North Carolina head coach and former Texas coach Mack Brown joined “The Pat McAfee Show” this week to discuss the expectations and heightened level of pride that surrounds Texas’ football program.
Even with as much success as he had at Texas, which included winning the national championship in the 2005 season, Brown learned it’s not a job for the faint of heart throughout the 2010-2013 seasons.
He hinted at the sense if the head coach at Texas cannot find a way to win double-digit games each season, he will lose control of the program.
When you’re winning, you’re in charge. That means you’ve got to win more than nine. When you’re winning eight and nine, other people get in charge. And your job at Texas is to make sure you stay in charge. When we were winning 10, 11, 12 and 13, I had pretty good control of what was going on. When we got back to eight or nine, I had less control. Let’s just put it that way.
Brown continued to speak about the difference in expectations that he’s experienced at North Carolina. In 2018, the Tar Heels won two games. Although the program has made considerable strides since, when North Carolina fell to Florida State last year, it was considered a disaster.
However, Brown doesn’t think the expectations at Texas will ever change — nor should they.
The expectations at Texas will never change. People have tremendous pride in that program, they want to win all the games, they expect to win all the games and that’s the way it should be.
So, it doesn’t take long to change those expectations, but they’re not gonna change at Texas, and that’s a good thing. I used to call it, ‘pride instead of pressure.’ Because it’s the pride of that state and their football program. They want to and feel like they should win every game, and that’s one of the great things about coaching there.
Charlie Strong and Tom Herman were let go for their failure to consistently compete for championships. On top of that, Herman only had one season where his team won double-digit games (2018), while Strong failed to reach that mark throughout his three-year tenure.
The jury is still out on first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian, but as always, the expectations couldn’t be higher.