Mack Brown Post BYU Presser – News/Notes

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We’ve got some news and notes from the Mack Brown press conference after the 40-21 loss to BYU on Saturday night.

Brown announced Soph WR/RB Daje Johnson will not play against Ole Miss with what sounds like a high ankle sprain. QB David Ash is questionable with head and shoulder injuries. If Ash is not available, Brown will turn to Case McCoy and need Tyrone Swoopes to “get ready”, though he did later note when Ash missed practice last night, Swoopes ran the offense.

Moving on the the firing/reassignment of former Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz, Brown said he had hard thoughts about the defensive staff last year, but felt the improvements would continue, we’d see the defense we saw against Oregon State, and the staff knew there was a “short leash”.

Brown was very complimentary of Diaz, saying he was a great coach but “it just didn’t work”. He also said Robinson and Diaz spoke frequently about the defense. He denied bringing in Greg Robinson as a fall back option, but later indicated if he did not have Robinson he probably wouldn’t have terminated Diaz. Robinson is the fulltime Defensive Coordinator, and is on a one year, $250,000 deal. He also stated the failures were “team” failures, and the choice to terminate Diaz was made by him alone yesterday afternoon. He said the move was made before asking Robinson to take the job. Robinson and Duane Akina did work out the linebackers last night, looking at tackling, footwork, etc.

Brown said he isn’t feeling any pressure, and reminded everyone Texas can still win the rest of the games and win the Big 12 Championship. Also said several guys played well, and singled out Jordan Hicks, Chris Whaley, and Cedric Reed, starters on the defense just gashed for 550 yards rushing.

Toward the end of the conference, Brown said Robinson would fully dig into Ole Miss “tomorrow”. He then talked about Ole Miss being faster and better tacklers than last year. Was complimentary of Hugh Freeze and the high ranking members of the last Ole Miss class. Also said, “Saturday Night is not who we are, we’ll get it turned around”.

Thoughts:

I didn’t expect Brown to throw Diaz under the bus, but I wonder why, if the staff was on such a “short leash”, the choice wasn’t made right after NSD last year. Going into Brown’s most critical year, the entire off season was basically wasted on the second most critical component of this team.

There was an appearance of “it is what it is”. Not sure what that was in response to.

The “Swoopes” get ready comment tells us Brown has to know he can’t win long term with Case McCoy. Why has Swoopes not been prepared? Is Applewhite really in control?

I don’t think you can give any credit for “good play” to any member of a defense who just gave up 550 yards rushing.