Blog post about Mack Brown by one of his former players

Submitted by FrankMurphy on

One of Mack Brown's former players, O-lineman Chris Hall who played for the Longhorns 2005-2009, wrote a heartfelt tribute to Brown on his personal blog. It's a worthwhile read, particularly the part in which he talks about his recruiting visit:

http://chrishall.org/post/70188867939/mack-brown-my-coach-a-players-perspective

Mack Brown seems like a decent guy. There were never any scandals or rampant mischief under his watch at Texas, which is pretty remarkable since he was there for 16 years. Puts things in perspective a bit. I would rather have a coach who is a good man, wins consistently, and runs a clean program than one whose program contends for the national championship every single season but also consistently generates the wrong kind of headlines.

EDIT: It's also worth noting that under Brown, Texas had one of the most proactive and well-staffed compliance departments in the country. This article details some of the procedures they put their players through. Back when USC was hammered by the NCAA, I remember reading an article contrasting USC's "we had no way of knowing" excuse with one former Texas player's account of everything he had to go through with UT's compliance office just to get his car's brakes fixed.

Tater

December 16th, 2013 at 3:28 PM ^

Texas fans won't "wish Mack Brown were still around within a couple of years" because Texas is a great job and they will hire a great coach.  

Most of all, when they hire this great coach, Mack Brown won't hand out transfers to everyone or sabotage the team from within the UT AD offices.  Instead, he will handle the situation with class and help out the program in any way he can.  

With the full resources of UT behind an elite coach, they should continue to win a lot of games.  

Red is Blue

December 16th, 2013 at 8:16 PM ^

Counter prediction:  Texas will win the NCG within 3 years.  Look at the teams that have won the NCG starting with M in '97, many of them are teams that had a lot of talent who brought in a new coach.  Alabama's recent performance kinda disrupted this pattern, but Carr, Tressel, Coker, Stoops, Saban (LSU), Carrol, Meyer, Miles, Saban (Alabama) and Chizik all won the NCG by end of year 3.

This year it is either a first year or 4th year coach.

TruBluMich

December 16th, 2013 at 3:17 PM ^

When I read this I started to think is there anything that I just absolutley hate about Texas.  Well I hate that they have more top recruits inside 100 miles than we have in the entire state (may be an exaggeration).   I also hate thier two finger gang sign (joke).  I hate that Vince Young decided to make the Rose Bowl his personal playground in 2005 (no joke).  But, unlike other prgrams around the country like Ohio State, Alabama, USC, Oregon, The entire SEC and Notre Dame.  There is nothing I can say negative about the way they did things in Austin.  I really hope Texas fans understand that sometimes the alternative to a very successful coach can be worse, much worse!

FrankMurphy

December 16th, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^

See my comment above. Every single coach who has won or played for a national championship in the BCS era except Brown at Texas, Frank Beamer at VaTech, and Bob Stoops at Oklahoma has been involved in some kind of major scandal or presided over rampant mischief. I'm not sure it's possible to win a national championship in today's cutthroat environment without cutting ethical corners.

FrankMurphy

December 16th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^

Though Fulmer is definitely not the worst of the bunch, he presided over an ungodly number of player arrests at Tennessee. There's a reason why they call it the Fulmer Cup.

You may be right about Solich; I fogot about him. But as I recall, the consensus seems to be that Nebraska had no business playing in that game. Theirs was probably the most questionable NCG berth in the history of the BCS.

marco dane

December 16th, 2013 at 5:20 PM ^

Also,it was Tenn that turned Bama in (late 80's or early 90's)) too,which led the newly formed (S)urely (E)verybody (C)heats telling all its members...bring your *dirt* (of another school) to us first. Besides,making money & winning championships will make EVERYONE rich...no snitch rule works in the south.

Tuebor

December 16th, 2013 at 4:16 PM ^

The SEC has taken it to another level concerning cutting ethical corners and ESPN has become the official PR department for the SEC.  I mean the thought of putting a 1 loss Auburn team ahead of an undefeated OSU team is ridiculous.  Fortunately for SEC/ESPN MSU won and they had Auburn/Mizzou winner or Alabama waiting in line. 

 

Prediction.  SEC has 8 teams ranked in the preseason poll next year with an additional 2 receiving votes.

Everyone Murders

December 16th, 2013 at 5:34 PM ^

Coach Brown's statement after the Rose Bowl victory over USC confirms my positive opinion of his character:

“Don’t let this be the greatest thing that ever happened to you.”

