Who Is the Best Football Coach In College?

Let me give a disclaimer on this post. I am not a native Texan, although I have lived here quite a while. I did not go to the University of Texas. In fact during my early years here, I had great delight when my school that I sat on the bench for, the University of Miami, beat Texas quite soundly in the Cotton Bowl. I am thankful that I have mostly realized that it is always just a game, and ususally I can answer none to the question "how many points did you score?"

But now I'll say it. For all the right reasons, Mack Brown is the best coach in major college football. At least in my mind he was yesterday. You see, after yesterday's game with Kansas, Brown pondered to reporters something along the lines of "where has the sportsmanship gone?"

Upon further review, Brown did not have his team score any points in the last quarter of the game. In fact, he probably did something that is revolutionary....he let some of his young men play in a game, who would otherwise see very little time. These same young men have to take all the punishment during practice, in some cases they are human tackling dummies. They have to do all the sprints, all the sweating in Texas humidity, all the weight work and conditioning to be a football player, and in alot of instances they never get to play.

I remember when I was a young man, in my area the big game was Arizona-Arizona State. I was told that if a Sun Devil got in one play, yes one play, he would get a varsity letter, even if that was the only play he was in all year. Something a starter takes for granted is a big deal for a player that doesn't see the light of day very often.

What I see going down with Coach Brown is a two edged sword. He is sacrificing his possible BCS ranking by doing something far more important...Team Building. I think this coach sees the big picture. You see, some of these kids will be future coaches. They will remember this day. It will be to his favor for future recruits when they visit Austin and pet on Bevo, or whatever they do there. He is letting the little guy who sacrifices so much get in a game against a pretty good team, Kansas. But for alot of people, it will be "wow, Texas only beat Kansas 35-7, how can they really be that good." When I see the next coach run up the score against someone who is down, I would say to them, is it really all that. I know you cannot tell players to back off in any sport, especially football, but you can ALWAYS respect your opponent....and this is a lesson that is frequently lost.