This is not a historical reprise of the intricacies of every hire in Texas football history. Let's keep this manageable. What I will illustrate is how often Texas, a clear Top 10 national football program, has thought small and/or hired unproven more often than not in its program history. History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme and our rhymes owe more to MC Hammer than Eric B and Rakim, if you catch my drift.
Whether simple bad luck, poor administrative hiring acumen, financial constraints, or a lack of awareness of what translates well to the 40, this program can go through some rough patches. We've also hit a lotto ticket here and there, including a power ball ticket named Darrell K Royal. A program can kick *** with a young, energetic riser. But you'd better have supreme confidence in the administration's ability to discern winning attributes, leadership, and what it takes to make it in Austin. Or just have really good luck. Take this ride with me - you'll find it interesting. (h/t to my friend
@srr50 for his input on this piece)
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Dana X Bible. I begin with the biggest hire in Texas football history - well, at least up until 1937. Bible won 5 SWC championships at Texas A&M and 6 Big 8 titles in 8 years at Nebraska. He had a 122-34-16 record with 19 years as a head coach under his belt before coming to Texas. The slam dunk hire of his era. Bible was an experienced coach with impeccable credentials and Texas alums, disgusted by slothful underachievement, passed around the hat and signed him to an unprecedented contract: $15,000 a year! A 25% bump over his salary at Nebraska. Bible came to Texas, went 3-14-1 in his first two years, puked and rallied, and then finished out with 3 SWC titles on a 60-17-2 run. Not shabby. We won't hire another coach with anything like his track record for over sixty years. Hire: Very experienced head coach, proven high level track record.
Blair Cherry. Bible's successor, Blair Cherry, was a longtime Bible assistant. He went 32-10-1 at Texas and then quit. Good coach. Good man. His essay Why I Quit Coaching holds up nicely still today. Insomnia and ulcers from dealing with media and fan criticism plagued him and he had his fill. It didn't help that he was named after a stripper. Hire: no head coaching experience, assistant promotion.
Ed Price was Cherry's assistant. He was promoted just as Cherry had been. He cruised on Cherry's fumes (23-8 in his first 3 seasons) and then drove it right into the ground (10-19-1) including his 1-9 final season. For an amusing description of that time period, read Jim Dent's portrait of a Longhorn football practice around that time in The Junction Boys. Star players reclining in the grass, flirting with their girlfriends in attendance, good times. Hire: no head coaching experience, assistant promotion.
DKR. Texas saw what lazy assistant succession had wrought and put on a national search. Let me amend that: a cheap unsuccessful national search. They were rebuffed by Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech and Michigan State's Duffy Daugherty. Interestingly, both independently mentioned Royal as a good young coach, worthy of a look. Royal was a relatively obscure inexperienced young coach with no real track record. He'd coached the Edmonton Eskimos for a year in the CFL, coached Mississippi State for two, and the Washington Huskies for one. His experience, age, and career coaching record (17-13, never finished higher than 4th in conference) impressed few. Hire him today and Longhorn fans would riot wearing Coaching Matters shirts. He was young, cheap and had the recommendations of the football men of his era. Texas hired him. He went 167-47-5 in Austin. I guess it panned out. Hire: limited head coaching experience, limited track record.
Fred Akers. The longtime Royal assistant and former high school coach led Wyoming for a scant two years, going 10-13 (but won his conference in Year 2). The politics and machinations of the Akers hire are long and fascinating, but let's just say that his primary qualification was that he was young, familiar, projected the right image, and wasn't DKR or his handpicked successor. He fit the image of the New Texas that the administration wanted: young, optimistic, dapper, affordable, and positive. Akers went 86-31-2 and had only one losing season in his ten years. Akers fielded some incredible defenses here and his time here is best described as...almost. Almost. Hire: limited head coaching experience, limited track record.
