Chat Reel: Mack Brown
Texas head coach discusses plans for upcoming season
Posted: Thursday August 12, 1999 06:51 PM
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Brown thnks N.C. State will be their toughest game "because the opener is always the most important". Stephen Dunn/Allsport |
University of Texas head coach Mack Brown recently shared some of his thoughts about the 1999 season with CNNSI.com users. A transcript of his comments follows:
CNNSI Host: Thanks for coming today, everyone. I'd like to welcome Texas head coach Mack Brown to the chat room today. Welcome, Coach Brown!
Mack Brown: Thank you
J.B.: What freshmen have stood out amoung this year's class and what freshmen may get to start against NC State?
Mack Brown: Right now we are not planning on starting any freshman in the game against N.C. State, but a number of freshmen will play, specifically on offense. Baber has been a standout on corner, along with Redding at LB but, we're really pleased with the freshman class. Three true freshman offensive linemen are backing up on the second team and obviously our second and third team QB's are true freshmen. But there's been too many good performances to single out individuals.
Chiles: Who is looking to be our answer to the running game at this point?
Mack Brown: Right now, Ricky Brown and Hodges Mitchell and they would be backed up by Chris Robertson and Victor Ike.
Brittany: I had a question about Major Applewhite and the passing game. Major put up some pretty impressive numbers last year. Do you think the passing game will be as effective without the presence of Ricky Williams?
Mack Brown: I think the passing game will be as effective as it was last year. Nunez and Flowers have been improving each day and have had three great practices in a row and Kwame Cavil could be one of the best receivers in the country.
Guest: Coach, is Roderick Babers as impressive as everyone has been saying?
Mack Brown: Yes, we've been impressed with all the young corners that we've signed, but right now Babers is ahead of the other guys.
Gohorns: How does our pass protection look this year Coach Brown?
Mack Brown: Right now our offensive line is not where we need it to be, but they're talented, just inexperienced. We feel this line can be as good or better as last year's with time.
Craig: Last year our teams motivation was to help Ricky win the Heisman, what is this years motivation for our team?
Mack Brown: This year's motivation is to try to win all the games. We've sold 45,500 season tickets, we have tremendous fan support and our team wants to continue the great tradition of Texas football and find their place in Texas history and please the tremendous fans.
Entropy: The Big12 appears to be maturing into the football conference it was always intended to become. How do you see the race for the Big12 title and what teams worry you the most?
Mack Brown: Well right now, I think everyone is considering Neb. in the northern division and Texas A&M in the southern. We get everybody's best shot. You have to play your best every Saturday, we can't pick one team as being more emotional than everybody else. Everybody likes to beat Texas.
Guest: What game in the incoming year do you see as your toughest?
Mack Brown: The N.C. State, because the opener is always the most important and it's the toughtest. The only game we talk about winning at this time is the opener, because if you don't win it, you can't have a shot at winning all the rest of the games.
Gary: I've been hearing great things about cornerback Ahmad Brooks recently. Will he likely be starting at corner opposite Joe Walker, or can we expect one of our talented freshmen to take over that role?
Mack Brown: Right now Ahmad is competing with Hill and Ahmad has been impressive this fall. The freshmen are competing for the fourth corner spot, because we'd like to play two deep across the corner spots on defense.
Tom: I seem to remember you platooning quarterbacks in one of your final years at UNC. Would that be a possibility with Major Applewhite and Chris Simms? What are the positives and negatives to this approach?
Mack Brown: It is a possibility, it's something we've considered, because with no experience in the second quarterback spot, you need to work them into game experience. We do need to get Chris into ball games early.
Guest: Mack: How do you plan on stopping NC State QB Jamie Barnette?
Mack Brown: Jamie is one of the top QB's in the country. He is very athletic. You don't stop him, you just try to slow him down.
Guest: What is your greatest memory of last season?
Mack Brown: The greatest memory I think is when we beat Nebraska in Lincoln, that's because I personally have so much for Nebraska and what they've been able to accomplish and for this team to go on the road and win is much more difficult than winning at home.
Guest: Coach, do you have any plans to feature Ricky Brown in a 1-back set this year? He seems to have all the skills you could want in a spread formation i.e.blocking, recieving, & power to break tackles.
Mack Brown: Ricky Brown will touch the ball more and we plan on using both he and Hodges Mitchell as our one back in a four wideout formation.
Guest: How long until we reach our goal of being national Champions at UT? I am expecting this year or the next. What do you think?
Mack Brown: It's probably unlikely this year even though that is our goal, but because of our youth and inexperience, most people in the country that know football are not expecting it this year, though it's always our goal. Our goal is to win all the games with nice young men that are graduating.
Enzo the Baker: Coach Brown, lost in the talk this year is the special teams. How is the punting game and the especially the coverage teams this year?
Mack Brown: Ryan Long has done a tremendous job of punting for us and we're spending more time in meetings and on the field with special teams. Because we realize that with our inexperience on offense that our special teams will have to carry us
Guest: Coach, what was the key to your recruiting success this year? It was personally satisfying to see some of our Texas talent stay here.
Mack Brown: I think our success was based on a number of facts, No. 1 we have a tremendous school acadmeically No. 2 we have a facility nice as any place in America. We have one of the best football traditions. We have an athletic dept. as committed as any in America, a great group of assistant coaches. Also one of the places where a person can get recognition for great play and a chance to win all the games. We feel we should have great recruiting every year.
Guest: In recent years, Texas has been known as a high-powered offense, will this continue, or we will be known more for defense?
Mack Brown: Hopefully we'll be known for being a great team that has all three phases ... offense, defense and kicking teams. That's the only way to win the national championship.
Tres: Where do you see our 'Horns come December?
Mack Brown: Well what we're doing again is focusing on Aug. 28 and obviously the way we plan then will have something to do with how we play in Dec. Our goal is always to be playing in January of the next year.
CNNSI Host: Thanks very much for joining us today, Coach Brown. Best of luck this season.
Mack Brown: Thanks.
CNNSI Host: The transcript will be available this evening on the College Football areas of the site.
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