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ROSE BOWL GAME: TEXAS v SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

January 4, 2006

Mack Brown

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

COACH MACK BROWN: Thank you very much. First we want to thank Pasadena, the city of Pasadena and its officials and the city of Los Angeles and specifically the Rose Bowl people. We've just had a fabulous time out here for the last two years, and for the University of Texas to have never have been to a Rose Bowl two years ago and now to have played the University of Michigan down to the last play of the game and Southern Cal, two solid programs, to the last play of the game and to win both games, winning two Rose Bowl championships, the National Championship is not only special for our state but also for the University of Texas and the people of Texas.
I'd also like to congratulate Pete, his staff and the people of Southern Cal. They were just phenomenal. That offense, we couldn't stop them. They could not get them off of the field. We started thinking, we missed a field goal, we missed an extra point and when we turned the game in the 4th quarter we knew we had to go four downs and the offense the entire 4th quarter because we couldn't stop them. We did a better job the first half but they stopped themselves a bundle of times. LenDale White, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Jarrett and that offensive line are as good as any in the country.
It's really surreal when you're sitting there in the 4th quarter and you're down by two scores and you still think you're going to win and you're playing a team that's won 34 straight games and momentum has turned and your defense is struggling, but we never, ever really thought we'd lose the ballgame.
That's what makes these two teams special. Southern Cal has come back time and time and time again to win, and they came back in the 3rd quarter like we expected them to. The thing I liked about our team tonight is they kept playing and they never got discouraged and they never gave up.
Q. Can you talk about what's going through your heart and mind? Texas has not won one of these since 1970, desperate fans there have wanted this, and you finally did it against a team who most people felt was the favorite going in with the 34 game streak and everything.
COACH MACK BROWN: Well, there was a tremendous amount of pressure on them. Even though we had not won a National Championship for many years, that streak is a difficult thing. Pete has done a marvelous job of not talking about streaks and just continuing to win, and that's what we'll continue to do, we hope is continue to win like Southern Cal did.
It's a real, real proud time to see those kids and see assistant coaches you've worked so hard. DeLoss Dodd has been the director for 23 years and this is his first National Championship in football, and he's had them in many other sports. We were kind of dragging him behind.
Also with Coach Royal here, the first thing I'll do when I leave the tent is call him and make sure I congratulate him because he's wanted us to win for a long time.
Q. Can you talk about your emotions right now?
COACH MACK BROWN: My emotions right now are trying to make sure that our guys handle themselves in a classy manner because you've got to learn to win, and this is new for us. We've won a lot of football games. I told the guys before the game in the pre-game talk that I've been planning this for 33 years and now I don't know what to say.
What a neat time, a special time for those kids and our coaches. I'm sure it will be for me as I look back right now, I'm just so darn happy we came back and won because I was mad that we fumbled and didn't stop them and all those things that go through coaches' heads are right now pretty much in our minds.
Q. Could you just elaborate a little bit? You've been over this ground before, but I want to write about how it's been a two-way street with you and Vince, how he was the student, but he also had some things to teach you. Could you go over that again?
COACH MACK BROWN: Well, the thing that we've tried to continue to do is learn each year, and within a year and a half ago some people questioned whether Vince would be a major college quarterback or not, and now he's got two Rose Bowl Most Valuable Player trophies since that time. So Greg Davis did a tremendous job of working with him, and Vince did an even better job of buying into watching more film and studying more and being in better shape and throwing more outside of the framework of the time that the NCAA wouldn't allow us to throw.
And then from my standpoint, I think it was more just for me to start spending more time asking kids about kids, asking them about who they are and about their lives and trying to make sure that they understood that it was more about them than just winning, and I told them tonight as I told them Monday, I don't want this to be the best thing that ever happens in your lives. It may be the best sporting event in your life, and for some of them it will be for sure. Some others may go to a Super Bowl. But I want this to help them carry confidence later on in life, and Vince, too, because I want him to be a good father and I want him to be a good husband and all those things that he would like to be.
