Mack Brown

Early life

Brown was born as the middle of three boys (brothers Mel and Watson) on August 27, 1951, in Cookeville, Tennessee. He was born into a Church of Christ family. During his teenage years, he attended Putnam County High School. Brown's family had a long history with football. His grandfather, Eddie Watson, was an athlete at Tennessee Tech and a coach at Putnam County High School for more than three decades. His father, Melvin Brown, was also a coach and an administrator. Mack's older brother Watson also coached, and was the head football coach at a total of six Division I football schools, ending his career with their hometown school, Tennessee Tech. Mack attended Vanderbilt University before attending Florida State University and graduating in 1974. He later received a graduate degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1976. During his undergraduate years, Brown was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Playing career

Brown was a three-sport star at Putnam County High School, playing football, basketball and baseball. After his senior season, he won All-State as well as Prep All-America honors and was selected one of the nation's top running backs by Scholastic Magazine his senior year. The Tennessean selected him as the state player of the year.

He accepted a football scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where his brother Watson Brown was the starting quarterback. In his time playing for the Vanderbilt Commodores, he played for Bill Pace and rushed 82 times for 364 yards and three touchdowns, as well as catching seven passes for 50 yards and a touchdown during the 1970 season.

Brown then transferred to Florida State University. Brown played for Florida State under head coach Larry Jones. At Florida State, he had 31 rushing attempts for 98 yards and 10 catches for 76 yards with no touchdowns in the 1972 season. Lettering twice as a running back for the Seminoles, he started his coaching career as a student coach after five knee surgeries ended his career prematurely.

While at Florida State, Brown was roommates with Dick Hopkins.

Coaching career

Early positions

Brown's first experience coaching came as a student coach of wide receivers at Florida State, a position he held in 1973 and 1974. From 1975 to 1977, he was the wide receivers coach at Southern Miss. This was followed by a one-year stint as wide receivers coach at Memphis State.

For the 1979 season, he joined the staff of Iowa State, again as a wide receivers coach, before a promotion to offensive coordinator. In 1980, after going 3–8 the year prior, Iowa State improved their record to 6–5 in large part due to running back Dwayne Crutchfield (1,312 yards with 11 TDs) and the rest of Brown's offense. The team scored 108 more points that year than they had in 1979. In 1981, the team finished with a 5–5–1 record, despite starting out with a record of 5–1–1. RB Dwayne Crutchfield was again a key focal point in Brown's offense and ran for 1,189 yards with 17 TDs.

In 1982, Brown moved to LSU as the quarterbacks coach. The LSU Tigers improved their record to 8–3–1 from 3–7–1 the year prior in large part due to Brown's coaching of quarterback Alan Risher, who threw for 1,834 yards with 17 TD and 8 INT. He also completed 63.7% of his pass attempts. Risher had thrown 14 TD in the previous two seasons combined before Brown's arrival.

Appalachian State

Brown's first head coaching job came in 1983 when he led Appalachian State to a 6–5 record. In December 1983, he was seriously considered for the head coaching position at LSU which had been vacated after Jerry Stovall was fired, but the position instead went to Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger.

Oklahoma

Brown moved back to a role as offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners during the 1984 season under head coach Barry Switzer. Oklahoma would run for 2,376 yards as a team that season, averaging 216 yards a game. QB Danny Bradley also would throw for nearly 1,000 yards with 8 TD vs 5 INT. RBs Lydell Carr, Steve Sewell, and Spencer Tillman combined to run for 1,651 yards with 12 TD.

Tulane

Brown's second head coaching position came with Tulane in 1985, where he also became the school's athletic director in the wake of a point shaving scandal which led to the shutdown of the men's basketball program. Despite a slow start (a 1–10 record in his first year), he made gradual improvement, leading the Green Wave to a 4–7 record in 1986 and, in 1987, to a 6–6 record and a trip to the Independence Bowl, Tulane's fifth bowl game in over 40 years and last until 1998.

North Carolina (first stint)

In 1988, Brown was named the head coach at North Carolina. Brown's first two teams finished with identical 1–10 records, the worst two seasons that the Tar Heels have suffered on the field in modern times. However, the next two years saw a relatively quick return to respectability. In 1990, the Tar Heels finished 6–4–1. By comparison, the Tar Heels had won only seven games in the previous three years. Included in the 1990 total was a tie of Georgia Tech that proved to be the Yellow Jackets' only non-win that season en route to a share of the national championship. In 1991, the Tar Heels finished 7–4, narrowly missing a bowl bid.

