by By Michael Sherfield, Daily Texan; SOURCE: U. Texas , University Wire

In the state of Texas, football is the undisputed king. All you have to do is look at the 98,000 people that make up a sea of burnt orange on game day. After spending most of the '90s languishing in underachievement, the Longhorns have returned to their rightful place of college royalty under the guidance of Mack Brown. That alone places him at the top of the Texas crop when it comes to coaches. The fact that he has remodeled the football program into one of the most successful in the nation over the past decade only adds to the separation between him and his worthy competitors at Texas.

Over the past 11 years, Brown has been the mortar that binds Texas football , the foundation upon which this decade of success has been built. He is in the new bricks that have recreated Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium and the millions of pixels that give life to its Godzillatron. He's even in the name of the Web site: www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com.

But more important than the national title in 2005, more than the BCS bowl game wins and the eight consecutive 10-win seasons, Brown's role is that of a bridge. He is the link between the Longhorns' glorious past and its resurrection to the national stage, obscuring the mediocrity in between.

There is no doubt Brown is the best coach in Texas football history whose name does not reside on the stadium. Like Darrell K Royal before him, he was an outsider brought into the Texas tradition, a fact that did not win him instant acceptance. Along the way, there were struggles. He had a stretch of five consecutive losses to bitter rival Oklahoma and failed to win a BCS bowl or conference championship to start his career on the 40 Acres.

Those failures brought about the accusation that Brown and the Longhorns, for all their consistency and quality in recruiting, couldn't win the big game.

That all changed with one wobbly kick in early 2005. After earning his team a spot in the Rose Bowl over California through politics that at time made him as famous as his coaching, Brown lead his team to its first ever triumph in the Rose Bowl. On the legs of Vince Young and the right foot of Dusty Mangum, Texas beat Michigan 38-37 as time expired in one of the greatest games the hallowed field has ever seen.

They were back a year later to top it off. With the national title at stake, the Longhorns claimed their first championship since Royal's glory days over favored Southern California, with Young again the catalyst in a thrilling 41-38 win.

Since then, the Longhorns and Brown have been on a steady march towards a second title. Each of the past three years they have come closer, culminating in last season's tiebreaker debacle that saw Oklahoma top Texas in the polls by a few fractions of a percentage point.

Heading into 2009, Brown has his most balanced team since the 2005 squad that won it all, with senior quarterback Colt McCoy, a runner-up in last year's Heisman Trophy competition, returning to take the reigns on a ruthlessly efficient offense.

A second title in his 12-year career at Texas would push Brown into the all-time greats that have coached the college game. Among his current peers, his standing is already among the very best.

To go with the 2005 hardware, Brown has presided over arguably the best program in the country over the past decade. For starters, his team does not lose. Eight consecutive 10-win seasons is by far the longest active streak and second of all time. Meanwhile, after his shaky start to the Red River Rivalry, Brown has won three of the last four meetings against nemesis Bob Stoops. Five consecutive bowl game wins, three of which were BCS bowls, don't hurt either. Under Brown, Texas has finished in the top six in the coaches' poll five times, while posting a 115-26 record.

In the meantime, Brown has made Texas a world-class program off the field as well. With state-of-the art facilities, from Memorial Stadium to the Moncrief Neuhaus Athletics Center, the Longhorns have turned recruiting into an art, ensuring the future of Texas football as well as the present. The football program, meanwhile, is the lynchpin to an athletics program that is the richest of any school in the country.

And yet, all of these achievements pale in comparison to a simple, undeniable fact. Over the past 11 years, Brown has restored the Longhorns to their place atop the college football world. With the second most victories all-time and the most wins over the past nine years, Texas football is back, and it might just be better than ever.

(C) 2008 Daily Texan via UWIRE

Copyright 2009 Daily Texan via U-Wire
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