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Shortly after Mack Brown was hired at the University of Texas, he was saved from the first controversy of his young Longhorns career by the most unlikely of allies.
In 1998, Brown and longtime Texas A&M coach RC Slocum were invited to a public event in San Antonio with former Texas A&M and Alabama coach Gene Stallings.
Slocum and Stallings both knew the importance of waving hands in Texas college football. Brown, a Tennessee native who had just arrived from North Carolina, received a quick lesson.
“I didn’t know much about the history of the two places, and a fan walked up and stood between the three of us and said, ‘Let’s take a picture,'” Brown recently reminded ESPN. “He put his thumb up, RC, just like Coach Stallings. So I lifted mine. RC grabbed him, threw him on the ground and said, ‘Dude, you’re gonna be fired before you even get done. ‘result in a match if you throw. You have to learn very quickly that you hook them, that you don’t wriggle them.’ “
For Brown, it was the start of what would be a very cordial relationship with an ordinarily hostile neighbor. So when North Carolina faces Texas A&M in their very first appearance in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Saturday (8 p.m. ESPN / ESPN app), Brown won’t see red when he looks across the field and sees brown. . In a sport where fans often wish their enemies the worst, Brown has always kindly killed them.
“I’ve never been a guy who hated our rivals,” Brown said. “I’ve always loved our rivals. They’re two great programs in a state that cares about football, maybe more than any other state in the country. That’s because it’s like a religion there, and both programs are so good. I would. never say anything bad about Texas A&M. “
Brown announced his arrival in the rivalry with a surprise 26-24 from the No.6 Aggies in 1998. In the last 14 years of the series before Texas A&M left for the SEC, Brown beat the Aggies 10 times, going 4-1 against Slocum, 3-2 against Dennis Franchione and 3-1 against Mike Sherman, whose final victory 27-25 in 2011.
“Mack saw rivalries as a matter of pride,” said Ricky Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy in Brown’s first season at Austin after running for 259 yards in the upset victory over A&M. “So the whole idea of beating the Aggies was to show that we’re the best team in Texas. He saw those big games as huge opportunities for us.”
Brown has never taken pictures, slammed or offered any tips to refer to A&M. His magnetic charm that reshuffled the recruiting landscape in Texas often made it look like he was rooted for the Aggies – except in one game, of course.
“We don’t need A&M to have a bad team,” Brown told Austin American-Statesman’s Kirk Bohls before his first meeting with the Aggies in 1998. “If we’re both 6-4 in this game, that wouldn’t help any of us. “
Brown insists that none of this is staging, just another recruiting ground by a crafty trainer. He and Slocum were good friends dating back to when he was the assistant to one of Slocum’s good friends, Donnie Duncan, in Iowa State from 1979 to 1981. Brown’s longtime offensive coordinator, Greg Davis, who worked for Brown in Tulane and Texas, got his first college job at Texas A&M at Slocum’s request.
“I was with [Brown] 18 years old, and it’s never been about him versus RC or him versus anyone, “Davis said.” Obviously it was an important baseball game. But it was never a personal agreement with him. “
Brown even allowed Slocum to arrange a tour of the Texas facilities for A&M officials 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 against state. The A&M rivalry was family against family. They were all Texans, and even at the game you saw scattered fans of different colors and family sitting together. I had it. used to sit as a kid and watch Texas and Texas A&M [on TV]. He spotlighted Texas state high school football and soccer coaches to everyone in the country. “
Dave South has called the Texas A&M football, 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 induction, he met Brown, who was inducted into the NFF Hall of Fame that same year, and was surprised by Brown’s revelation when he introduced himself. .
“I know who you are,” Brown told South. “When I was traveling, often when we didn’t have a game or we played in the afternoon and you played at night, I would listen to you.”
South said Brown had only kind words for his old nemesis.
“When the game was over, the game was over,” South said. “He was very complimentary of A&M and the rivalry.”
But nothing has shown Brown’s true respect for the Aggies like his last press conference when he resigned in Texas in December 2013, when Brown took the time to remember Aggie’s bonfire collapse. in 1999 which killed 12 students.
Following Brown’s initial statement, a reporter asked if there was anything he would have changed about his 16 years in Austin. He first said he would do anything to get Cole Pittman back, referring to the UT defensive tackle who died in a car crash in 2001. Then came a remarkable moment for a Texas coach driving through the one of the worst professional days of his career.
“And I would like the bonfire [collapse] for not having arrived at A&M, “he said.” These are two horrible things in my life that I will never forget. While playing A&M on Thanksgiving, I thought about families. … When you lose your children, there is nothing worse than this in the world. I think about this every Thanksgiving because there are 12 families that don’t have a good Thanksgiving. It will never go away. “
At the Orange Bowl press conference, he again vividly recalled the week of tragedy.
“I thought we probably shouldn’t be playing the game,” he said. “I said to RC, whatever you want, we’ll do it. Not only did we play the game, but I think we were 16-0 ahead at half-time, [and] they came back and beat us 21-16 at the end. I’m not sure it wasn’t better for them to win this game. “
Davis remembers that Brown was deeply affected.
“He was rocked at the bonfire,” Davis said. “We actually had a blood drive in Austin at the football office and most of the coaches donated blood.”
For Brown, the tragedy was the prospect of what a rivalry really meant.
“I thought RC handled this situation better than anyone,” he told ESPN last week. “We had the memorial with many students and fans of Texas A&M, an evening that I will remember all my life. Even the game, our band playing ‘Amazing Grace’ and everyone around the stadium in mourning for those families. … That’s when you know it’s a lot bigger than a football game. “
There’s no doubt Brown wants to beat A&M to put the finishing touches on a remarkable turnaround season in North Carolina, which is 8-3 after going 2-9 two years before Brown’s arrival.
Williams said Brown would sell this as another big step for North Carolina, “because of the success that A&M has had, because they’re from the powerful SEC,” he said. “When it comes to a prime-time baseball game, he knows this is a huge opportunity for his program to take it to the next level.”
“I’m sure he’s excited because he knows what kind of program [A&M has] historically had and the work that Jimbo [Fisher] Done, “Davis added.” But it’s an excitement. It is by no means a revenge deal or anything like that. I certainly don’t think he’ll approach it any differently than if he played anyone else in terms of the old Aggies or whatever. “
And no matter how many kind words Brown says about the Aggies, there’s no doubt they want to beat him, too. But the absence of the rivalry may have even made Brown’s laudatory words shine even brighter. Good luck making him say something else.
“Texas A&M is one of the best programs in the country and I still love playing them at College Station,” he said. “These fans are amazing. The place is as loud as any other place I have coached. The loyalty of these fans is just amazing to me.”
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