Everything finally came together for the Tar Heels in 1992. They finished 8–3 in the regular season and second in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and with a victory over Mississippi State in the Peach Bowl, they finished the season at 9–3. The Peach Bowl was the program's first bowl appearance since 1986 and their first bowl win since 1982. They also notched their first appearance in a final Top 25 poll since 1982.

The 1992 season was the start of UNC's most successful period since the Charlie Justice era in the late 1940s. Brown coached the Tar Heels to five consecutive bowl games, including UNC's only two New Year's Day bowl games in more than half a century (or three, if one counts the 1992–93 Peach Bowl, which was played the day after New Year's to avoid a conflict with the Sugar Bowl). They were ranked in the AP Top 25 every week from October 1992 through the start of the 1995 season. They finished in the final rankings in four out of five years, including two straight appearances in the top 10. They also won 10 regular-season games in 1993 and 1997, only the second and third times the Tar Heels have accomplished this. Largely due to Florida State joining the league in 1992, Brown was unable to win an ACC title—something the Tar Heels haven't done since 1980.

Brown's time at UNC also saw renewed popularity for a team that had long played in the shadow of the school's powerhouse basketball team. Games at Kenan Memorial Stadium were almost always sold out, the highlight being a standing-room only crowd of 62,000 that watched the Tar Heels play Florida State in 1997, still the largest crowd to watch a college football game on campus in the state of North Carolina. Brown also spearheaded a major renovation to Kenan Stadium that featured upgraded team facilities and an expansion to 60,000 seats.

Texas

In his early years at UT, Brown was referred to as "Coach February," due to his success in bringing in high talent recruits. His detractors felt that with all the resources at his disposal at Texas, combined with the talent he was recruiting from high school programs, that he should have more to show for it than appearances in the Holiday Bowl or Cotton Bowl Classic. They felt that he should be playing for Big 12 titles or even National Championships instead.

In five of the first seven seasons under Brown, the Longhorns were all but eliminated from either of these two goals due to losses in October to Big 12 rival Oklahoma. Since the two teams played in the same division of the Big 12, a loss by Texas to Oklahoma meant that Texas could not win the south division of the conference unless Oklahoma lost at least two conference games. However, in 1999 Brown led Texas to their second Big 12 title game where they were beaten by a higher ranked Nebraska team that they had beaten earlier in the year. In 2001, Brown took Texas to their 3rd Big 12 title game. In that year's campaign, the Longhorns lost to the Sooners, but were given another chance when the Sooners lost to both Nebraska and Oklahoma State. Texas lost the Big 12 Championship Game to Colorado, a school they had beaten by a substantial margin earlier in the year. Many felt that Texas would have played in the BCS Championship game had they beaten Colorado. A similar opportunity presented itself in 2002. After Oklahoma beat Texas, they lost to Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. However, Texas suffered a loss to Texas Tech, so they did not make the championship game.

In 2003, Texas finished the regular season with a 10–2 regular season record, and most observers felt they had the resume to reach their first BCS bowl under Brown. However, when South Champion (and No. 1 ranked) Oklahoma lost to North Champion Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game, Kansas State received the Big 12 Conference's automatic BCS bid as conference champion and joined Oklahoma in the BCS. The BCS rules specified that no more than two teams from a single conference could receive bids. Texas was frozen out.

Although Brown consistently led the Longhorns to a bowl game to cap off each season in his first six years, he was not able to lead them to a Bowl Championship Series game, having to settle each year for the Holiday Bowl or Cotton Bowl Classic. His record in these games was 3–3, with two of the three losses coming at the hands of supposedly inferior teams as judged by the rankings headed into the games.

North Carolina (second stint)

On November 27, 2018, Brown was named head coach at North Carolina after a 5-year absence from coaching and 21 years after he left UNC for Texas. In his first game coaching in 6 years and first game as North Carolina's coach in 22 years, the Tar Heels upset the South Carolina Gamecocks in Charlotte 24–20. Coincidentally his first game as North Carolina's coach in 1988 came against South Carolina. In the home opener a week later, the Tar Heels defeated the Miami Hurricanes on a last-minute touchdown. Two weeks later, they nearly upset No. 1 ranked and defending national champion Clemson, but what would have been the go-ahead two-point conversion failed. It proved to be the only close game Clemson had in the regular season.

The following week, Brown's Tar Heels defeated Georgia Tech 38–22. It was Brown's 72nd win with the Tar Heels, tying Dick Crum as the winningest coach in school history. He broke the record two weeks later with a 20–17 victory over Duke. On November 30, UNC defeated NC State 41–10 to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2016. They then routed Temple 55–13 in the Military Bowl.

