	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS

July 23, 2008

Mack Brown

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

PETER IRWIN: We're joined by Coach Mack Brown from the Texas Longhorns. If you would identify the players that you brought with you.
COACH BROWN: We have Colt McCoy, who is an upcoming junior quarterback. We have Brian Orakpo, who will be a senior defensive end. Colt is from Tuscola, Jim Ned High School. Brian is from Houston, Lamar High School. And we have Quan Cosby, who is a little bit older, he's senior wide receiver that played baseball for the Anaheim Angels for four years. And he's from Mart, Texas. And also Chris Ogbonnaya is here who has already graduated, and he's here just doing -- he does a little video show for us, so he's with the group. He's a running back.
PETER IRWIN: Opening comment or two.
COACH BROWN: Excited about being here. This kind of starts our fall. We get to eat with the guys last night. Chris, Brian and Quan were here. Colt, like Chase Daniels, is out with the Elite 11 camp. So he flew in last night about 1:15, 1:30, and he will leave immediately after the media presentations this morning and fly back to the Elite 11 camp, which is a great experience for the top quarterbacks in the country to go teach and help the top young high school quarterbacks in the country.
But in visiting with the guys last night, it's always interesting to talk to them about the summer workouts. And they said that they're at least the best we've had since the 2005 year that Coach Madden, our strength coach, has really pushed them hard. It's been a very hard summer again in Austin.
They said they've had great participation and the guys are excited about getting started for the fall. Big 12 may be the strongest it's ever been from top to bottom. You see that -- understanding what the other teams have done, but the seasons that Missouri and Kansas had last year were phenomenal. We had nine bowl teams on our schedule, so it will be the hardest schedule we've ever played. We have a good mix of inexperienced guys with some experienced guys that have been around for a while and played well.
But we'll have to play really, really well to have as good a team as we have had because of the strength of schedule and the tight quarterbacks and especially the offenses throughout this league.
You that haven't seen our stadium, it will be 98,000 plus. It's near 100,000, and it looks great. And I think it will bring a totally different environment to Austin, Texas, on Saturday afternoon. So we're excited about getting started. This is the first time we've been considered an underdog for a while. And it's a different role for us and it seems to be motivating our guys to work really, really hard.
PETER IRWIN: Questions.

Q. How long are you going to do this? Have you thought about how long you might stay in coaching?
COACH BROWN: I thought you meant this. I thought about 10 minutes. Depends on how many questions there are.
I think I would stay in coaching as long as I'm healthy and as long as we're doing the job that's best for the University of Texas. If we're not doing our job and Texas could do better, then we would not be one of those that would want to stand in the way. But as long as we're healthy, having fun and winning, and winning seems to be a pretty big key in this business.
Very honestly, after my knee, it's been like a miracle for me. I feel so much better right now than I've felt for 15 years. It's been unbelievable.

Q. Wanted to see if you could elaborate on your comment about this is the first time you've been an underdog in a while. Why do you think that and how do you think the guys will receive that?
COACH BROWN: Well, it sounds like some people don't think we're going to win the conference. Some people don't think we're going to be a Top 10 team. And usually our guys, at least the ones on campus that have been in the Top 10 in preseason, and the fact that there's so many good teams on the schedule, nine bowl teams is pretty good.
In fact, Arkansas is coming back into Austin. Florida Atlantic, with Howard Schnellenberger who is coming in on their first bowl team, and everyone has great respect for Coach Schnellenberger, how he's done. And we go against a Mike Price-coached team out in El Paso. That's an unusual game for Texas in-state to travel out of the league.
So there's just the addition of having to go to Tech when some people have picked Tech as a Top 10 team and a chance to win. Kansas is a Top 10 team. Missouri is a Top 10 team. Colorado is getting better and we have to go up there. And I think it's just -- as you look at the schedule, it looks like a very, very difficult task for us. And I think there's a little buzz within our team and our coaches about the fact that some don't think we're ready for that.

Q. Can you talk about the changes that you made in the coaching staff and the defensive side of the football, what your expectations are with them?
COACH BROWN: We moved -- Larry McDuff left. Ken Rucker had prostate cancer last year along with some diabetes issues at the first of the season. So we were able to move Ken to a high school relations and player personal development position, which so far has worked better than even anticipated.
He checks them in bed every night. He's involved with them at every meal. So he's a constant in their lives outside of football. And that's been good. We felt like we wanted youth and enthusiasm and experience. Major Applewhite was a no-brainer for us because he was a great player for us. He had been a graduate assistant for us. Then he coached at Syracuse with Greg Robinson.
He went with Todd Brown as an offensive coordinator at a very young age. Bryce went to a bowl game, and then the same with Nick Saban at Alabama. So he brings his enthusiasm back, his love for Texas, but also new ideas and a lot of knowledge. Will Muschamp we thought was the perfect fit for us as the defensive coordinator. He was successful as a coordinator at Valdosta State and Eastern Kentucky, I-AA, was involved in winning a national championship with Nick Saban, Bill Belichick's coordinator and he's done it as well as anybody else could do it at the NFL level.
Nick and Will have been able to take some of that knowledge and do a great job with it at the college level. And Will has even been a defensive coordinator at 37 years old with the Miami Dolphins and had two great years at Auburn. He brings name recognition, toughness. He brings the ability that the NFL has that some do not have in college to do a better job of disguising, and with the quarterbacks and the offenses in our league and the spread offenses, we felt like we needed to get more pressure on the passer, and we have got to do a better job of stopping the passing game and try to force more turnovers, and we thought he was the guy to help us get that done.

Q. How much better would your defense have been with a healthy Brian Orakpo and what do you expect from him and how much improvement do you think having him healthy it would make?
COACH BROWN: We thought Brian Orakpo in preseason was as good a defensive end we've ever had. That's at North Carolina with some of the great ones and the guys we've had for 10 years at Texas. No one on our team last year could block him in preseason. And he got shot blocked illegally against Arkansas State in the opening ball game in the second quarter and then was never healthy for the rest of the year.
He played a little bit at the end and then he got better. Had a good bowl game. I think he's the most valuable defensive player in the bowl game. But you're foolish to sit around and talk about what might have happened without injuries because they're part of the game and we've got to be able to stand up regardless of what happens, but there's no question that we lost a leader and by far our best pass rusher when he went down.
So he is a viable part of what we need to do to get more pressure on a quarterback. We've been able to stop the run on first down. We have not stopped the pass for two years consistently. And you start looking at the quarterbacks across this league and the ability to throw the ball you better be able to stop the pass.
PETER IRWIN: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297