Taking Stock – 2011 Texas Football: "Lost in Translation"

Bill Murray is a funny guy.  We all remember the movie.  Famous over-the-hill actor is taking jobs where he can get them.  Agent gets him an endorsement gig in Japan, yada yada, gets hooked up with young impressionable girl and finds his "inner youth".

As I watched Mack Brown yesterday during his first ‘media event' to discuss the coaching hiring carousel, effects of changes on current and future players, and the impact on all elements of the Texas Football environment at large, I was mesmerized just how far he has come in a few short months.  And just how far he reached down inside to find the youthful enthusiasm that fueled his rise to the top of the CFB coaching rank.

Here's a man who now has publicly admitted to:

• "(Having) to look hard in that mirror and review who you are and what you are and start over."

• "(I am) really reenergized by going out and recruiting and seeing the parents and the high school coaches and the kids, and the fact that all the kids hung in there with us. I also told them (UT players) that I'd never been more excited, and that I was starting over. That's very important for them to know. Thirteen years ago I didn't know what I was doing, and now I've got 13 years of experience with new energy and a restart."

• "I was working really, really hard to try to make sure that we got the right coaches hired, to make sure that we were recruiting the upcoming guys - the seniors - and continuing to recruit the juniors."

• "I have been reenergized by the process. Hearing the positives from the players just as I come back and the excitement about the new start, the excitement about change in the offense, change in the defense and changeup in special teams and moving forward, has really been fun for me to see because it's really about the players. It's not about anybody else."

• "I do know that I felt like I had a hangover after the national championship game, and I don't know if I've ever taken a loss as hard. I think part of it was Colt [McCoy], part of it was it's just too hard to get there. We just barely missed in 2008. We just barely missed in 2009, and I don't think I did a good job of coming back out of it and getting a spark and getting the energy back to where I needed it to be and I didn't realize it. I just pouted for a while, and when you're pouting at 13-1 that's pretty stupid..."

• "It wasn't fun for us off the field, for Sally and I, but I didn't do my job on the field and I'm going to make sure Texas fans and kids know I'm going to go back and do what I'm supposed to do."

• "It was really challenging to hold it together. It was challenging to hire the new staff. It was fun to see how all the pieces fit, and I really enjoyed it. I mean it was funny, you all must have written some awful things about me, and I'd walk out and see people and they'd say, "Are you okay?" And I'd say, "I'm having a blast. What do you mean am I okay?"

• "It is great being out of my comfort zone because I'm back at work. New ideas. Fresh new ideas. It's fun for our fans. It should be fun for you all. I mean to get to know these new guys, and see a new offense, see the new defenses and what we are going to do on special teams. It's fun for the players. It's fun for the recruits. I think it's a great time for Texas football."

• "You got to make sure that you keep your foot on the pedal all the time. I think at one point that I must have thought that because we're Texas and we've won so much, we're just going to win. On bad years we'll win 10. On good years we got a chance to win it all. You can't think that. You have got to make sure that every day you get up there better be a goal to be set, and you better be moving forward to make [sure] that goal is the right one."

• "You have to earn the right every day to play. I don't know why we kept doing it last year. We kept saying it, but I don't know if we did it as much as we said it. You look back and sometimes you get yourself in a funk, and I think you get blinded by some things. And you get mad and stay down. You ended up missing some stuff, and that is my job. And that is some stuff I missed."

• "I think if you've got the edge you're having fun."

Yes, Mack Brown v2.0 appears healthy, refreshed, reinvigorated, rejuvenated, relaxed, focused, and mindful of the incredible delicate balances that are Texas Football.  Make no mistake about it, the Mack Brown that DeLoss Dodds hired all those years ago, albeit reluctantly (sorry Gary Barnett), is back.  Like a vengeance he's back.  And with his leadership there should be no limit to what this organization can accomplish.

13 years ago I asked Coach Royal, I said, "What has been wrong with Texas football?" He said, "People were all over the place, nobody pulled together." I thought we got splintered a little bit as a fan base and a group last year, and it's time for us to pull back together and be like we were in 1998. When everybody - the fans, the alumni, our letterman, the high school coaches - when everybody pulls together for one, this is a powerful place. It's time for us to go back to work and make sure we get back to where we need to be.

Like many, I certainly was skeptical of his willingness to accept the facts for what they were coming off the abysmal performance last season.  Shame on me.  We all know Mack Brown for a man of character, honor, humility, and intelligence.  There was not going to be any quit in Mack Brown.  No sir.  He cares to deeply for the institution that has provided him with so many blessings.

And make no mistake critics, this man is not in the game for a legacy.  He's in to win!

So listen up everybody.  Let's all buy in.  Circle the wagons and cover the man on your right.  And whatever you do, don't give up on this program, this team, this coach.  The future of Texas Football is certainly as bright today as it has ever been.