In the midst of an unsettling season, this was probably the last thing Texas football coach Mack Brown needed to hear.
Brown, who has already been taking heat for the Longhorns’ 2-2 start, had to digest the idea of former Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell, one of the most popular players in the modern history of the storied program, told KRIV, a Fox affiliate in Houston, the time had come for Brown to step down as coach or be forced out.
“Nobody likes to get fired or leave a job, but things happen,” Campbell said, according to the TV station. “I’d go on record and say yes, I think it’s time.”
Brown has long been a supporter of Campbell, who remains involved in the Texas program, still works out in its athletic facilities and meets with prospects during recruiting events.
“Earl has done so much for Texas,” Brown said Monday at his regularly scheduled news conference in Austin. “He will always be welcomed at our school. I’m disappointed in his comments, but he’s entitled to his opinion.”
Before a 31-21 win over visiting Kansas State to open Big 12 play, Texas (2-2) had lost two games in a row after posting three sub par seasons, putting Brown on the hot seat at what might be on of the two best coaching jobs in the nation. But Campbell thinks it’s too little, too late for Brown to save his job.
“I’d just say this, I take my hat off for USC for what they’ve done,” Campbell said of USC’s decision to fire beleaguered Lane Kiffin Sunday. “They didn’t mess around with it. They just said, ‘Let’s do it now.’ I think at some point our university’s people are going to have make a decision.”
Brown has been insulated in the past by highly supportive AD DeLoss Dodds. But there are reports the Dodds will leave after this academic year which would leave Brown vulnerable .
Former Texas quarterback Chris Simms also stepped forward and said on a Fox TV show that he doesn’t think Brown will return in 2014 and that Texas doesn’t have the talent needed to save this season.
Brown, who is under contract until 2020 and will be paid $5.4 million this year, took Texas to the 2005 national title. The Longhorns advanced to the championship game after the 2009 season but lost to Alabama at the Rose Bowl.
Brown has been adamant that he would not step down any time soon. Texas next plays at Iowa State on Thursday in an ESPN game.
The Longhorns are 24-18 since that loss to the Crimson Tide, and Brown, 62, was under fire from fans upset about a 1-2 start this year after consecutive lopsided losses to BYU and Mississippi.
“Some people get too old,” said Campbell, the 1977 Heisman Trophy winner with the Longhorns and NFL Hall of Famer . “If players get too old to play a game, why can’t a coach get too old to coach it?”
Campbell even suggested Brown’s replacement.
“If we’re going to make a change, I would like to say that we got one in the house, Jerry Gray, who’s getting in the College Football Hall of Fame,” Campbell said of the former two-time All America defensive back at Texas, now the defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans. “I think that would be a good place to start.”
Some entitled Texas loyalists think the search should be begin and end in Tuscaloosa where there were recent reports Nick Saban’s agent has been approached by a member of the Texas’ regents last year with an offer of $10,000 to turn the program around. But Saban seems happy at Alabama.
The Texas-OU game at the Cotton Bowl Oct. 10 could be the tipping point.
