UMxWolverines

July 24th, 2015 at 12:47 AM ^

Mack= great recruiter...not very good game day coach.

When you only win the Big XII twice in 15 years at Texas you're doing something wrong. Charlie will prove to be a better coach.

Space Coyote

July 24th, 2015 at 10:11 AM ^

First, People don't remember just how bad Texas was when Mack took over. The storied program wen 4-7 the year prior to him being there (1997), and the five years prior to him arriving saw them average 5 losses a year. They weren't awful, but for that program, they might as well have been.

Brown took over and immediately went 9-3. But the Big 12 had a couple other power houses too in Nebraska (early) and Oklahoma (throughout). Brown won the South his 2nd year, and would go on to win his division 6 times in his 16 seasons, and at one point won 6 or 12 seasons. Of course he had a conference title game that he only won twice, but still.

He won at least 9 games his first 12 seasons at Texas, after winning 10 games in back-to-back years at UNC. He won at least 10 games in 9 straight seasons, that's almost a full decade with 10+ wins every year. He only lost more than 2 conference games once in his first 12 seasons. He won a national title and was a Colt McCoy injury away from probably winning a second against Alabama.

Brown was a good recruiter (he was at Texas, that part isn't the difficult part), but he was also a good game day coach. He switched offenses drastically from early in his career with Ricky Williams, to the one that Vince Young ran, to the one that Colt McCoy ran.

Brown's issues were probably somewhat similar to Hoke's, in that the atmosphere around the program started to degrade. But then Brown had the opposite problem as Hoke, he basically had a whirlwind of coaches coming and going, absolutely no consistency, the schemes constantly changing. This lead to (similar to Hoke) a lack of player development, and the downfall of his program.

ghostofhoke

July 24th, 2015 at 1:27 AM ^

What is there to read with regards to the book? Saban had absolutely no interest in Texas beyond his agent getting him yet another raise at Bama. After the 2011 tornadoes he has never had a serious thought about leaving Tuscaloosa and that is a fact from some people very, very close to him and the program.




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BlueinLansing

July 24th, 2015 at 7:47 AM ^

has always had an inflated opinion of itself.  They dominated the old Southwestern Conference because who was their competition.  Arkansas, TAM, TT, TCU, SMU, Rice, Houston, Baylor.   What would they get out of that, 1 top 20 matchup per year?

When they combined with the Big 8 and had to compete with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Colorado(at the tail end of the McCartny and Barnett years), Nebraska and Bill Snyder's KSU they simply were just another good program in a much tougher conference, and that still holds true.

DoubleB

July 24th, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^

Texas probably does less with more than any other major program in the history of college football. They are in the middle of a recruiting hotbed at the flagship institution of the state in a great city/town. They should be some combination of Oklahoma and Alabama and the reality is that they've only had one real golden era: the Royal years from about 1961-73.

YaterSalad

July 24th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^

Wow. Is that some revisionist history or what?! I would argue they had a golden period in the 2000s - better than us actually. They won a national championship in 2005 with Vince Young. The year before that, 2004, they beat us in the Rose Bowl for a Top 5 ranking. 2008 they beat OSU in the Fiesta Bowl for Top 5 ranking. And in 2009 they played Bama for the National Championship. McCoy actually is the most successful QB in college football history with a 45-8 record.

DoubleB

July 24th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^

I'm not comparing them to Michigan!! Who cares if they were better than Michigan.

At what point, do you feel they were the best PROGRAM, not TEAM, in college football in the Mack Brown years? They weren't even the best program in their own conference in Mack Brown's golden era (04 to 09)--that would be Oklahoma!!

Again, with all the resources at their disposal, how have they not had a Miami type run in the 80s, FSU type run from late 80's to early 00's, USC type run in the early to mid 00's or a Bama run from 09 to now? 

Richard75

July 24th, 2015 at 12:22 PM ^

@BlueinLansing

That's a bit unfair to Texas. Much of college football used to be that way. The Big 8 was ruled by two teams; the Big Ten of course was the same way. The SEC was more balanced but Florida and LSU were nowhere near the programs they later became. The sport was massively tilted toward a few great programs because of the scholarship and TV landscape.

Also, if you look at U-M and OSU's record against top-20 competition during the Bo-vs.-Woody years, you'd see that the same criticisms could be made of us.




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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

July 24th, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^

How did we get this far into the discussion and not mention the impact of Dave Brandon Junior on this whole thing?  Sounds to me like Saban to Texas could've been done quite easily until Patterson pissed off his agent.