Brown's second tenure as Tar Heel coach has seen a significant uptick in recruiting. Shortly after returning to Chapel Hill, Brown convinced Sam Howell, a highly touted high school quarterback from Indian Trail, North Carolina (a suburb of Charlotte) to de-commit from Florida State. Chazz Surratt, one of the team's quarterbacks for the previous two seasons under Larry Fedora, switched to the defensive side of the ball and became an all-ACC linebacker. Despite losing six games in his first season back, Brown's influence was evident by the team's performances on the field.

In 2020, Brown led the Tar Heels to a tie for third place in the ACC (divisional play had been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic). With both Clemson and Notre Dame selected for the College Football Playoff, the Tar Heels received a berth in the Orange Bowl as the highest-ranked remaining ACC team. It was the Tar Heels' first major-bowl appearance since after the 1949 season. Brown's Tar Heels lost 41–27 to No. 5 Texas A&M, but held the lead early in the fourth quarter.

Entering the 2021 season, Brown's Tar Heels were ranked 9th in the preseason AP Poll and were picked by the media to win the ACC Coastal Division. Junior quarterback Sam Howell was poised to be one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy and was picked as the preseason ACC Player of the Year. The Tar Heels entered the season with the highest expectations in over a decade.

Notable statistics and accomplishments

2005 NCAA Football National Championship (game played in January 2006)

2005 NCAA Football Coach of the Year

20 consecutive winning seasons

18 consecutive bowl game appearances

162 consecutive weeks ranked in the AP poll from 2000 to 2010 and 192 consecutive weeks ranked in the coach's poll from 1998 to 2010.

Big 12 Conference record 21 consecutive conference wins from 2004 to 2006.

Player awards at Texas under Brown include a Heisman Trophy winner (Ricky Williams), three Maxwell Award winners (Ricky Williams, Vince Young, Colt McCoy), two Davey O'Brien Award Winners (Vince Young, Colt McCoy), two Doak Walker Award winners (Ricky Williams, Cedric Benson), a Butkus Award winner, two Thorpe Award winners and four national player of the year honors. Texas has also had 23 All-Americans, 37 first-team All-Big 12 selections, three Big 12 Offensive Players of the Year, two Big 12 Conference Defensive Players of the Year and seven Big 12 Freshman of the Year honorees.

UT posted back-to-back 11-win seasons, nine consecutive 10-win seasons and ten consecutive 9-win campaigns for the first time in school history. However, Texas played a maximum of only 11 games per season up until 1975 and only 12 games per season up until 1995 (including conference championship and bowl game).

The Longhorns under Brown featured the only 3,000-yard passer, the only 2,000-yard rusher, the only 1,000-yard receivers and the only 1,000-yard passer/rusher in UT history (again, note the longer seasons in recent decades).

Brown is one of only three head coaches in FBS history to coach players who recorded a 2,000-yard rushing season, a 1,000-yard receiving season and a 3,000-yard passing season. Also, Vince Young stands as the first player in NCAA history to rush for 1,000 yards (1,050) and throw for 3,000 yards (3,036) in a single season.

Outside of football

Mack Brown's wife is named Sally. They have four children: Matt Jessee, Katherine Brown, Barbara Wilson, and Chris Jessee.

In Austin, Mack and Sally continue to be active in community affairs, serving as honorary co-chairpersons of the Capital Campaign for the Helping Hands of Austin. They have also been instrumental in the opening of The Rise School of Austin (an early childhood education program that integrates children who have disabilities with their typically developing peers) and serve on the school's board of directors. They lent their name along with legendary Texas quarterback James Street to the First Annual James Street/Mack Brown Golf Tournament benefiting The Rise School. The Browns have endorsed a new Texas license plate, which is designed to raise public awareness for child abuse and neglect, and the need for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) volunteers. After the Aggie Bonfire tragedy at Texas A&M in 1999, the couple initiated a blood drive on the Texas campus that attracted more than 250 blood donors. Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell pronounced January 30, 2014, "Mack and Sally Brown Day" in honor of the many contributions the Browns had made to the city of Austin during Mack's time as head coach of the Longhorns.

In October 2006, Mack Brown made a cameo appearance in the television pilot for Friday Night Lights. Early in the show, a resident is heard to say "Who does [Coach Taylor] think he is? Mack Brown? He's no Mack Brown." Later in the pilot, the real Mack Brown plays the role of a local football booster quizzing high school coach Eric Taylor on his pre-game preparation. As Longhorn coach, Brown also appeared in commercials for College GameDay where he sang "Texas Fight" with the GameDay crew.