Texas Coach Mack Brown Meets With Media Tuesday Before BCS National Championship
We are very excited to be here. It's game time now. We'll have a brief practice this afternoon for about an hour and a half as a review in shorts, and then obviously have our typical pregame routine through Friday and Saturday. Guys are excited. We've had a great month of practice. They've got great respect for what they've seen with Alabama and can't wait for the challenge.
How do you think your guys have handled the last two day stretch? We think we've handled it really well. Being at the Fiesta Bowl last year on January 4th helped because this team was involved in a long process last year. Seven of these guys were involved in the 2006 National Championship game so they went through the buildup and the hype, and I really feel like we're healthy. The guys have worked really hard, they've been physical, they understand the challenge they have ahead with Alabama, and I think we'll see a great game.
Do you have a regular Bowl schedule that you follow during the year, a formula to get ready? Yes, we tweaked our Bowl schedule after the '03 Holiday Bowl. We did not feel we prepared our team as well as we should. We took ideas from Wisconsin and Bobby Bowden and Florida State because they've won so many Bowls in a way, and we tweaked our system at that time, and we feel like what we're doing now is the best way for us to prepare. I think we've won seven of the last eight, so the kids have – the one we lost was the 2003 one where we didn't play very well.
Given the revenue that's generated, is the criticism over your salary justified? Do you ever feel guilty you're getting paid as much as you are? I don't feel guilty at all because that's not my decision. I didn't ask for it, the University decided to pay it, and what they did is obviously made a business decision. Coaches are making more money than ever before. There's more scrutiny on coaches than ever before, and universities need money more than ever before to run all the other sports.
I think from a business standpoint, if you ask the CEOs in the state of Texas they would agree with it. If you asked other people they might not because when a football coach makes more than the university president, that's hard to understand, and I get that. I can understand it without question.
At Texas you've had your share of scrutiny. When you reflect, was there a time that you wondered if you would be able to do what you've done, and how satisfied are you with where the team is? We felt like in the early years that we were winning 10 and 11 games and we weren't satisfied and the fans weren't satisfied. It was interesting that Greg Robinson, who's now the defensive coordinator at Michigan, had been the head coach at Syracuse, was on our staff. Greg said, 'You're not happy with 11 wins, either, so quit being mad at the fans and media about it because you feel the same way.' That really got me because I did, I wanted us to win all the games.
I think coming here for the '05 game with Michigan and winning at the end kind of validated that we were going to be around for a while, and then since then we've been pretty successful.
What I learned, too, is it's not about me when we win. The coach gets too much credit. And when you lose, the coach gets too much criticism. We've got 122 players here, and I counted it one day, counting 122 players, we have about 400 people involved in some way or other day to day in football at Texas. So to give a Coach of the Year Award, you should give a 400 Person of the Year Award when you give those things away, and if you get lost, after a loss, I wish all 400 would sit up here with me, but I can't find them after a loss, I can only find them after a win.
(Question regarding Will Muschamp taking over head coaching position): People do not understand this by and large. Will and I have not talked about it since the first day. My wife and I have not talked about it, the athletic director and the president and I have not talked about it. What we decided is Will is young, he's tremendously talented. I've liked to say it compliments me when I say I see some young Mack Brown in him at the same age, and I feel like that he understands that I'm going to be around for a while, and he understands that's good. He's a very highly paid defensive coordinator and he's doing a good job with it, and he's continuing to watch, and he worked with Nick, he worked with Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky. He's working here now, so he'll be able to put pieces together, and at the right time the transition will be very, very smooth when I do decide to step out.
But very honestly the decision was not made for today or tomorrow, it was made for down the road, and he and I are good with that.
Can you talk about what Colt has meant to your program, his leadership and his play? Quarterbacks are so important in modern day football, whether it's the NFL, college football, even high school football. Vince Young was 30-2, and now Colt is 45-7 and the winningest quarterback in the history of college football.
What both of them have done is given us a spark. They've given us the "it" factor. They're a guy that can win the game when the game is on the line at the end. We've won so many close games. And he's a guy that grew up a coach's season. He played for championships when he was in high school, and he's been good every game that he's been here. I think the other thing he gives us is consistency. He's about the same guy every day, and he's about the same guy every day we play, so we know we're going to have a chance to win with him at quarterback each game we play.
