OT: Source: Mack Brown Stepping Down (EDIT: Perhaps Not Happening)
High-level sources tell http://t.co/Pb827xg41z Mack Brown will step down as coach at Texas after 16 years.
— Chip Brown (@ChipBrownOB) December 10, 2013
MOD EDIT (LSA) - apparently, there is now this (which doesn't negate the potential for Brown leaving somehow, willingly or not)
RT @BFeldmanCBS: #Texas source tells CBS "Mack (Brown) hasn't had any meeting & has not told anyone he's stepping down."
— CBSSports.com (@CBSSports) December 10, 2013
December 10th, 2013 at 7:35 PM ^
Interesting, Art Briles is only a few years older than Hoke and you're speculating on him being too old.
December 10th, 2013 at 7:59 PM ^
Sure, it's borderline, but think about it this way - Hoke was hired at 52, and Briles would be hired at 58. That's a decent discrepancy. If you think a coach wants to retire in his mid 60s, that would mean Hoke would be able to stay here for 13ish years, but Briles would only have 7 under his belt at the same age. I don't know if DB would have been so excited about hiring Hoke at 58.
December 10th, 2013 at 4:38 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 2:37 PM ^
Saban leaves for Texas, brings his staff with him, Dantonio gets hired by Bama. Yeah, I know it's not gonna happen, but a man can dream, right?
December 10th, 2013 at 3:03 PM ^
The is not the best outcome becuase, ultimately, Dantonio's exit from EL leaves Narduzzi as the obvious replacement.
Best Case Scenario:
Saban heads to Texas, takes Professor Needs A Raise from Bama with him to Texas. Da'Shawn Hand repents his sins, commites to Michigan. Narduzzi hired at Bama, gets out of our hair. Dantonio retires to fulfill lifelong dream of being a door to door vacuum salesman (what, with his charm and all). Urban drowns his sorrows for losing B10 championship game to a vacuum salesman by aggresively pursuing various tail in Columbus. Gets caught, takes a break for the sake of his family.
BEST. CASE. SCENARIO.
December 10th, 2013 at 3:29 PM ^
"by aggressively pursuing various all-you-can-eat pizza locations and retires due to uncontrollable cholesterol levels..."
FIFY
December 10th, 2013 at 2:37 PM ^
You know whats crazy about saban? in the last 10 years auburn has 3 sec championships and bama only has 2. I think him not winning the championship with bama this year actually makes it less likely he leaves. My guess is sumlin or briles. No amount of money is going to stop the texas boosters, its just going to be whether the coach wants to do it.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^
He just signed a big extension w/ A&M.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:51 PM ^
Reportedly agreed but not actually signed yet, but why does that matter anyway? coaches leave schools all the time with years left on their contract and texas isn't going to care about a buy out claus, that athletic department is practically a mint and they have unbeleviably loaded boosters.
Edit: not saying it will happen just that it will be sumlins call if they ask, the extension won't matter at all to texas. Malzahn, shaw, and meyer will also all get mentioned. Texas is just on another level financially, no school can match what they can if they really want to.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:54 PM ^
I think in my dream life I would be a Texas football booster. Live in a mansion paid for with oil money and care so blindly for UT football that I would write a blank check to my athletic department to help fund the hiring of the best football coach money can procure. And then go drink whiskey by my pool with my smoking hot wife.
December 10th, 2013 at 3:05 PM ^
THIS.
December 10th, 2013 at 3:07 PM ^
Plus you can wear a cowboy hat everywhere you go and nobody will make fun of you!
December 10th, 2013 at 3:20 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 3:33 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 3:33 PM ^
Pickens = Oklahoma (St.). This guy wants to be a TEXAN!
December 10th, 2013 at 4:07 PM ^
Couldn't you do all this and just substitute Michigan for Texas? Presumably that would be more of a dream given that you posted it on this blog.
