Java, I really like your contributions. Hope you keep them up. Mack was great the first few years, and the record shows it. As the years went by, he seemed to lose the fire in his belly. And there were a lot of distractions, and a lot of non football stuff got into the mix. I always thought that Sally had way too much input the last few years (she was at practices much of the time, and on the field with the players), and that had to be a huge distraction, and was probably why the discipline and toughness declined. But that is speculation. I can tell you that my Mother would never have even dreamed about going to practices or having anything to do with the team in that way. I will bet you won't see Mrs. Strong out there either.
After talking to Mack in the Summer of 2010, I was convinced he was going to retire after that season. Of course, we know what happened that year. I think the HCIW situation had a lot to do with the staff dysfunction. I remember that it seemed like everyone on the staff but Mack was talking to somebody over at OB. That is no way to run a football team. It literally wrecked the program. Mack tried to put it back together, but just did not have the capability to do it. All of his momentum was lost, and he was not going to get it back. It was very sad to see that happen, and I hated to see it end the way it did.
But we have Charlie Strong, and like most others, I am terribly impressed with his program. I think it is exactly what we needed. We will again be competing at the very high levels we did through 2009 under Mack pretty quickly, I believe. I am looking forward to a great run under Strong.
PS. Mack was the oldest FB coach Texas has had. It is a young man's game. It is very rare for a coach anywhere to keep up the high levels needed for 20 years, particularly at a high pressure school like Texas. My Dad was 49 when he hung them up; Coach Royal was 52. So be easy on Mack. He is gone, and hid did a great job until the last 3 years.
