Big 12 football: Mack Brown likes Nebraska
If there’s bad blood in the Texas-Nebraska series, it generally flows one way. From north to south. Texas coach Mack Brown will have no talk of venom towards the Huskers.
Nebraska is leaving the Big 12 after this season, and both chancellor Harvey Perlman and Tom Osborne expressed disgust with UT when announcing Nebraska’s departure for the Big Ten. Politics, revenue distribution, conference influence, the controversial Big 12 title game last December, lots of things go into those thoughts.
Now Nebraska is gearing up for hosting Texas on Oct. 16 in a game that has been circled for a long time in Lincoln.
“I really think that’s a compliment to us, very honestly, for a program like Nebraska to be talking about Texas this time of year,” Brown said Wednesday during Big 12 Media Days. “And they should be. They’re good. They’ve gotten back. They’re in the mix on the national scene.
Texas head football coach Mack Brown talks with reporters at Big 12 media day in Irving, Texas, on Wednesday, July 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)
“My only disappointment is that we may never play again unless it just happens, because I love that game. I’ve said many times, and I really mean this, as a young coach growing up in a coaching family, I looked at coaches across the country that I admired and wanted to be like, and Coach Osborne is one of those guys. I’ve enjoyed him. I’ve gone to visit there. I’ve watched Nebraska practice. He helps me in so many ways.”
Brown said much of what he did while on Donnie Duncan’s staff at Iowa State in the early 1980s and Barry Switzer’s staff in 1984, he got from Osborne.
“I can honestly say that if I called Coach Osborne this afternoon and asked for help, he’d give it to me. He’s just a great person and a person I admire a lot. I admire Bo (Pelini, NU’s current coach) a lot. He’s done a tremendous job. I think Bo is very similar to (UT defensive coordinator) Will Muschamp. They’re aggressive. They’ve got a great style of defense. They charge up the kids.”
Brown also spoke glowingly of Nebraska fans’ legendary sportsmanship.
“The highlight of my old sports life in sportsmanship was in ’98, when we played (Nebraska’s) great blackshirt defense. After the game, (Texas’) Ricky Williams gained 150 yards, and we’re out on the field with an ABC interview, and I actually told him to put your helmet on and keep your head down as you’re walking off the field. I’ll never forget that the Nebraska fans gave him a standing ovation and started the chant of ‘Heisman, Heisman, Heisman.’”
Williams won the Heisman that season.
“So I think it’s a great place to play,” Brown said of Lincoln. “There’s a lot of spirit right now between the two schools. There’s none between myself and Coach Osborne, our team and the Nebraska team. We have great respect for them. We look forward to going to play.
“Everybody is talking about Nebraska fans may not give us as good a welcome. I think they will. They’re tremendous fans. I’ve never seen teams that clap for the other team when they leave the field. It’s just an amazing place to me. And we’ve tried to model ourself – our fans in some cases will stand up for the other team as they leave the field, and that was modeled at Nebraska.”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Did anyone bother to ask the sainted Mack why he brought four players instead of the alotted three?
It’s Texas’s conference and they just do what they feel like doing.
Yes, Barry…I second Ramon’s question. I do not recall “disgust” from Perlman or Osborne. Please elaborate.
And as far as the “flow of bad blood”… when you reach Texas level arrogance, you have no need for bad blood. If you believe yourself so superior to another, why waste time on ill will?
North to south? Have you see some of the venom spewing from Texas sportswriters?
As a Husker alum and fan, I will miss playing Texas, and I especially will miss Coach Brown. He has been such a gentleman and sportsman. May you fare well in the new Big XII and I hope to meet in a National Championship game sometime down the road.
Mr. Tramel,
You are one of a few sports writers trying to create this bad blood. A legendary coach, known for his honesty, says the move to the Big Ten is not about one team and you interpret that as disgust towards Texas. A local newspaper makes a video under contract for the Husker marketing department and then leaks it before being reviewed by Osborne or Pelini and you interpret it as the sentiment of the entire program and its fans. Seriously? Good sports writers do not need to create conflict to be read. You are not fooling those great Oklahoma fans; too much history of good blood.
You completely fabricated your first two paragraphs. I fully realize this is just some lame blog, so you don’t have to worry about facts, sources or integrity, but don’t you still have to look at yourself in the mirror every once in awhile? Either you have no clue and therefore you shouldn’t be acknowledged or followed in this type of column or you simply want to stir it up to attract attention. Either reason is pretty pathetic. You could have written the same column, left in the Nebraska references but been factual and fair and probably received as many hits…but then you wouldn’t have been as controversial, provocative and spoken so directly to your normal everyday ignorant followers. Too bad you chose the easy route and that your mirror won’t lie…
It’s interesting, if not predictable, to watch how June’s conference realignment happenings have been re-framed by opinion columnists as time has passed. Apparently, “blame” must be now assigned for what happened in June. That way, the worn-out old conflict model can be duly established. You’ve got to have a conflict, even if it’s ginned up, so the prefabricated White Hat vs. Black Hat storylines can will spew forth over the next three months in spaces just like this.
The actual storyline — schools, concerned about their long-term financial stability and acting in their self-interests based on the facts as they knew them at the time — isn’t sexy enough for most columnists to get three months of material out of. The sports media needs good guys and bad guys, and to do that they need finger-pointing, lingering old disagreements and personality conflicts. If they don’t get it, they’ll stir the pot until they get something that basically fits their already-prescribed narrative.
It’s the same old Two-Step. Never mind the fact that increasingly, they’re the only ones dancing.
Bad blood only flows one way? Add up the articles coming out of Texas taking shots at the Huskers compared to those from Nebraska knockin Texas…. I’ll wait… Looks like Mr. Tramel has a faulty compass.
Why not wait and see how us Huskers feel after the game. Win or lose, I’m sure the Longhorns will be treated the Husker Way and appluaded as they leave the field… Wait and see. GO BIG RED!!!
Please document the alleged expressions of disgust from Perlman and Osborne. They did state some facts that had to do with tu, but to call it “disgust” is a stretch. Frustration, maybe