December 10th, 2013 at 4:20 PM ^
It'd have to be "last name Ford or Ilitch or Meijer" or something like that.
December 10th, 2013 at 7:33 PM ^
Or Ross, he of the recent $200M giveaway (half of it to athletics).
December 10th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^
I had assumed in-state was part of the image, and Miami is kind of a world away from Ann Arbor.
December 10th, 2013 at 8:01 PM ^
DeVos or Van Andel would work. MSU has one of those guys, his name is Peter Secchia.
December 10th, 2013 at 8:12 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 3:41 PM ^
But Saban hasn't been there 10 years, so how many SEC titles does each school have since Saban arrived? /toolazytosearch
December 10th, 2013 at 4:26 PM ^
It's at least 2 to 2 since saban arrived, not sure when auburns third came versus when saban showed up.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^
Bama will not match every cent that Saban is payed by UT. There is no way he leaves. They even made a statue... wait, can Bama sell UT the statue?
December 10th, 2013 at 2:42 PM ^
I figure Nick would take the statue with him on the plane.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:47 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 2:59 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^
He had a good run but it's time to go. Defensively under Brown they're as good as you can get.
Offensively this program has been a mess for the better part of 10 years, but had six years between Vince Young and Colt McCoy keeping them above water.
They can't develop their linemen. All the talent in Texas and Mack Brown has had 1 running back break 1,000 yards since Cedric Benson left.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:42 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^
I think I made the same face as your avatar when I read that.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
Why not? They've already got GERG*... We're putting the band back together!
*Who is apparently an okay-ish defensive coordinator so long as his head coach is not demanding that he deploy a defense that he clearly does not understand.
December 10th, 2013 at 3:11 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 3:14 PM ^
He's back at WVU. Just landed a pretty good safety commit (Dravon Henry).
December 10th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^
AZ just got spanked badly by their instate rivals. Not exactly the resume enhancement that would play well in Austin.
Just my opinion, but I think RR rather thrives when his program is the underdog, not the one steeped in a winning tradition. If he were to coach in TX he would be a much better fit at almost every other school.
December 10th, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^
It would be funny if left RR left another good situation to rebuild a program with an impatient fanbase. What could go wrong?
December 11th, 2013 at 12:04 AM ^
Todd Graham is interesting... Texan as hell, ton of success.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^
And it begins.......
December 10th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^
I know Alabama will do what it can to keep Saban, but Texas is on a different plane financially and, frankly, it isn't a community or school that would balk at paying Saban whatever he wants. I think he stays at Alabama because I'm not sure Texas is anything other than a lateral move for him at this point, but the notion that Texas will be caught in a numbers trap doesn't seem right to me.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
The Longhorn Network probably puts Texas above just about anyone in the country financially.
December 10th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^
Texas doesn't regain national prominence, the Longhorn Network will become an Albatros. Saban, to me, always seems to be in search for a new challenge. What better challenge than to rebuild and return Texas to the national stage?
December 10th, 2013 at 3:11 PM ^
Does the Longhorn Network make money?
December 10th, 2013 at 3:32 PM ^
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2013/09/03/time-warner-cable-picks-up-longhorn-network-in-texas
Half of that apparently goes to athletics and half to academics...That's not as much money as I thought, and in fact, Big Ten schools apparently receive more than $7 million per year from the BTN (I'm not sure of the academics/athletics split of that money). So the Longhorn Network is not the difference-maker I thought it was.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/76205/big-tens-tv-revenue-keeps-climbing
December 10th, 2013 at 2:47 PM ^
I heard that Saban just bought a spaceship in Austin.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:51 PM ^
I think he went to Houston to get it and then had it moved on a flat bed.
/NASA'd
December 10th, 2013 at 4:03 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 2:55 PM ^
Piffle... I just heard that Saban bought Austin.
December 10th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^
December 10th, 2013 at 2:52 PM ^
Now that would set the tongues wagging...
December 10th, 2013 at 5:36 PM ^