University of Texas president Bill Powers and athletic director Steve Patterson on Sunday addressed the coaching search for a successor to Longhorns football coach Mack Brown, who will serve as a special advisor to Powers after his resignation becomes official following the Alamo Bowl.
Brown had announced on Saturday that he will resign as Texas head football coach after 16 years on the job.
On Sunday, Brown, Patterson and Powers conducted a press conference to outline what happens now.
It was confirmed that Brown will be an advisor to the president, although no details of his specific s duties were provided.
Brown is expected to receive a salary of $500,000 for his new job, according to the Dallas Morning News, and his contract runs through 2020. Brown earned nearly $5.5 million as head coach in 2013.
Powers and Patterson both denied that any contact was made with Alabama coach Nick Saban about the Longhorns’ coaching job.
Patterson, who was hired as Texas’ athletic director last month after serving as Arizona State’s athletic director, will be responsible for hiring the next coach.
He said he has not established the qualifications he will be seeking in his search, but did say the next head coach needs “extensive” college coaching experience.
“You’ve got to win. You’ve got to win big,” Patterson said. “We’ll find the best football coach we can.”
Patterson did not set a timetable for naming a coach, but joked he would like to have a new coach by “Tuesday at noon.”
CBSSports.com listed Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher, UCLA’s Jim Mora, Baylor’s Art Briles, Vanderbilt’s James Franklin and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn as names that might be in consideration for the Texas vacancy.
Stanford coach David Shaw, who might have been a candidate, intends to stay at Stanford, ESPN reported.
On Sunday, Brown said he vacillated this past week as he contemplated whether to return as the Longhorns’ coach. He said he decided to resign in the best interests of the program without being pushed out by university officials or boosters.
“It’s time for me to move on and let someone else come in and restart the program,” Brown said. “This is a top-five program annually. It may be the best job in the country. You should be in the mix every year.
“It’s time for Texas to get back in the mix like we were from ’04 to ’09. And that was a wonderful run, a lot of fun. We haven’t lived up to those expectations since 2010.”
Asked how he would like to be remembered, Brown said, “Bringing some joy to Texas, getting us back on track. The second thing is that I did it with integrity and class.”
Asked about his biggest regrets as coach, Brown said the Texas A&M bonfire tragedy in 1999 that killed 12 people and the 2001 death of Longhorns defensive end Cole Pittman in a car wreck.