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Why did UT's culture need changing?


Harry

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Charlie Strong is changing the culture at Texas. We keep hearing that. But change the culture from what? What was the culture?

I’ve spent hours talking to those inside the program when Mack Brown was the coach, and I can boil it down to this: Everything about accountability in the program changed after the loss to Alabama in the BCS title game of the 2009 season.

From the time Mack Brown arrived at Texas in 1998, even as a CEO who delegated a lot to his coaching staff when it came to football, he was always side-by-side with his assistants and players.

When something went horribly wrong in the form of a blowout loss to OU, etc., Mack would say, “I need to do better job” or “We, as coaches, need to do a better job.”

Even though Mack had a reputation for coddling players, earning Texas a soft label, the Longhorns were usually always talented and showed resilience. Texas almost always bounced back after a loss. Mack's teams won close games.

Ultimately, Texas went 69-9 from 2004-09, winning a national title, playing for another one, with victories in two other BCS bowl games. That reign made Texas the centerpiece of realignment in 2010 and caused ESPN to put up $300 million for 20 years and create the Longhorn Network.

But the mindset of the entire Texas program changed after Texas’ crushing loss to Bama in the BCS title game. In 2010, Mack turned on his staff and ultimately his players. The result was confusion at the top, lack of accountability at the bottom and a steady creep of selfishness and entitlement inside the program.

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I’ve said this before, but Mack Brown was convinced Texas would have won that game if Colt McCoy hadn’t gotten hurt.

I was standing there when Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com said to Mack after his post-game press conference that night, “Well, Mack, we’ll never know.”

And Mack looked at Dodd with a glare and said, “It wouldn’t have been close.”

After that, Mack went scorched earth on his assistants, especially his offensive assistants for not having a running game to fall back on against Alabama.

Offensive coordinator Greg Davis and offensive line coach Mac McWhorter were set to join Tim Brewster at Minnesota, because things got so heated between Mack and the staff.

Then Mack talked them into staying, but still told them to change the offense to feature a pro-style running attack (without the personnel to execute it).

The overall tone of the conversation between Mack and his assistants basically changed at that point.

They were no longer working side-by-side. Mack was now above them, dictating to them and showing a general lack of respect.

Read more: http://texas.scout.com/story/1429468-why-did-ut-s-culture-need-changing?s=110

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