Texas Official Reportedly Believes This Will Be Mack Brown's Final Season

Texas got a controversial win at Iowa State last Thursday, but the fact that it needed a late score to win in Ames—in addition to this year's other failings—only helped drive the stake into Mack Brown's tenure as head football coach in Austin.

Now, according to a Sports Illustrated report by Pete Thamel, a high-ranking official at the university suggested what the rest of us already thought: That 2013 will be Brown's final season at the helm.

Per Thamel's piece:

"

"If it's like the last couple years, the gig is up," said a high-ranking Texas official of the Oklahoma game.

"If [Brown] rallied and came back and won out, I still think there would be a possibility he'd still resign. I'm not sure he wants to work for another athletic director. My guess is this is his last season."

"

Longtime athletic director Deloss Dodds—the man who hired Brown—announced his plans to resign next year, leaving a power void at the top of Austin's food chain and seeming to number Brown's days as head coach.

A new athletic director will mean a new regime, and a new regime often means the installation of "their guy" on the sidelines.

It's not hard to see why Texas would want to move in a new direction. After going 128-27 in his first 12 seasons at the helm, Brown stumbled to a 22-16 record these past three years. That regression put him squarely on the hot seat, backing him into a corner where a good season was necessary in 2013.

That couldn't be further from what's happened. The Longhorns allowed 550 rushing yards in a humiliating loss to BYU, got spanked in the second half in a loss to Ole Miss and almost bungled that road game at lowly Iowa State.

Despite a winning record, the team has looked every bit as bad as it did back in 2010, when it followed up a 13-1 year by going 5-7 and starting the current spiral of descent.

Still, it's not like things can't be saved.

The Big 12 is a little...um...lacking for contenders right now, and Texas is technically 2-0 in conference play. No matter how bad they've looked, it's not unthinkable to say the Longhorns might fluke their way into a BCS bowl from a weak conference.

But after all the damage that's been done, would even that be enough to save Brown's job? After these reported comments from a high-ranking Texas official, it's hard to imagine the answer is yes.