Hell no to Mack Brown. We don't need Mack Brown looking over Charlie Strong's shoulder, especially since he didn't end his career as coach too well. Hire a competent AD and he or she will repair the relationship with the donors.
How Mack Brown could ride to Texas' rescue
Sounds like Texas may soon be in the market for a new athletic director.
According to a report that came out of Austin on Monday morning, the school's president is strongly considering parting ways with Steve Patterson. Hasn't made a final decision, apparently, but is thinking seriously about pulling the trigger.
Should that happen, here's a name for the head Horn to consider.
Mack Brown.
He is the perfect person to take over as the next athletic director at Texas, which will soon be on the schedule but is always on the minds of our state's Big 12 teams. Now, I'm not saying Mack would be a perfect athletic director for every university. The former Longhorn football coach might not be a legitimate candidate at many, if any, other Power Five schools.
But for Texas right here, right now, Mack would be a big-hit, slam-dunk, home-run hire.
Here's why: Patterson has wrecked relations with donors.
This has become a well-known and oft-reported issue in Austin. Donors of all shapes, sizes and socio-economic classes have been turned off by Patterson. Their complaints are many. Some don't like the way he's handled football season tickets. Some believe he's botched facilities expansion. Others feel neglected as donors.
It's all led to the feeling among donors that Patterson is aloof and cold and his athletic department is, too.
According to a story by longtime Texas beat writer Chip Brown, the rift between Patterson and Texas donors has led school president Gregory Fenves to look seriously at going a different direction. Brown reported in the online Horns Digest that "Fenves has basically given Patterson a directive to repair any damaged donor relationships or communications."
The damage, though, is significant.
This season, 10,000 football season ticket holders didn't renew. Part of that might have been because the Horns went 6-7 last season, continuing a five-year string of rough seasons, but Patterson also upped the cost of tickets by an average of 21.5 percent.
Saturday's game against Rice had an announced attendance of 86,458, but from the looks of things, that was charitable. There were obviously empty areas in the 100,119 seats ringing Joe Jamail Field.
Speaking of Jamail, the Houston trial lawyer who has made billions is one of Texas' biggest, most generous boosters, but according to Brown's report, Jamail canceled his suite at football games this season.
Talk about dubious news for Patterson.
Here's a bit more: Texas has yet to sell about 8,000 tickets of its allotment for the Red River Shootout.
Needless to say, donors big and small aren't happy about the state of the burnt orange. They don't feel good about their school. They don't feel connected to their teams.
You know who could make Texas types feel loved again, who could make Longhorn lovers feel good again?
Mack Brown could do it in about five minutes.
Mack has a charisma about him that is undeniable. He is friendly. He is charming. Some might say he's got the personality of a car salesman -- in fact, I might've said that a time or two -- but he really does have a way of engaging and connecting with people.
Look at all the not-so-good seasons he survived in Austin. A football coach who wasn't so well liked probably would've been fired a couple years before Mack was.
Bottom line, people like him.
Secondly, he understands the politics of Texas athletics. About a year ago, I spoke to Mack in advance of the Red River game. It was the first time he hadn't been part of it in nearly two decades, and we talked all about his memories and experiences not only of that rivalry but also of his time building Texas back into a power.
He spoke candidly about the factions at Texas that can be easily split.
"It's like a box of BBs that have been dropped," he said. "It will be your job to put all the BBs back in the box.
"It's a powerful place if you keep everybody on the same page."
But ...
"It's just hard to keep everybody on the same page."
He gets it. He understands it. And he has the personality to navigate it.
He has the passion to do it, too. I'm sure there are people who love the Longhorns more than Mack Brown, but his heartstrings are clearly tied to Texas. Even being fired, he refused to say much of anything about the Horns or new coach Charlie Strong. He didn't want to hamper what the new regime was trying to do.
That's some pretty clear to devotion to doing what he feels is best for Texas.
And if Patterson is given the boot, there'd be nothing better for Texas than having Mack Brown as the athletic director.
Granted, he'd need an assistant or six who handled the business side of the athletic department. The CEO-type aspects of being an athletic director in today's college sports world would have to fall to someone with that kind of acumen. But that type of arrangement could be done. Texas has the budget to hire a few Wall Street whiz kids to count all the beans and dot all the Is.
They can handle behind the scenes.
Mack can be the front man.
Let him go out and shake a few hands, tell a few stories, take a few pictures flashing that Horns-up hand signal. Let him reassure donors that their school loves them as much as they love it. Heck, get Mack in the room with enough high rollers, and he might be able to bring in as much money as Patterson was hoping to raise with hikes in ticket prices.
By all accounts, things are bad at Texas, and everyone knows the health of the Horns is important to the health of the Big 12.
The fixes won't be easy. The solutions won't come overnight. But making Mack the AD would be a good place to start.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at NewsOK.com/jennicarlson
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