Not long after Mack Brown was appointed to the University of Texas, he was rescued by the most unfortunate allies of the first controversy in his young Longhorns career.
In 1998, Brown and the longtime Texas A&M coach RC Slocum were guests at a public event in San Antonio, with former Texas A&M and Alabama coach Gene Stallings.
Both Slocum and Stallings were well versed in the importance of signatures in Texas college football. Brown, a Tennessee native who had just arrived from North Carolina, was given a quick lesson.
“I did not know much about the history of the two places, and a fan walked between the three of us and said, ‘Let’s take a picture,'” Brown recently told ESPN. “He held his thumb up, and RC too, and Coach Stallings too. Then I stopped mine. RC grabbed it, threw it down, and said, ‘Child, you’re fired before you ever coach a game if you throw U’ must learn very quickly that you are a hook, not a gig. ”
For Brown, it was the beginning of a very cordial relationship with a usually hostile neighbor. So, when North Carolina faces A and Texas’ first in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Saturday (20:00, ESPN / ESPN App), Brown will not see red when he looks across the field and sees maroon not. In a sport where fans wish their everyday people the very best, Brown always killed them with kindness.
“I’ve never been a man who hated our competitors,” Brown said. “I’ve always liked our competitors. They’re two great programs in a state that cares about football, maybe more than any other state in the country. It’s because it’s like a religion, and both programs are so good. “I should never say anything bad about Texas A&M.”
Brown announced his arrival in the rivalry with a stir of the no. 6 Aggies in 1998 with 26-24. Over the last 14 years of the series before Texas A&M left for the SEC, Brown beat the Aggies ten times and beat Slocum 4-1, 3-2 against Dennis Franchione and 3-1 against Mike Sherman, including the final victory from 27-25 in 2011.
“Mack regards competition as proud,” said Ricky Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy in Brown’s first season in Austin after rushing 259 yards in the infamous A&M victory. So the idea of beating the Aggies was to show that we are the best team in Texas. He saw those big games as big opportunities for us. ‘
Brown never took shots, fired insults or devised gimmicks to refer to A&M. His magnetic charm, which adapted the recruiting landscape in Texas, also often made it sound as if he was rooting for the Aggies – unlike in one game, of course.
“We do not need A&M to have a bad team,” Brown told American Kirk Bohls before his first game with the Aggies in 1998. “If we both get 6-4 in this game, it would not be one of us does not help. ‘
Brown insists none of this is a pitfall, another recruitment campaign by a cunning coach. He and Slocum were good friends from when he was an assistant to one of Slocum’s good friends, Donnie Duncan, in the Iowa State from 1979 to ’81. Brown’s longtime attacking coordinator, Greg Davis, who worked for Brown in Tulane and Texas, got his first college job at Texas A&M at the urging of Slocum.
‘I was with [Brown] “18 years, and it was never about him against RC or him against whoever,” Davis said. It was, of course, an important ball game. But it was never a personal agreement with him. ‘
Brown even allowed Slocum to arrange a tour of A&M officials in Texas when Slocum felt the Aggies were falling behind in the arms race. There was always mutual respect for each other and for the programs.
“It was very different from the Oklahoma rivalry,” Brown said last week. “The Oklahoma rivalry was state versus state. The A&M rivalry was family versus family. They were all Texans, and even during the game you see scattered fans with different colors and family sitting together. I used to sit as a kid and see Texas and Texas A&M [on TV]. It highlights high school football and high school football coaches in the state of Texas for everyone in the state. ‘
Dave South has named Texas A&M soccer, basketball and baseball games for 33 years and was honored in 2018 with the National Football Foundation’s Chris Schenkel Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. While in New York for the inauguration, he came across Brown, who was inducted into the NFF’s Hall of Fame the same year, and he was amazed at Brown’s revelation when he introduced himself.
“I know who you are,” Brown told South. “When I traveled, many times if we did not have a game or we played in the afternoon and you played at night, I would have listened to you.”
South said Brown had nothing but kind words for his former enemy.
“When the game was over, the game was over,” South said. “He was very complimentary about A&M and the rivalry.”
But nothing showed Brown’s true respect for the Aggies, like his last news conference when he resigned in Texas in December 2013, when Brown took time to remember the 1999 Aggie bonfire that killed 12 students.
Following Brown’s initial statement, a reporter asked if he would change anything about his 16 years in Austin. He first said he would give anything to have Cole Pittman back, referring to the UT defense suit who died in a car accident in 2001. Then a striking moment for a Texas coach came through one of the worst professional days of his career.
‘And I want the bonfire [collapse] not to have happened at A&M, “he said. These are two terrible things in my life that I will never forget. When I played A&M on Thanksgiving, I thought of the families. … When you lose your children, there is nothing worse than that in the world. I think about it every Thanksgiving because there are 12 families who do not have a good Thanksgiving. It will never go away. ‘
At the Orange Bowl news conference, he once again vividly recalled the week of the tragedy.
“I thought we should probably not play the game,” he said. “I told RC, whatever you all want to do, we will not only play the game, but I think we were 16-0 ahead at halftime, [and] they came back and beat us 21-16 at the end. I’m not sure if it was best for them to win that match. ‘
Davis remembers that Brown was deeply affected.
“He was shaken by the bonfire,” Davis said. “In fact, we had a blood test in Austin at the football office, and most of the coaches gave blood.”
For Brown, the tragedy was perspective on what a rivalry really means.
“I thought RC was handling the situation better than anyone could,” he told ESPN last week. “We had the memorial with many students and fans of Texas A&M. It was an evening I will remember for the rest of my life. Even the game, our band that played ‘Amazing Grace’ and everyone in the whole stadium mourned for those families … That’s when you know it’s a lot bigger than some football game.
There is no doubt that Brown wants to defeat A&M to place the final round of a remarkable season at North Carolina, which is 8-3 after being 2-9 two years before Brown’s arrival.
Williams said Brown would sell it as another big step for North Carolina, “because of the success that A&M has achieved because they come from the powerful SEC,” he said. “If it’s a game-time ball game, he knows it’s a great opportunity for his program to take themselves to the next level.”
‘I’m sure he’s excited because he knows what kind of program [A&M has] has historical and the work that Jimbo [Fisher] do, “Davis added.” But it’s an excitement. This is by no means a revenge deal or anything like that. I certainly do not think he would approach it any differently than if he were playing someone else in terms of the ol ‘Aggies or whatever.’
And no matter how many nice words Brown says about the Aggies, they do not want to beat him either. But the absence of the rivalry made Brown’s glowing words shoot up even more. Good luck that he could say something else.
“Texas A&M is one of the best shows in the country, and I like to always play it at College Station,” he said. “Those fans are incredible. The place is as hard as any place I have ever coached against. The loyalty of the fans is just amazing to me.”