David McWilliams. McWilliams, a longtime DKR and Akers assistant, had exactly one year of head coaching experience. At Texas Tech. Where he went 7-4. The Texas administration was so out of touch with the financial reality of college football that when they interviewed hot national coaching candidate John Cooper (who won the Rose Bowl at Arizona State) their conversation went something like this.
Texas: We want to hire you, John.
Cooper: Fantastic. The Texas job speaks for itself. A lifelong dream.
Texas: We're offering you these $$$.
Cooper: (Long pause) My coordinators make that. Thank you for your time.
Texas: OK, who can we get cheap that will please all of the Royalists we've alienated?
Cooper went on to coach Ohio State. McWilliams was fired after five years. Hire: Very limited head coaching experience, no track record.
John Mackovic. If folksy, defense-oriented, and local burned us, let's go for icy, stand-offish, offense, NFL pedigree, and national. Unlike so many of his Longhorn predecessors, Mackovic was a decently experienced head coach with a legitimate track record. That track record was one of offensive modernity, defensive indifference, and alienated locker rooms. He was fired as head coach of the Chiefs after taking them to the playoffs for his inability to build player rapport. He had a respectable little run at Illinois with Top 25 rankings in 2 of 4 years, but his last team there went 6-5. He also had defenses led by legendary 3-4 LB DC Lou Tepper. Tepper literally wrote the book on 3-4 linebacking. Mackovic's DC hires at Texas were...less than successful. Hire: Reasonable head coaching experience, average track record.
Mack Brown. Mack was on the 1st tier of national coaching hires for what he built at UNC and was known as a recruiting marvel with extraordinary EQ and salesmanship, even if the Steve Spurriers of the world mocked his football acumen. Gary Barnett was a 1st tier national darling for what he'd done at Northwestern (they won the freaking Big 10) and thought to be the clear favorite. We were set to hire Barnett, but Mack blew everyone away in an interview. Dodds was told: this is your guy. Mack Brown was the most credentialed football hire in the history of Texas football since Dana X Bible. Dana X Bible was hired in 1937. Big time program, huh? Maybe in revenue and wins. But mindset!? Mack went 158-48 at Texas, with a 64-9 run between 2004-2009. Hire: Deep head coaching experience, strong track record.
Charlie Strong. National name. A Tier 2 or 3 candidate depending on your perspective at the time. Likable. Seen as "real" and "tough" juxtaposed against the now "fake" and "soft" Mack Brown regime. Political pressures. Korn Ferry consulting buffoons. Limited track record as a head coach (4 years at Louisville, 37-15 record) at a kingmaker program with natural advantages vis a vis peers in a weak conference. Gotta watch out for those. Three painful losing seasons at Texas. Hire: Limited head coaching experience, kingmaker program playing weak schedule, national name.
Tom Herman. National name. Limited track record as a head coach (only two years at Houston, 22-4) at a kingmaker program with natural advantages vis a vis peers in a weak conference. Gotta watch out for those. Seen as an offensive innovator, with organized, mentally tough teams. Concerns? Immaturity, inflexibility, insecurity. A furious Longhorn fanbase terrified that he'd slip away to another bidder and perceived (or real) lack of viable alternatives made the hire nearly fait accompli. Hire: Very limited head coaching experience, kingmaker program playing weak schedule, national name.
Pre-Texas years as college head coach for Texas hires since 1937 (then total as head coach, including NFL):
Bible- 19
Cherry - 0
Price- 0
DKR - 3
Akers - 2
McWilliams- 1
Mackovic - 4 (8)
Brown - 13
Strong - 4
Herman- 2
Since 1937, exactly 2 of 10 Texas head coaching hires had a decade or more as a head coach with an extensive proven track record preceding their Longhorn hire. Half of our coaches hired since 1937 had two years or less of head coaching experience when hired. 8 of 10 had four years or less as college head coaches before their hire. Texas is a big-time program that has traditionally hired small-time. Many programs have succeeded identifying and hiring young talent with a limited track record. Texas has not been one of them.