Neil Sedaka and Art Garfunkel
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Mack Brown says he resigned voluntarily and perhaps he did. A more realistic story is that Bill Powers woke up in the pre-dawn hours on the Saturday morning after the football banquet with a horse head in his bed. Message received. A couple hours later Steve Patterson was dispatched to inform Mack Brown that he was resigning—voluntarily or not. 
I know next to nothing about the politics of UT academia but I’ll bet that Bill Powers will be resigning voluntarily in 2014. Just a hunch.
Mack Brown’s performance in the press conference announcing his resignation was one of the best I’ve ever seen by a public figure. It’s the only part of this story that has been handled well by UT and Brown. If it is ever confirmed that Brown is hard-ball negotiating for a bigger severance package his image will be greatly tarnished. It’s hard for me to believe that Brown isn’t receiving advice to not make his severance package an issue. Maybe he should get more than $500k per year until 2020 but that figure coupled with his $5.2M salary over the last four years will make him look greedy and call into question his sincerity about his mantra, “it’s about the kids.”
*******
One of the best things Mack Brown did as head coach at Texas was his successful lobbying to get Texas an at large bid to the 2005 Rose Bowl. That effort showcased Brown’s greatest skill and talent. I was never happier about Brown being our coach than I was at that time.
My favorite memory from the Mack Brown era—aside from everybody’s favorite memory, the NC in 2005—was from his first year at Texas. At the UT New Year’s Eve party in Dallas the night before the 1999 Cotton Bowl game with Mississippi State, Earl Campbell personally served champagne to Helen, me, and our friends. More on that story in a future “Life and Times of Willie Earl”chapter.
A close second—again the NC is off the table for this discussion—was the 2008 Oklahoma game. I’ve been to 35 Texas-Oklahoma games and the 2008 game ranks with 1977 Oklahoma game as the two best football games I’ve ever witnessed in person. Jordan Shipley’s kick-off return touchdown in the second quarter that kept Texas in the game at 14-10 and Chris Ogbonnaya’s 62-yard run to the OU two yard line setting up the clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter were electrifying moments.
All I Know
I’m not a reporter and I don’t have sources but I am convinced by conversations with two very connected and reliable people that Nick Saban would have been Texas’ next head coach but the deal was scuttled by the timing of Mack Brown’s resignation. Those same two people also believe that it’s still possible that Saban could be hired. Other than that I know nothing about the search for Texas’ next head coach. And that’s all I know. 
Texas-Oregon
Texas will likely be able to run the ball very well against Oregon. The question is will they be able convert a series of six and seven yard runs into touchdown drives? Something they were unable to do against Baylor.
It will be interesting to see if the Texas defense makes Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota the front runner for the 2014 Heisman trophy by allowing him to run wild. Mariota makes BYU quarterback Taysom Hill look like half a gimp. In case you’ve forgotten, Hill ran for 259 yards against Texas.
Bottom line is Texas needs to score around 40 points to win in my opinion.
Here we go again
Pre-game analysis of the final game of the 2013 season and the final game of Mack Brown’s tenure at Texas wouldn’t be complete without speculation about potential playing time for the back-up quarterback. We’re reading and hearing that Tyrone Swoopes is getting a significant amount of practice time with first team offense in preparation for the Alamo Bowl. This leads to my final prediction of the year. Barring injury or an unprecedented meltdown by Case McCoy, Tyrone Swoopes will not get any meaningful playing time in the Alamo Bowl.
HooK eM & Cheers,
W.E.
Over/Under
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