| | | |
 Friday, December 13, 2002
Q&A with Mack Brown
By Terry Bowden
Special to BCSfootball.com
Bowden's Weekly Chat Show
ABC college football analyst Terry Bowden chatted with Texas football coach Mack Brown to talk about the Longhorns' expectations, the Chris Simms-Major Applewhite controversy and the Red River Shootout.
Terry Bowden:
I've picked Texas and Nebraska as my preseason favorites to play in the Big 12 Championship Game. I just as easily could have picked Oklahoma and Kansas State. Talk about how good the Big 12 is right now.
Mack Brown:
|  | | Mack Brown has won nine games each year during his tenure at Texas. |
When we got here three years ago, there were a lot of concerns with people that the Southwest Conference and the Big 8 were not meshing like it should. There was a lot of jealousy. There was the north against the south. You still had the natural rivalries between OU and Texas, and Nebraska and OU, but it wasn't like the conference had any pride like the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten. Obviously, it was very new.
We felt like that over the last two years, things have really changed. There's a lot of pride. There's a lot more recognition nationally. Seven teams went to bowls last year. Like the SEC, there aren't any bad teams. Even Kevin Steele is getting Baylor turned around, and everybody else in the league has a chance to beat you when you play. So you better get ready to play each week. That's why it was so amazing last year to see Oklahoma run the table with the schedule it had. And they were really good.
Terry Bowden:
The Big 12 looks to have more teams capable of playing in the national championship than any other conference. Texas is being picked in the top 5 in nearly every preseason publication. How has that added to the excitement, the pressure or both?
Mack Brown:
I didn't know how to handle it last year. Your dad handles it every year. And he's embraced it. Your dad has put everybody in a position where we want to be -- and that's finish in the top four or five every year. That gives you a chance to win the national championship.
Last year, I didn't feel we deserved the (high preseason) rating, so I talked a lot about that we are a top 15 team, not a top 3, 4 or 5 team. We played very poorly for five weeks because I thought we played in defense of what someone had handed us instead of trying to be good. This year will be different because we are a better team than we were last year at this time.
We fight our whole life to get to a job like this. So some days, you look up, and wonder, "Is this what I really wish for?" But really and truly, every coach wants to have a job where he has a chance to win it all. And that's what this is. And with that job comes expectations.
We have looked back at last year, and we talked to our team about it that we really appreciate that we are getting the national respect again with people thinking that we should be a top 5 team. We understand that in the preseason, those ratings are handed to you. In the postseason, you deserve them.
Terry Bowden:
With quarterbacks getting injured so much last year, it looks like last year's quarterback controversy (with Chris Simms and Major Applewhite) has become this year's deepest quarterback situation in America. Talk about that situation and how it has evolved.
Mack Brown:
You and I talked about it last year at this time. Major wasn't really healthy enough to carry the load, and Chris was inexperienced. So we started the young, talented guy and let the experienced, talented guy come off the bench because we didn't know what the young guy would do if he got into a bind coming off the bench. Then we didn't play very well and it became a focal point of our team instead of talking about team.
So after Oklahoma, we changed and went with one. Major plays well for four weeks, then gets hurt. Chris comes in and finishes like gangbusters. We do feel that both are getting along. The controversy is over. Major will win games for us this year. Right now, Chris is going to start, and we feel he is ready to play as well as anybody in the country. And then we have a Parade All-American who we redshirted that's sitting on the bench and needs some playing time. So we feel that is the strength of our football team.
Terry Bowden:
|  | | Chris Simms enters the 2001 season as Texas' starting QB. |
We had Major Applewhite at our Bowden Academy football camp. He was one of the all-time favorites. He was there for several years. He had perfect footwork and the perfect attitude. But Chris Simms has some special attributes. Talk about his tangibles and his intangibles.
Mack Brown:
Major and Chris both are special. Major is going to coach, which you realize being around him. And I told him I am going to treat him nice because one of these days, I might be working for him. I need to make sure he understands what we are trying to get done.
Chris is 6-5, 225 pounds. He probably runs 4.7, and he has a great arm. He's learning to look at the field. He's learning to go to the second and third receiver. And like Major, he has great leadership abilities.
Terry Bowden:
And they are going to be throwing to some outstanding receivers. But let's talk about your running backs. You lost Hodges Mitchell. How do you replace him? What's in your forecast for the running back position?
Mack Brown:
Over our three years, 99 percent of the carries have been Ricky Williams and Hodges Mitchell, so that's a big question mark for us. We have five talented guys at the position. None of them have stepped up and taken the job. We do feel that someone is going to. It's been interesting to talk to them about their workouts so far this summer. Each one of them has the desire to step it up, but that is the biggest question mark we have on offense. Everything else is in place. A tailback has to step up.
