Mack Brown was finished at Texas, then he wasn’t, and then he was again. The rumors about his future began in earnest after the Longhorns’ season-ending loss to Baylor, but on Friday, Dec. 13, every indication suggested that Brown would be back in 2014. He seemed to have the support he needed from key administration members.
Texas president forced out Mack Brown, according to report
Brown reportedly lost his support from school president Bill Powers after he’d been told he would return.
By Saturday night, Dec. 14, he was done. So what happened? According to a report from Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports, the reversal occurred because UT president Bill Powers abruptly withdrew his support for Brown.
As late as that Saturday morning, Brown still thought he had the job, and even had breakfast with some recruits, Forde reports. Incoming athletic director Steve Patterson dropped by, and the two had a lengthy conversation about the future of the program under Brown. Then this:
About an hour after that meeting ended, Brown got a call from Patterson, according to a source with intimate knowledge of the situation. The tone was completely different from the upbeat meeting that had just occurred.
“I’ve got to come over [to the football offices],” Patterson said.
The source told Yahoo Sports that Patterson arrived at the football building with a jarring change of heart for Brown: You need to resign.
Powers felt his own job security waning under pressure from the UT Board of Regents -- which earlier had given him a vote of confidence -- and changed his position on Brown overnight.
Brown would say later that the decision to step down was his. He thanked Powers for his support in a statement after the news of his departure was made official. According to Forde’s source, Brown doesn’t feel like Powers stabbed him in the back, and that seems accurate considering that he is planning to be involved with the school as an adviser through 2020.
There is another interesting tidbit from Forde’s story: Brown received calls from Nebraska and Army officials gauging his interest in those jobs. (Nebraska, we should note, still has a head coach and has denied its interest came from the AD level.) Brown appears to be staying focused on his team’s Alamo Bowl game against Oregon, though. He can probably be forgiven if he needs some time to catch his breath.
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