Mack Brown still loves college football, but speaking to the Little Rock Touchdown Club Monday, the former national championship winner at Texas sounded like a man happy to have the demands of coaching in 2025 behind him.
Brown, formerly a head coach at Appalachian State, Tulane, Texas and North Carolina, told the lunchtime crowd at the DoubleTree Hotel that he learned how to coach by following mentors like former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and former Arkansas coach Frank Broyles, and the current system that allows for unlimited transfers and virtually uncapped player payments has him bewildered.
“I was so lucky to be around those wonderful men, many who are in Heaven now and have to be rolling over in their grave, looking at what’s happening,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of guys that really do care. They didn’t ask for the money; we gave it to them. They want discipline and regulation and rules. We didn’t give it to them. Right now, the NFL’s got more guidelines than college football.”
Brown said new rules allowing for multiple transfers can make graduating harder for players due to the fact that not all college credits are transferable from one institution to another. Players who don’t move up to the NFL, Brown said, risk finding themselves without both a diploma and a support structure once their eligibility runs out.
“You’re not going to have the friends that you played with for four years,” Brown said. “And it makes it really difficult. I’m worried that the guys in their fourth transfer [school] will not be able to graduate. They won’t be able to get jobs. They’ve got no community support, and then we’re going to start having mental health issues.”
Brown said that the transfer portal puts more pressure on coaches to field winning programs on a year-by-year basis and that patience for college coaches has hit an all-time low.
“We’re firing coaches faster than ever,” Brown said. “We’ve got to look hard at the buyouts. We’re paying people $70 million to get fired. That doesn’t work. It’s not sustainable. That’s not fair.”
Among the schools shopping for a new coach will be Brown’s former rival, Arkansas. Brown said Monday that the right person can be successful in Fayetteville, but the expectations need to be properly aligned.
“It depends on the commitment,” Brown said. “Most of the jobs that are out there, the expectations are higher than the commitment, and that’s really difficult. People don’t want to hear it because it sounds, ‘Oooh, that’s not fun.’ But to compete anymore, you’re going to have to put a whole lot of money into it, or you shouldn’t expect your coach to win — and that’s it.”
Coaches also need a supportive fan structure to make the program look appealing, Brown said.
“When you want somebody fired, don’t write it to the public on social media,” Brown said. “That hurts your recruiting. If it’s not working, don’t boo them; go tell somebody with money to fire them and change. But don’t do it publicly. We don’t need a public hanging every time some coach doesn’t do well.”
AY Media Group is a proud media sponsor of the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
Feature image: Mack Brown with LRTDC founder and host David Bazzel. (Photo by DeWaine Duncan)
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