Mack Brown's Updated Hot-Seat Meter After Win over Iowa State

Mack Brown better not trade in his flame-retardant pants. Despite Texas pulling out a 31-30 over Iowa State on Thursday, Brown's seat is still scalding hot. 

It was a wild game that saw Texas quarterback Case McCoy lead the Longhorns on a 75-yard drive with under four minutes to go to score the go-ahead touchdown.

Of course, that didn't come without a bit of controversy. Texas was aided on that final drive by two pass interference calls and a fumble review that easily could have gone the other way.  

Yahoo's Pat Forde does a nice job of summing everything up here: 

While a win is a win is a win, there wasn't a lot offered up in this performance to suggest Brown is going to be able to do enough with this team to save his job. 

Texas is now 3-2 on the year and and 2-0 in the Big 12. That's certainly not terrible. The Longhorns have also turned in two straight victories.

However, the victory over Iowa State, combined with a 31-21 victory over Kansas State, are not nearly enough to erase the sluggish start. 

After three games, Texas sat at 1-2. That was their worst three-game record since 1998—Brown's first season as coach. 

The losses were not pretty, either. A 44-23 loss to the Ole Miss Rebels and a 40-21 loss to the BYU Cougars had plenty of Texas fans ready to fire Brown on the spot. 

Through it all, though, Brown has had the support of his athletic director, but those days are numbered:

With his No. 1 fan stepping down, Brown's chances of retaining his job are minimal. In fact, his fate may already be sealed. However, if he does have hope of staying at Texas, a win next week will go a long way.

Next week is the Red River Rivalry, as No. 11 Oklahoma will roll into Texas. If Brown can lead the Longhorns to a big victory and keep momentum rolling to the end of the season, perhaps he'll save his job.

However, as things stand at the moment, I'm giving him a reading of 9-out-of-10 on the hot-seat meter.