Mack Brown Year Quotations

When you take a devastating loss, it can wear on you. I do think that'll be their point for this week. That was such a huge game for them last year and they let it slip.

We felt like last year was great preparation for this year. I'm in the same room in the same hotel with the same manager at the same practice field. There are a few more (media) here than there were last year. ... It's the same game with more stakes.

Since the first of the year people were talking about this possibility, but they would tell you that the odds of it happening weren't very good.

Nobody in the country is better with the game on the line than Vince Young because he loves the high stakes, he loves the competition, and it's just amazing to me. I was afraid he was going to score too fast ? 19 seconds was a stretch there at the end. Last year (in the Rose Bowl) we got it to none.

Cedric Benson, if we have the kind of year we're capable of having, could win the Heisman. Right now, we have potentially the best offensive line since we've been here. And I've never been around a quarterback who runs like Vince Young. So I think we're back on track.

(Ginn) is as good as any player out in space as I have ever seen. We do not feel like Holmes gets near the publicity he deserves. So both of those guys are as good as anybody we will play this year at (wide receiver).

I thought at the first of the year that USC was definitely No. 1 and nobody deserved to be No. 2. But this team is definitely No 2.

Jim is a great coach who has won more games than I have. I've got my own problems this year ... having two great quarterbacks isn't a problem.

Usually the coach of the year is the guy that overcame something. We didn't overcome anything. We just won a big game at the end and we hadn't been doing that. For Joe to do what he's done over the last few years and turn his program completely around is really, really special. I don't think there's any question he's deserving of this award.

We have an opportunity to beat the team that's been the best in college football. That's a goal that we set a year ago. We felt like we'd be back in this game, and we felt like we'd be playing SC in this game, and all of that has happened now.

We have 15 starters back next year and our expectations today remain the same as before Vince's decision. We are defending national champions and will move forward.

They're staying at home. They're practicing at SC. They were in the game two years ago. They play in this stadium every other year with UCLA's home game, and they'll have a lot of familiarity with the game itself since they played in the (Orange Bowl) last year.

They miss the spring sports in their senior year and they miss being the stud walking around the hallways, as compared to being a rookie again. We feel it's something they have to buy in to. They have to want to do it. If we encourage it and they miss their senior prom and their football banquet, then it just doesn't work out.

It's been a fun year so far. We just want to keep it going. One thing I've learned at Texas, we've been playing football for 112 years and there were expectations 112 years ago. It hasn't changed.

They are the team in college football right now. We understand that we have an opportunity, because we're playing so well, to beat the team that's been the best. That's the goal we set a year ago. We felt like we'd be playing SC in this game. And all of that has happened.

If you're good enough to finish where you want to, and that's to win all your games, you'd rather start high because it's a lot harder now to come from the bottom to the top than it used to be. If you're out of the top 10 and some other teams have good seasons, you can have a great year like Auburn did and not have a chance to win it all. So there's no doubt that it's more important. I wish we started polls in October. Since we do not, I'd rather be rated high.

Good teams enjoy the hype, and they have the ability to focus. Young people come to Texas and SC for this game, and it's been a long time for us to get back to this game, and we took a baby step last year in this environment. I've talked to the kids about it. The only difference between this year and last year is the stakes are bigger.

I don't think this team hasn't played its best game yet, and that's the exciting thing, sitting here 5-0, ... We can improve in so many areas, and that's why I think we've got a chance to be special before the year is over, just as long as we keep growing and don't get complacent.

This is a great time of year for football programs across the country.