7 team and wins 49 games over 5 years and brings in a top 5 recruiting class almost every year (and the best one year). mack's main problem is that his offensive coordinator is a moron and his 2nd biggest problem is he is friends with said coordinator. let mack be like bobby bowden. always bringing in the hosses and letting smart coordinators do their thing with said hosses. if mack were to ever fire GD (his initials are perfect for him) and replace him with a smart person, one season later people would be loving mack. you don't fire the guy who turned things around and gives you the talent to win it all every single year.

UT went 17 years w/o even being top 10 and yet have been top 6 twice and 11th one other year in mack's 5 years. the blowU losses piss me off a lot (especially since they've lost every year i've been here) but you don't fire mack brown and certainly don't say **** like 5 years is enough time and he's worn out his welcome.

 

I don't know. I remember the guy before him putting this up (according to his bio):

At UT he improved the Longhorn’s graduation rate to as high as 86 percent while also forming the foundation for the Longhorns’ return to a winning tradition. In 1992, his first season as the head coach, he posted a 6-5 record, ending a skid of four losing seasons in six years for UT. He followed that up with a 5-5-1 record in 1993, and UT’s 8-4 mark in 1994 earned the ‘Horns a share of the Southwest Conference title and a berth in the Sun Bowl against 19th-ranked North Carolina. A 35-31 victory over the Tar Heels in El Paso marked Texas’ first bowl victory since 1987.

In 1995 Texas won the last Southwest Conference title with a perfect 7-0 record, finishing with a berth in the Sugar Bowl and a final 10-2-1 record. In 1996, Mackovic led the Longhorns to the first Big 12 title with a 37-27 victory over No. 3 Nebraska in the Inaugural Big 12 Championship Game. One highlight in the contest – which became one of UT’s historical ‘Great Game’ moments, was a call on 4th-and-inches late in the game, when UT used a short-yardage alignment to toss a 61-yard pass play to seal the game late in the fourth-quarter. The ‘Horns went on to a Fiesta Bowl appearance and finished 8-5.

He was named the Southwest Conference Coach of the Year in 1995 and garnered Big XII Coach of the Year honors in 1996 by the Austin American-Statesman. Football Quarterly tabbed him as a National Coach of the Year finalist in 1995. He finished with an impressive overall record of 41-28-2 (.592) at Texas.

Even before the 4-7 season that finally ended Mackovic's career at Texas, people were calling for his head because he couldn't get the team to the next level.

Now Mack Brown has taken what Mackovic had and taken it to that next level, but the team is still not completely there yet. It could be that a coaching change is what it's going to take to take the program that's been built to the National Championship stage.

Or maybe he can do it. It's not like it's easy to win National Championships.

 

Mack Brown

Great recruiter
Average gameday coach

I dont think he has "it" to be able to win MNC
He might be another version of Cooper in OSU

 

Major Applewhite.... I'm kidding now but I'm willing to bet he becomes the Longhorns coach somewhere down the road.

 

Don't mess with Mack

 

Mack Brown is the worse coach and best recruiter in college football. He needs to get some decent assistant coaches and get out of their way. I would love to have Opiewhite as the offensive coordinator. Anything is better than Greg Davis.

 

Funny, I always thought it was because UT keeps getting their asses kicked by Oklahoma.