University of Texas Football Needs Change

To Coach Mack Brown, President Larry Faulkner, Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds, Board of Directors, and UT fans:

Over the past seven years, we have seen Coach Brown preside over one of the most impressive football eras Texas has seen since the likes of Darryl Royal. Coach Brown is a tremendous recruiter and motivator, and he makes the immense talent on our team play their hardest week in and week out.

Two of the best quarterbacks Texas has ever had have arrived in this era in Major Applewhite and Vince Young. Major Applewhite is arguably the best and smartest quarterback UT has ever seen. During his tenure as starter, Major garnered a multitude of school records, and amassassed numerous awards for himself and for our team. Major had a distinct and unique ability to read defenses like a book, and in so doing, became perhaps best known for his propensity to call play audibles at the line of scrimmage. And they worked.

Something can be derived from this - when Major audibled to a new play, it was because the one given to him by Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis was inappropriate for the defense on the field. Major knew that. Greg Davis knew that. Major was allowed to continue doing what he did best - read the defense, lead his team, play ball - and win. However, the Applewhite era is over, and Coach Davis is back to calling the plays. And our offense has suffered throughout this entire year (and our previous years) because of it.

We are ecstatic to be playing in our first-ever Rose Bowl, and the extraordinary talent and playmakers on our team that made this happen deserve our immense praise - Vince Young, Cedric Benson, Derrick Johnson, Phillip Geiggar, Larry Dibbles, Cedric Griffin, Tony Jeffrey, David Thomas, Bo Scaife, Selvin Young, Limas Sweed, and Ramonce Taylor - just to name a few. We just feel the need for change.

Our defense throughout this entire year has been outstanding, and, arguably, has carried our team to more victories than we should have achieved. We commend Coach Brown for realizing the need for change in this area of our team, and he implemented changes that were appropriate and that worked beautifully. Coaches Greg Robinson and Duane Akina have coached our immensely talented players to near-perfection on defense. We sign today asking Coach Brown to do the same on the other side of the ball.