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Austin returns to Austin
Welcome me back! After six seasons covering the NFL for Sports Illustrated, I have returned to college football. Of course I will miss the pros -- the heart-to-heart talks with Carl Pickens; the easy charm of Ryan Leaf; the zany impersonations of Tom Coughlin -- but I'll get over it. Among my first assignments was to travel to Austin, Texas, for Longhorns two-a-days. Quite a bit had changed since my last trip to UT. Unlike some of his predecessors, the current head coach, for instance, has not undergone a charisma bypass. In fact, third-year Longhorns head man Mack Brown is as adept at public relations as he is at coaching, and he is among the nation's best coaches. Brown instinctively reached out to groups who had, over time, become alienated from Longhorns football: ex-Texas coaches (foremost among them 76-year-old Darrell Royal, who was recently seen at a UT practice, hopping out of his golf cart and swinging his leg in a punting motion for the benefit of some of the kickers); former Longhorns lettermen; and the state's high school coaches. All have been welcomed back with open arms. The result of this outreach has been three straight bumper recruiting classes. The Longhorns are a year away from amassing the kind of quality depth that allowed Florida State and Nebraska to dominate the '90s "Everything we do," Brown told me during lunch at his mahogany conference table, "is geared toward recruiting." So I noticed, I said, pointing to a sign over the table that instructed, Write Your Recruits. Popping up, Brown swung open two large cabinets, revealing a board upon which he'd neatly printed a position-by-position depth chart of current Horns recruits. Said Brown, "I end each meeting by asking the staff, 'Who has talked to a high school coach today? Does anyone have anything to say about recruiting?'" I have something to say: Chris Simms to Roy Williams. Simms, the son of ex-New York Giant Phil Simms and the star of the Longhorns' '99 recruiting class, was making beautiful music during two-a-days with Williams, the brightest gem in this year's haul. Williams is a 6'5" wideout from Odessa (Tex.) Permian (the school profiled in "Friday Night Lights") who runs the 100 meters in 10.25 seconds, high jumps 6'10" and has long jumped 25'6". He spent the first week of practice making some very good Division I defensive backs look very silly. It helped that he was hauling in passes from two of the best quarterbacks in the country. In fact, the reason I was dispatched to Austin was to cover a possible QB controversy: Redshirt junior Major Applewhite, last year's co-Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, has come back from the torn ACL he suffered in last season's Cotton Bowl. It was expected that he would battle with Simms -- who had a brilliant spring -- for the starting job. A couple days into camp, however, it had become apparent that the job was Simms' to lose. While Applewhite insisted that his reconstructed left knee felt fine, Brown -- a veteran of five knee surgeries -- insisted that he proceed with caution. Brown knows that if Applewhite goes down again, the Longhorns are a single snap away from relying on true freshman Chance Mock. Applewhite sees what is going on, and accepts it. He is a class act. He knows, moreover, that Brown will not hesitate to insert him in the game if Simms should struggle. Brown came to Texas from North Carolina, where he won big and had no qualms about alternating his starting quarterbacks from week to week. "In my experience," says Brown, "these things always work themselves out." A lot of things seem to work out for this guy. On December 5, 1997, he was introduced as the new Longhorns coach. At a basketball game that night, he was asked to go out on the court during a timeout to say a few words to excite the 16,000 in attendance. For advice on this short speech, Brown turned to the man sitting next to him. Texas Gov. George W. Bush thought for a moment, then said, "If you will simply say, 'I am really excited to be the head football coach at the University of Texas, in the GREAT STATE of Texas -- HOOK 'EM!' and sit down, you should be fine." Brown did, and got a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. When Brown returned to his seat, Bush told him this about Texans: "They like their state, and they like their football team." Nearly three years later, they like 'em even better. Sports Illustrated senior writer Austin Murphy covers the college football
beat and goes On Campus for CNNSI.com each week throughout the
season.
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