I feel like those are things that are much bigger a year ago than maybe they were before that, and he and I had a lot of talks about his life and his family and moving forward.
Q. It seems at a game where USC did not come out in the second half, came down to such a big defensive play. The time out at the 4th down, what did you say to your team?
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't think we punted once, either. I think we missed a field goal. Honestly we were kicking field goals while we were scoring and I was angry. I told the team you stop this 4th down play, we're going to win the National Championship. That's what it's down to. It was such a great football game between two great teams. We're talking about this much difference (indicating six inches) in us winning the National Championship and SC not winning No. 35. That's the way the game went throughout the night.
Q. Since you've been at Texas you've been under a lot of scrutiny from the media, the public eye, Joe fan. A year ago people were saying you couldn't win a big game. How does it feel to sit here in front of these roses having just won a National Championship and holding that ball in the air?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's not about me. That's why it didn't bother me then and that's why I'm not mad at them now. They'll just be quiet for a while. They'll be writing and saying different things.
Q. Frostee Rucker said they weren't surprised -- (inaudible) -- they didn't start with it but went to it in the second half, multiple scores drives under three minutes. When did you make your decision to go to that?
COACH MACK BROWN: We thought we would use it the second series of the ballgame, but we came out and felt like our guys were really uptight. We fumbled a punt after a good 3 and out, we moved the ball after the punt early, we fumbled as we were driving the first set. So we thought more than anything else that it would probably settle us down a little bit more because it's something we've done successfully all year. It quiets the crowd because you go with a silent snap count. When you're as efficient as Vince is, people wear down when he's out there with the ability to do both, and we felt like that gave us the best chance to win.
Q. And sticking to it?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes, and sticking to it. Pete did a good job of going nickel and dime and blitzing the defensive back some, and I just thought Vince played a tremendous ballgame.
Q. What does it say about just the makeup of your team that down 12 with six minutes to play you weren't nervous, you weren't scared?
COACH MACK BROWN: I think that's the story of the night. Both are great football teams. They're both well-coached football teams or they wouldn't be here. It was obviously the two best football teams of the year, and I thought ABC got what they wanted to get. It was just a great football team, and SC wasn't going to quit. I was very honestly -- I felt like we would score but I didn't want to score very fast. That's why we didn't call a time out. It was about 16, 17 at the end there.
But these kids were behind at Ohio State, they were behind at Oklahoma State, behind some at Texas A & M, behind last year in the Michigan game late in the 4th quarter, and they just have a willingness about them that makes you really, really proud to be called their coach.
Q. Pete Carroll called Vince Young, said it was the most dominating performance he's seen by a single player, gave credit to the entire Texas team but said Vince Young, actually called him an extraordinary football player. You see him every day. How good is good?
COACH MACK BROWN: I think he's one of the great players to ever play college football. I said that last year, if he comes back next year, which we think he will, he'll have a great shot to win the Heisman. I thought he was the best player of any team this year because Reggie was a great player on a team with a lot of other guys that didn't touch the ball. Reggie didn't touch the ball as much as a guy like Vince does, so the most valuable player for our team -- and I thought that showed up in the Maxwell and the Davey O'Brien Award, but I do feel like the performance that Vince had in this game last year and the performance he had tonight separates him from a lot of people, and now he's 30 and 2 and two most valuable player trophies from the Rose Bowl, a National Championship trophy, a Conference Championship trophy. Not only is he a special player, he's a special leader and a special person.
Q. What was said between you and David Pino. What did you do to keep his confidence up?
COACH MACK BROWN: I said focus, don't get down on yourself. You pushed it a little bit to the right on both of them, looked like you stuck your head up a little bit prematurely, so keep your head down and kick. He had not missed a kick from the Colorado championship game until tonight. I honestly thought this game would come down to a kick until we missed the field goal and then the scoring got out of whack. Right before we kicked the field goal to go 21-36, if we had scored that time we probably would have gone for two because it was in the early parts of the 4th quarter.

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