Terry Bowden:
Defenses win championships. Last year, there were only three teams that were in the top 20 both offensively and defensively -- Oklahoma, Florida State and Texas. You had a very good defense. Can it be better this year?
Mack Brown:
We can be better. The two defensive tackles that were drafted (Casey Hampton and Shaun Rogers) in the first and second round are gone, but just about everybody else is back. That's the area where we are thin, but we have moved some safeties to linebacker and some linebackers to ends. We have more team speed. We have been hurt with misdirection some with our man coverage, and we were hurt some last year by off-schedule plays. So we have tried to increase the speed across the board on defense. We do feel that this should be the best defense that we have had since we've been at Texas.
Terry Bowden:
There's been a lot of talk about cornerback Quentin Jammer, and he is on all the lists for the Jim Thorpe Award. You have a good secondary, but he is the one that is being mentioned the most. Tell us a little bit about Quentin.
Mack Brown:
Quentin is the guy we put on everybody's best receiver last year, and he basically shut them all out. He's over 6-foot as a corner with really long arms. He's a great man-to-man player. He gives us at Texas what Dre' Bly gave us at North Carolina. If you can take their best one away, you can work some schemes on the other guys. If Quentin has the great year we think he can, he can be a No. 1 draft choice at corner.
Terry Bowden:
Florida State lost defensive end DeVaughn Darling to a tragic death during offseason workouts. Texas lost Cole Pittman in a traffic accident the very same day. How have your players handled that?
|
“ |
Two years ago, we needed a police escort to get the bus to the dressing room. And they make an announcement before the game that pregnant ladies should not come to this game because there could be some pushing and shoving.
” |
|
|
— Mack Brown on the Red River Shootout |
Mack Brown:
Everybody has handled it really well. It's the hardest day that I have had as a coach. Your dad lost DeVaughn in the morning. In the afternoon, we lost Cole. DeVaughn, being from Houston, that was really an emotional day for me because we obviously knew about the Darling twins, and thinking about those parents. We stayed very close to Marc and Judy Pittman. We called them on Father's Day.
As hard as the tragedy was for all of us to handle, it has made our team a lot closer because everybody knows how fragile life is, and everybody knows what Cole meant to this football team. I thought we had a much tougher and better and more aggressive spring training. A lot of it is attributed to Cole and his tragedy probably trained his life.
Terry Bowden:
I had a player walking off the practice field in 1987. However, time always seems to heal everything, but it sure is tough on the young guys.
I have had a chance to coach between the Hedges, in The Swamp and in the Iron Bowl. This year, a lot of people feel that the Red River Shootout in Dallas will have a lot to do with who makes it to the national championship game in the Rose Bowl. How special is that game to the states of Texas and Oklahoma?
Mack Brown:
Probably other than Georgia-Florida, being at a neutral site. I know when Alabama-Auburn was in Birmingham. But Alabama-Auburn was in-state. When you cross that state line, a lot of people who grew up on each side of the river don't like that other group.
I can remember when I coached at OU in '84 that they used to keep score at the hospitals of how many came in injured from Texas and how many came in injured from Oklahoma. Two years ago, we needed a police escort to get the bus to the dressing room. And they make an announcement before the game that pregnant ladies should not come to this game because there could be some pushing and shoving. And when you have 50 percent in burnt orange and 50 percent in crimson, and some of them have to sit next to each other, there are usually fights along the 50-yard line up.
The game used to be for 1 and 2 in so many cases. The game lost that magic across the country. They never lose it in Texas and Oklahoma, but it lost the national magic. This year, we will see that back.
Terry Bowden:
It is important to college football that teams like Notre Dame, USC, Texas and Oklahoma return to their elite positions. Their traditions add so much to the sport. What you and Bob Stoops have done at Texas and Oklahoma has a lot to do with the resurgence of the old powerhouses. The expectations have increased tremendously at Texas over the last three years, haven't they?
Mack Brown:
They really have. I think it's great for us. We sold 53,000 season tickets last year. We sold out every game except for the first two since we have been here. We sold 66 luxury suites. People are excited about their football in Austin again.
You won too many games early, and people said the same thing about me this year. But you won games the right way at Auburn, and we won the right way at Texas. What fans don't understand is that a coach better win every game that he can. We're not worried about winning too many. We need to win three more to win a national championship, and that's what we are trying to do.
| | | |
|
|
