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Texas fans have watched with interest this bowl season at many of the top coaching candidates, viewing their bowl performances as a de facto job interview. After all, Mack Brown was a pretty good 10-5 in bowl games, and if you can't do better than Mack in bowls, you shouldn't be our coach. Cross Art Briles off the list because he lost to UCF, giving up 52 points to the Big East/CBS champions. Briles may run a prolific offense and built up a perennial loser into a conference champion, but no thank you when you lose one bowl game on national TV. Also, no defense and NO POWER RUNNING AT ALL.
Shaw and Dantonio? They were duking it out for a Texas offer. Dantonio won. Shaw is out.
It also doesn't help if you can't beat OU. Mike Gundy is 1-9 against Stoops, including losing to him this season even though the Pokes were favored to win. Gundy is a no-go, because even Mack Brown beat Stoops more than once. Heck, we thrashed OU this season with Case McCoy at QB.
So where does that leave Nick Saban, whom many Texas fans covet the most? Well, he just lost his bowl game. To OU. To an OU team that Texas whipped. Double whammy. Therefore, he both cannot win bowl games and cannot beat OU, only defeating Stoops once (2003). Again, Mack Brown's wins against Stoops SEXTUPLE the amount of times Saban has beaten Stoops. We don't want any of that mess.
I mean, look at these box scores:
Team Stat Comparison
Team Stat Comparison
Unacceptable. Alabama has proven to be a paper tiger. We'll lose Texas kids because Saban can't beat Oklahoma, nor teach his players how to defend a field goal return.
The criteria for finding a Texas coach is simple:
1. Has not lost a game in recent memory, especially a bowl game.
2. Has a dominating record over Bob Stoops.
3. Has won a national championship in the last ten years.
4. Has done his winning at a big-time school, therefore proving that he can withstand the rigors of coaching at Texas.
5. Has a name that the average fan will recognize and will make wealthy boosters happy.
We're Texas. We don't need to settle for riff-raff. Make it happen, Belmont.