During the Mack Brown Era it's been very rare that Texas has won in non-bowl games by 7 or less. It's only happened 15 times in his 8 years. I want to take a look now at how Mack's horns have fared the week after a close win.
By my count, Mack has lost 20 games while at Texas. Only three of those losses have come in weeks after wins by 7 points or less, and two of those losses were to Oklahoma. Furthermore there is only one other occasion where Mack has followed a win by 7 or less with another win by 7 or less.
Let's take a look at the three losses and the one close call that have followed wins of 7 or less in Mack's tenure.
November 7th 1998 - Texas beats Oklahoma State 37-34
November 14th 1998 - Texas loses to Texas Tech 42-35
October 23rd 1999 - Texas beats Nebraska 24-20
October 30th 1999 - Texas beats Iowa State 44-41
October 5th 2002 - Texas beats Oklahoma State 17-15
October 12th 2002 - Texas loses to No. 8 Oklahoma 35-24
October 4th 2003 - Texas beats No. 10 Kansas State 24-20
October 11th 2003 - Texas loses to No. 3 Oklahoma 65-13
Some facts of note: The Horns haven't dropped the game following a close win since 2003, mostly because we've only had 4 wins by seven or less in non-bowl games since 2003. A lot of this is due to the fall of the Big XII North and, besides Ohio State, cupcake OOC scheduling.
Mack is 11-3 after wins of seven or less, and I think this is mainly because of the way Mack coaches. Some may have had room to criticize Mack for conservative play calling in big games, but no one can dispute that he gets his team ready for every game, preventing let downs after close games.
This weekend Mack has the chance to improve that record to 12-3, and though it's on TBS. Tech is the one team that Texas has played on TBS and not had a letdown. In 2004 TBS televised the Tech game and we crushed them, so there is a lot of room for optimism.
--AR--