No one wants Mackovic's head on a platter now

By CHIP BROWN / Associated Press

TEMPE, Ariz. - Three years ago, Texas limped to a five-win season and the cries came for John Mackovic to be fired.

Now, with the Longhorns in their second straight alliance bowl, his name is being mentioned for NFL jobs.

Mackovic, who will not discuss job leads while No. 20 Texas (8-4) prepares for the Fiesta Bowl with No. 7 Penn State (10-2) on New Year's Day, says the turnaround has come just the way he wanted: with a focus on academics and integrity.

"I have never doubted where we were and what we were doing," Mackovic said Saturday. "Unfortunately, at our level of athletics, most people only judge the record on the field and stop right there.

"We've always said that despite the fact that others might judge us only on the field, we were going to judge ourselves on what we were doing in our total program. We have recruited the right kinds of people into our program and have helped them."

After serving as coach and athletic director at Illinois, Mackovic took over a Texas program in 1992 that had graduated just 11 of 22 players the year before.

In 1996, 86 percent (18 of 21) graduated, and during his four previous seasons, nearly 80 percent (61 of 77) of the players who completed their eligibility at Texas have earned degrees.

But while Mackovic was winning the hearts of school administrators, he failed to connect with fans early on.

His cool, calculating demeanor and wardrobe of sports jackets, pressed shirts and ties caused him to stand out at Texas like a Wall Street financier at a rodeo.

He rubbed people wrong by talking about how great Big Ten football was compared with the Southwest Conference. He also failed, in the eyes of many, to sufficiently respect the Longhorns' storied tradition, including two national titles won by Darrell Royal. He was even criticized for being a wine drinker in a beer-drinking state.

Never mind that Mackovic was getting more players to study, a lot of Longhorns fans couldn't get over the fact that they plain and simple didn't like their new coach.

A 6-5 season in 1992 was followed by 5-5-1 in 1993 and calls for his job. An 8-4 campaign in 1994 was an improvement, but it included Texas' first loss to Rice since 1965, which to many was unforgivable.

Through it all, Mackovic continued to talk of a five-year plan to restore Texas to national prominence and made some subtle and not so subtle changes in the way he approached people.

The coats and ties were replaced by more relaxed pullovers, and he even got a pair of cowboy boots.

Several Longhorns say Mackovic took a distinctly lighthearted tact and became more of a players' coach before the 1995 season, in which Texas went 10-1-1 before losing to Virginia Tech in last year's Sugar Bowl.

Mackovic has been praised for his offensive play-calling, particularly his game plan in an upset of Nebraska in this year's Big 12 championship game.

A gutsy fourth-and-inches pass play deep in Texas territory late in the game helped seal the Longhorns' 37-27 victory against the Huskers and helped ease the pain of an underachieving regular season that started 3-4.

It also gave Mackovic his first triumph over a Top 10 team at Texas (1-7-1).

That fourth-down play, executed brilliantly by quarterback James Brown on a rollout pass to Derek Lewis, was hailed as genius and has everything to do with the fact that Mackovic's name is being mentioned in connection with NFL openings in New Orleans and St. Louis.

Mackovic has bittersweet memories of the NFL, having been fired as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs immediately following a 10-6 season and playoff berth in 1986.

The goals of his five-year plan at Texas, now in its fifth year, were to be contending for the national championship as a Top 10 team with a clear focus on academics and integrity.

A victory over Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl with a young team that returns a lot of key talent next year, might lead many to believe that Texas could reach that goal in 1997.

"We know to be considered a great team, you have to back it up year in and year out," Mackovic said.

The coach isn't prepared to say whether the Longhorns' berth in a second straight alliance bowl has helped him win over Texas fans.

"I don't know, that's for them to decide," he said.

When asked Saturday about how difficult it was to follow in the shadow of Royal, who won national championships in 1963 and 1969, Mackovic thought for a moment.

In the past, Mackovic had answered this question by going into some long discourse about how parity in modern college football would make it impossible for teams to dominate the way Texas did under Royal in the 1960s and 1970s.

Instead, he said simply, "He was Texas football for so long and will always have a place in our history that I don't think anyone will ever match.

"I hope maybe someday we can do some things that people will consider in that same vein."