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Monday, March 30, 1998

UT's Brown prepares for first spring practice

By CHIP BROWN

Associated Press

AUSTIN - New Texas football coach Mack Brown has been so consumed with getting the Longhorns program up and running that he hasn't bought a house yet.

"We'll probably find something and move in in July," Brown said.

Until then, it's apartment living for the Texas coach, who earns $750,000 a year, and his wife, Sally, who has a lucrative job heading a real estate company in Chapel Hill, N.C.

"We had forgotten what apartment living was like," Brown said. "When they said, 'Garbage pickup is on Sunday night,' I looked at my wife, who has built all these beautiful houses in Chapel Hill, and said, 'Bless you, Sweetie.' "

Brown is consumed with getting Texas football back on track. Searching for houses and quality of life comes second - for now.

"He will call you 12 to 15 times a day during recruiting or during the season to say, 'Just wanted you to think about this,' " said Cleve Bryant, assistant athletic director for football operations at Texas and Brown's former quarterbacks coach at North Carolina.

"When people say there's God, family and football, I'm not sure which order they go in with Mack," Bryant said. "I know that all three of them are up there real close, but which one comes first, I wouldn't want to be the one to make that call."

With spring football starting today, thousands of people have called or written to say they are taking time off to come and watch the Longhorns practice. The anticipation is overwhelming as evidenced by overflow attendance at Brown's visits to alumni gatherings across the state in recent weeks.

Every day he gets e-mails, letters and calls saying that Longhorns faithful are behind him.

Brown knows he's on a honeymoon and says he isn't worried that the outpouring of support is too much.

"You can't love your wife or children enough," Brown said. "What is dangerous in some cases with expectations is if people get too high too fast, if that balloon's got so much air that it goes up really fast, when you pop it sometimes it falls faster.

"But I understand that. Patience is not a part of the personality of our fans that has been very rewarding to coaches in the past. But you know what? I don't have any patience either.

"As I get older, I want to win all the games fast, too. So I don't mind patience being a little thin."

With no veteran quarterback, a defense that was among the nation's worst last year and a schedule that includes UCLA, Kansas State and Nebraska in addition to its usual league games, some are saying a 7-4 record would be a miracle for Texas next year.

Brown says he won't set goals for victories.

"We won't put a number out there," Brown said. "If we say that 7-4 is a reasonable number, the players will say, 'Which four do they think we can't win?' "

Other than the offensive line, a couple positions on defense and Ricky Williams at running back, most every position is up for grabs in the spring, Brown said.

"We want to achieve three things," Brown said. "We want the kids to understand the work ethic we expect, and until the coaches coach the players on the field, that trust and communication can't be built like it should.

"We need to have a real good evaluation of our talent, and then once we understand the positions, we will try to fit the scheme to the talent level of each position."

Williams, the nation's leading rusher last year, said his expectations for the spring are to "get in a little better shape and see an improved defense."

He said the team is excited about Brown.

"We have been pumped since January. He's a fired-up kind of person, real enthusiastic," Williams said.

Brown has impressed Longhorns faithful with his ability to land two of the state's top high school prospects - lineman Antwan Kirk-Hughes and receiver Montrell Flowers - with very little time to win recruits over.

Bryant says everything Brown does in football has recruiting at the core.

"It's all about recruiting with Mack," Bryant said. "The pictures in his office were selected with recruits in mind."

Brown confirmed that. Pictures in the waiting room of his office show Williams with the Doak Walker Award, another shows former Texas coach Darrell Royal, and the other shows an overflow crowd at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

"We want recruits to be able to visualize themselves as an award-winning player like Ricky," Brown said. "We want to be a tough football team like Texas was under Coach Royal, and we want to fill up our stadium because every kid wants to play in front of a packed crowd."

Inside Brown's office, there are three large prints of the University of Texas tower lit a burnt orange, a custom after Longhorns' victories.

"That's the objective," Brown said, pointing to each of the tower photos. "We didn't want to be subtle in our objective."