With Longhorn safety Earl Thomas declaring for the NFL, and Pete Carroll decamping for the Seahawks, I thought I would post one short bit about why Longhorns fans love Mack Brown. (In addition to the whole “won a national Championship and constantly wins 10 games a year” thing.) Here’s what he said about Thomas’ decision:
“We appreciate everything Earl has done for Texas and want to wish him all of the best. He has been a great player for us and more importantly a tremendous person, student and representative of our program. We thank him, support him and look forward to following his career in the NFL.”
It may seem a touch biolerplate, but it’s a very thankful, very gracious statement. I’m sure more than one recruit’s mother or father will read that and go: “Gee, Mack Brown is such a nice guy. I feel safe entrusting my son to him.” And Brown does seem to manage his program in pretty a classy manner.
You would think this would be pretty standard for a college coach, or at least successful ones. But you’d be wrong. Contrast, for example, with then-USC coach Pete Carroll said when Mark Sanchez announced he was coming out early for the 2009 NFL Draft:
“We don’t see this decision the same. … Mark is going against the grain on this decision. He knows that. He knows that coming out early is a tremendous challenge for a quarterback. And the statistics don’t back up that it’s easy to be successful the way he’s going about it. We know that, he knows that. … I don’t agree with the assessment of the decision.”
That’s not quite rude, but it is pretty tone-deaf to talk that way about one of your best players. As for who was right, well, Sanchez has had his ups and downs, but given he’s $28 million richer and is starting for an NFL playoff team, you have to give him the edge.
I also found
(And no, I didn’t blog about UT’s loss to Alabama in the National Championship Game. When Colt McCoy got knocked out, it was obvious that UT’s chances of winning were going to be pretty slim, and I couldn’t bear to watch any more after that ill-fated shovel pass snafu that ended the first half. If McCoy had been healthy, the outcome might well have been different, but give the Crimson Tide credit: Their job was to beat the team that was actually on the field, and they did that in convincing fashion, so congrats to them for a well-earned National Championship.)