The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Brown named AP Big 12 Coach of the Year
12.03.2009 | Football
Dec. 3, 2009
Head coach Mack Brown has been named the 2009 Associated Press Big 12 Coach of the Year.
It is the second time he has received the honor after doing so in 2005. He also was recognized for the same award by the league's coaches this year.
Brown has led the Longhorns to a 12-0 record, which marks the first 12-win regular season in school history, including an 8-0 conference record and the Big 12 South Championship. The Longhorns have now won (1996, '99, 2001, '05, '09) or shared (2002, '08) the Big 12 South Division Championship seven times. Texas also currently holds a 16-game winning streak, which is the second longest in the nation and has won 25 of its last 26 games.
With 12 wins this season, Texas has extended its nation-leading streak of 10-win seasons to nine. The nine straight years with at least 10 wins is the second-longest streak in NCAA history, trailing only Florida State's 14-year streak from 1987-2000. In addition, Texas has posted 12-win seasons in back-to-back years for the first time in school history. Prior to Brown's arrival, the Horns had never before posted consecutive 11-win campaigns let alone consecutive 12-win seasons. Brown has led the Horns to six seasons with 11 or more wins, which compares to the four 11-win seasons in Texas history before Brown's arrival in 1998.
The 2008 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year and the 2005 Paul "Bear" Bryant National Coach of the Year, Brown is in his 12th season at Texas, which includes the 2005 National Championship, three BCS Bowl victories, and a current five-game bowl winning streak, one of only two teams in the nation to do so. Texas has played in a bowl game for a school-record 11-consecutive seasons, bettering the previous streak of nine straight from 1977-85, and is 8-3 in those games.
With a 127-26 (.830) record at UT, Brown is the architect of the nation's best record during that stretch. In addition, Brown has led the Horns to a 100-15 (.870) mark over the last nine seasons, which is the nation's second-best record over that time span. Brown is the lone coach nationally to lead his team to nine or more victories in 14 straight seasons. His 12 straight seasons at UT of nine or more victories are a school best. Under Brown, the Horns have posted Top 10 finishes six times in the last eight years (2001, '02, '04, '05, '07 and '08). Prior to his arrival, the last time UT finished in the Top 10 was 1983.
He is just the fourth coach in the 117 years of Texas football to coach the Longhorns for at least a decade and just the second UT coach to win 100 games while at Texas. Darrell Royal, who won 167 games, has the longest tenure at 20 years, while D.X. Bible and Fred Akers each coached in Austin for 10 seasons. Brown is the first coach in UT history to post 200 victories during a career.
Brown's personal strings, including time at North Carolina, go back even further. He has posted 19 consecutive winning seasons and taken his teams to 17 consecutive bowl games. Both of those marks are the second-longest active streaks in the nation.
