Mack Brown Blog Entry – August 16, 2009

August 16, 2009 – 20 days until Louisiana-Monroe

As we sit here with just two Saturdays separating us from our season opener, the anticipation is building. Today, so was the heat. After we bragged on the weather yesterday, we got hit with a 104 heat index when we took the field at 3 p.m. today and it was 108 by the time we went in the bubble.

This time of year is one of the toughest parts of a head coach’s job. You ask yourself a lot of questions as your preparation intensifies. How much do you practice? How much do you hit? How much do you run? There’s not a “how to” book or formula to follow when it comes to any of the many questions of training camp.

It’s like when you’re raising your children, it changes with the personality of each team. No team is the same. Add in factors out of your control like injuries and how inexperienced players are going to perform, and you have to always be ready to adapt. It’s always interesting during camp. The older guys think you’re getting soft because they’ve been through it before and the young guys think you’re trying to run them into the ground. You also are making decisions on who plays, who you’re going to play early in the season and what freshmen will be on the field right away or likely redshirt. All of that affects team chemistry and morale, so you have to be careful how you handle things.

One area we pride ourselves on in our program is honesty. We’re up front and very frank with our guys. They will know where they stand with us and the reason we’ve made decisions when it involves them. With all that is going on during camp and the season, you still need to be fair to the players, assistant coaches, staff and Texas!

You always have to keep in mind that your standard for the year is set in the preseason. It’s always the most challenging part of the year. Players getting hurt, or in trouble, only make things tougher, so you might make a decision and suddenly have to re-evaluate. It’s a tough sport, and we constantly remind the kids you always need to be ready and willing for change. One of our team slogans is “You don’t grind, you don’t shine,” meaning put in the work and you’ll get your chance to help this team win.

We talk about building depth – creating and maintaining a mental edge every day. It’s one of the reasons we feel like we’re never out of a game. We don’t find ourselves behind too often, but when we do, we’ve been able to use that depth and mental toughness to come back. Our sports information staff gave me this stat on our comebacks since we’ve been here. In 11 seasons, we’ve registered 22 second-half comebacks, including 12 fourth-quarter comebacks. We’ve also recorded the six largest comebacks in school history. That’s remarkable when you think about it. When you’re behind, depth and mental toughness are the reasons you can fight back and win. I think all of you, our fans, have built that edge as well. The players definitely feel it from the fans that no matter how tough things get, you believe in them and know they can pull it out.

Source: MackBrown-TexasFootball.com