Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad, one of the great all time television shows, is coming to a climactic perhaps apocalyptic conclusion with only two episodes remaining.  Coincidentally, Saturday night, Mack Brown and his Texas Longhorns may be closing in on the conclusion to their own Breaking Bad saga which started three years ago.

For those of you who have not been watching Breaking Bad the television show. First of all, “what’s wrong with you?” Anyway, here’s the premise of the show. Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher living in Albuquerque with his wife and 16-year-old son who has cerebral palsy. In the first episode, Walter is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Walter is living on the edge financially. Knowing that he has cancer forces him to worry about not being able to provide for his family after he’s gone.

Shortly after his diagnosis, Walter goes on a “ride along” with his DEA brother-in-law, who is busting a small-time methamphetamine operation housed in a suburban home. During the bust, Walter sees one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman, eluding the DEA by escaping through an upstairs window. Seeing that Jesse is involved in the meth business, Walt has an inspiration that he could use his expertise in chemistry to go into the meth business in partnership with Jesse. Walt then could use the proceeds of his drug business to finance his cancer treatments and provide for his family.  

Walter White, the law-abiding high school teacher and family man, breaks the “average Joe” course of his life by becoming a drug dealer. Walter is breaking bad.

Mack Brown and UT football broke bad in September 2010 after being diagnosed with a bad football team. Like Walt’s cancer, bad football had been growing undiagnosed inside the Texas program for at least a year before the symptoms (losing) appeared.

Walter White and Jesse Pinkman encounter all kinds of pitfalls and perils in the drug business, providing plenty of well-drawn drama and often some very dark humor for the television audience.

Mack Brown has encountered his own perils and pitfalls trying to “fix” his broken football team. First, he fired his bestest buddy and offensive coordinator, Greg Davis, after the 2010 season. Then, his defensive coordinator and Texas’ designated “coach in waiting” Will Muschamp, left to become the Florida head coach. Brown hired Bryan Harsin to replace Davis, and then Harsin left after only two seasons. Brown hired Manny Diaz to replace Muschamp. In the midst of all these staff changes Mack Brown’s Longhorns continued performing poorly, going 8-5 in 2011 and 9-4 in 2012.

One of the most epic episodes of Mack’s breaking bad aired on October 13, 2012, when Texas lost to its most important rival, Oklahoma, 63-21. This blowout loss was the breaking point for a great many of Brown’s most loyal fans and supporters. After the loss, Brown publicly claimed responsibility, yada, yada, yada, and promised to “fix” the team. The episode ended with a defiant Mack Brown, in the press conference after Texas had defeated Baylor the week after the Oklahoma game, claiming he still had the support of the big money donors, and calling out the critical Texas fans calling as negative people and the kind of people that you don’t want around in your family or your business. The audience was left wondering whether Brown realized he had just called out about 75 percent of the Texas fan base.

In the most recent episode of Mack’s breaking bad, Mack fired Texas’ defensive coordinator Diaz after Texas’ second game of the season against BYU.  This was a very dramatic episode, because coaching staff terminations in mid-season are very rare.

This week’s episode will pick up after Texas’ loss to Ole Miss. The defense, under new defensive coordinator Greg Robinson, a character re-appearing after a long hiatus from the show, performed almost as badly as they had against BYU.  As if a train wreck of a Texas defense and a two-game losing streak weren’t enough to keep fans glued to their televisions, another layer of drama has been added to the show. Yesterday, the Associated Press published a story about a UT regent and a former regent Tom Hicks having a telephone conversation with Nick Saban’s agent in January of this year about Saban replacing Mack Brown. The story also reported that a couple of days after the conversation Hicks told Mack Brown over lunch about the conversation. Brown was furious and went running to Deloss Dodds and his high-powered lawyer and UT benefactor, Joe Jamail. When contacted by the AP, Jamail threatened to sue anyone outside UT who pressured Brown to resign. Phew! I don’t know about you, but I know what I will be doing Saturday and Sunday night.

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Kansas State is not a good football team. I think Texas will win this game and the Iowa State game to start Big 12 Conference play 2-0.  This will be the remission before the death knell.

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