To say this following one of the most exciting underdog victories in the history of college football, in the heat of the moment, shows a lot of wisdom and perspective.  If many athletes at all levels took that to heart, I think on average they'd have much happier lives.  Athletic success is great and admirable, especially (really only) if achieved in an honorable way.  Kids, marriage, truly helping people in bad straits - there are bigger things in life than sports, and it's wonderful that Mack Brown took that very moment to remind those young men of that. 

Check it out at about 5:10 of the video:

The Geek

December 16th, 2013 at 4:25 PM ^

I was serving onboard an Amphibious Assault Ship in San Diego, and we were in port for the 2000 Holiday Bowl between Texas and Oregon. This was a great Holiday Bowl, featuring Chris Simms and Joey Harrington dueling to a 35-30 Oregon victory. 

Anyway, as is the norm with these Bowl games, the players and coaches must go through a bunch of extracirricular bullshit prior to the game. Part of that bullshit was a lunch with both teams and coaches with about 150 Sailors from Oregon and Texas in the hangar bay. But the cooolest part, in my opinion was the battle of the bands onboard two destroyers across the pier (mostly percussion --- it was cool... Oregon has a really good band).

I was the Public Affairs Officer onboard the ship, so I was in on the coordination of all of this "stuff." Internally, I was really looking forward to meeting Oregon's coach Mike Bellotti during the lunch (I really wanted to see his awesome moustache in person). Although I did enjoy meeting Coach Bellotti, I really came away with a genuine and personal admiration for Coach Brown. He stayed way past his allotted time to talk to every Sailor from Texas, along with his/her family (including some small children). 

He came across as humble, genuine and extremely likeable. 

Okay,

/csb

trueblueintexas

December 16th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^

A couple comments:

1) This is a nice piece highlighting one persons expereince. Not to detract from Mack, but most coaches probably have a couple players a year who could tell a story like this.

2) Texas has it's share of corner cutting going on. They do a very good job (i.e. have a lot of money and influence) of keeping it from going public. This is direct from close sources.

3) The disenchantment with Mack comes from multiple issues: A) Mack does not like the Longhorn Network. Not a opopular opinion with certain rich people connected with the program B) An inferiority complex with Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and now Baylor. Ever since A&M moved to the SEC and beat Alabama with a Heisman QB and UT fans had another sub-standard year the fans have been insufferable. C) Missed QB recruits. It really starts and ends with Andrew Luck, but there have been others. D) Expectations. With 2 MNC appearances in a 3-4 year window, the last three years just haven't been acceptable. They lost at home to Iowa State! Imagine Carr's legacy if they had not turned it around after The Horror and Oregon.

 

Vote_Crisler_1937

December 16th, 2013 at 5:25 PM ^

From the compliance article:



1. How did you get your vehicle?

2. Who is making the payments?

They’re asked to provide paperwork to support their answers.



I don't know about other schools but at NU we had to answer those same questions as part of a thick questionnaire covering everything about benefits and gambling. I once mixed up two digits on my license plate when I wrote it down and was called in to the office and questioned about it. I got the sense this was standard compliance across the Big Ten. I believe Brown ran a very clean program at Texas. I also think there are some very clean programs in the BIG as well.

Don

December 17th, 2013 at 1:03 AM ^

You can't kill it, any more than you can kill all the other idiot theories floating around out there. There's a solidly reliable 25% of the population that will believe literally anything, regardless of how completely fucking crazy it is, as long as it supports what they want to believe in the first place.

no joke its hoke

December 16th, 2013 at 6:32 PM ^

mack brown ran a tight program and the right way but don't think Vince young was a part of it. that one player may have had to go thru a lot to get his brakes fixed but young didn't have that problem.

Mgodiscgolfer

December 16th, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^

to say that a win in the Rose Bowl shouldn't be the biggest achievement in their lives. I had no idea Mack Brown could have been a head coaching candidate I would love to have at UM. Then again I had no idea coach Hoke had the same qualities when he was named to replace RR. I really feel to sell your soul or suddenly get ethically challenged for any personal goals in life are no accomplishment at all. To run a clean program at UM is more important than beating OSU 9 out of 10 or winning the national title without any sanctions because we have done all four simultainiously,.Only schools  like Ohio, Auburn, Alabama, Oregon have to deal with the devil so they can beat their top rivals repeatedly and consistantly as well as be in the BCS talk every year. Cheating on your wife doesn't make you a stud it makes you a fool who is about to lose the things he should hold the closest to his heart.