As the network scrambles to fill the hundreds upon hundreds of hours of programming it planned to use showing basketball and baseball games, ESPN is dipping into the archives to show classic games. Tonight at 8 p.m. ET it's college football's turn, as the Mothership will give the Longhorn Network a night off from showing the 2006 Rose Bowl.
Like all coaches, Mack Brown had spent the month in between winning the Big 12 Championship and the Rose Bowl preparing to meet the behemoth that was the USC dynasty. But there's only so much film you can watch, only so many hours you can spend meeting, even when the national championship is on the line.
So as the day of Jan. 4, 2006 arrived, Mack had nothing but time on his hands until it was go-time, so he found himself doing the most un-Mack Brown thing imaginable.
In a game you may remember, Texas went on to win the game, 41-38.
After the game -- after has team had just won arguably the most thrilling game in college football history, in one of the most hyped games in college football history -- Mack took an entirely different tone in his post-game speech. Again it was the exact opposite message you would expect him to give in that time, but it's one that stuck with his players for years afterward.
“It really resonated with me, that at this time of jubilation, coach Brown was able to keep perspective and remind us of a bigger purpose and bigger moments in life,” defensive tackle Frank Okam told the San Antonio Express-News 10 years later. “It was bigger than championships. It was bigger than this great team.”
Mack actually told his team two things to remember that day: Don't let a college national championship be the best thing you ever accomplished, and don't go on Jerry Springer.