Mack Brown met with the media at his usual Monday press conference ahead of the unranked Longhorns (2-2, 1-0) visit to Ames, Iowa on Thursday night to face the Iowa State Cyclones (1-2). Â At the forefront of the conference was talk of the passing of legendary Longhorn QB James Street, who will be honored by the team during the game with “JS” helmet decals. Announced the kickoff for Texas/OU is 11am.
Brown was asked about comments made by Earl Campbell to FOX news in Houston, where he called for a coaching change at Texas. Brown stated he was “disappointed” in the comments, but recognized Campbell’s right to say them. He said Earl would always be welcome at Texas, and later made a quick statement about the comments being “taken out of context” and “one of our people” had spoken to him. Given Brown’s history with reaction to negativity, you shouldn’t be surprised he had something like that done.
Brown announced Tim Cole will get the start in place of Jordan Hicks at LB. With Steve Edmond suspended for a targeting foul the starting trio will be the entire linebacker class from 2012 – Cole, Dalton Santos, and Peter Jinkens. We’ve wanted to see this for awhile, and now we get a long look at them together. Brown indicated Defensive Coordinator Greg Robinson liked Cole, and he had worked hard and earned the playing time.
Speaking about the teams win over Kansas State, Brown called the Wildcats a “very physical” football team, and gave the usual “Mack speak” about being proud of the kids and fans, talked up the Wildcats, and commented on the defense forcing three turnovers. He said with three weeks under his belt. much more of the Greg Robinson defense is installed, including blitz packages. Mack also spoke on RB Johnathan Gray, calling him a hard worker and strong team leader.
On the injury front, OT Josh Cochran is out for the game, and RB Daje Johnson is on track to play. WR Mike Davis and QB David Ash are questionable and being evaluated daily.
Speaking on Iowa State, Brown praised QB Sam Richardson, saying he expected to see the same QB runs everyone has used against us. Went on to talk up RB Aaron Wimberly, a dangerous threat anytime he has the ball in his hands. Brown told us Iowa State under Paul Rhoads is 7-2 in games on Thursday and Friday nights, and he believes the atmosphere in Ames will be similar to the one in Provo.
Of note, Brown said the team won’t actually leave for Ames until later Wednesday night, then play the game Thursday, and be back in Austin around 3am Friday morning. He also said he had made a deal with the University that the players would all be in their Friday morning classes. Pretty rough stuff for a college kid.
Honestly, this was an unusual press conference in my opinion. Draw your own conclusions, but things just seemed different today, and not because of the loss of James Street.
