Former Texas head coach Mack Brown was recently relieved of his position as the North Carolina Tar Heels head coach. After 40 years at the helm of various football programs, Brown may be done with his head coaching career.
However, after Brown was fired by UNC, a few Longhorn fans had the bright idea for Texas to hire its former head coach in some capacity – a senior consultant, an advisor, etc.
While the sentimental value of Brown may remain within the Texas football program, there is simply no need for him to become a part of said program again. Head coach Steve Sarkisian has the top-tier staff and elite coaching mind that a team needs to find success.
Here are just a few reasons Sarkisian and the Horns don’t need to hire Brown back into the Texas football program:
3. Been there, done that
Texas kept Brown around for a long time after his National Championship victory with legendary Longhorn quarterback Vince Young.
In 2009, everything thought Brown and the Horns were going to do it again when quarterback Colt McCoy and the team made it to the title game against the Alabama Crimson Tide and head coach Nick Saban.
However, when McCoy was injured in the game and the Horns eventually lost, Brown seemed to lose his edge. Texas kept him as the head coach for four years after that loss and the Longhorns went just 30-21 overall during that stretch.
There was a reason that the Longhorns and Brown parted ways in 2013, maybe it’s time for fans to start remembering that.
2. It’s time to let the sleeping dog lie
Let the guy walk away. Mack Brown’s coaching career started in 1973, more than 50 years ago, when he was the wide receivers coach for the Florida State Seminoles, just a few months after he was on the Seminoles’ roster.
Brown’s only time away from collegiate football was during a five-year hiatus between coaching at Texas (2013) and returning to North Carolina (2019)
From his time at Appalachian State to Tulane to North Carolina to Texas, Brown has been the head coach in 443 total games. He was already inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
Mack Brown has done it all. He won the 2005 National Championship, he won two Big 12 titles (2005, 2009), and he won the ACC Coastal Division (2022). Brown has checked all of the boxes. It is time to let the man walk away from the game with his head held high.
Also read: It may be time for Mack Brown to hang up his coaching cleats following loss to JMU
1. He doesn’t have the mind that he used to
Mack Brown is not the man that he used to be. He certainly isn’t the head coach that led the Longhorns on their National Championship campaign in 2005.
Not only has Brown been in the game for over four decades, but he is also 73 years old, his age is getting up there. Not to say that he is missing any mental faculties or struggling to understand the game in front of him but he isn’t as engaged as he used to be.
As the college football landscape rapidly changes – from the transfer portal to conference realignments to NIL deals galore – older coaches are stepping away because the sport simply isn’t what it used to be (i.e. Nick Saban).
