MACK BROWN RESIGNS

Just In:  Florida State Quarterback Jameis Winston has won the Heisman Trophy.  He is the second consecutive freshman (after Johnny Manziel) to win the award and, at age nineteen, is its youngest recipient.  Full story here.

The University of Texas has announced that Mack Brown, head coach of the Texas Longhorns football team, will step down.  According to ESPN, Brown has informed the team of his decision to resign but he will stay on to coach the Longhorns in the December 30th Valero Alamo Bowl against Oregon.  The news of Brown's decision came, interestingly enough, after Alabama football head coach Nick Saban, the man rumored to succeed Brown if he left this year, reaffirmed his commitment to Crimson Tide by signing a contract extension.  When he was asked to comment about Mack Brown's situation earlier this week, Saban said the following:

     Mack Brown is the coach at Texas. He deserves the right, based on his body of work, to be able to  leave the program the way he wants to leave the program. It wasn't fair to him or to me to be speculating about this job, which I haven't talked to anybody there about. Really, the whole thing from my perspective stunk, but there wasn't a hell of a lot I could do about it. 

Quote from ESPN.

In his sixteen seasons as head coach of the Longhorns, Mack Brown had amassed a 158-47 record (nine wins shy of tying Darrel K. Royal's record), won ten or more games in nine consecutive seasons (2001-2009), coached more than fifty All-Americans, earned two BIG XII titles, went to fourteen bowl games, and led the Longhorns to two BCS National Championship appearances.  Texas won the 2006 game against USC but lost to Alabama in the 2010 match-up.  Since that loss, Brown's record of 30-20 (18-17 Conference) in his last four seasons ultimately led to calls for his resignation or removal.  It is not known when the University of Texas athletic department will name a successor. 

In other news today, Navy defeated Army 34-7.  The 2013 game in the Army-Navy football rivalry marks the 12th consecutive time that Navy has defeated Army.  Army finishes the regular season with a 3-9 record while Navy, with an 8-4 record, will play Middle Tennessee in the Armed Forces bowl on December 30th.