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Thu July 26, 2007

Texas coach Brown sees a balanced Big 12

 
 
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By John Helsley
Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO – Mack Brown, his Texas team fresh off a three-loss season, on Wednesday hailed the arrival of parity to the Big 12 Conference.

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Doing his part for league PR, the Texas coach touted the virtues of every Big 12 team, North and South.

"Everybody's better. You've got more people who can win,” Brown said before running through the list, taking care to exclude no one, not even Baylor or Iowa State.

Just Mack's spin in the wake of last year's sins — late losses to Kansas State and Texas A&M that wiped out the advantage of beating Oklahoma and left the Longhorns at home watching the Sooners in the Big 12 title game?

Or reality?

And if parity really has arrived, mustn't it be irritating for a program that exists as college football's equivalent of the New York Yankees, so rich with resources and talent?

"It can be irritating,” Brown said. "Or challenging.

"It kind of rejuvenates your spirit again. ‘We better go back to work. Our national championship is gone now. Nobody cares. So let's go back to work.'”

Rejuvenation? That didn't take long.

The Longhorns won the 2005 national title and held high hopes of another run last fall with a slew of starters returning.

Granted, Vince Young was gone to the NFL, leaving a massive void at quarterback.

But Texas regrouped quite well, with Colt McCoy taking the reins, shaking off an early loss to Ohio State and leading the win over OU in the Cotton Bowl, essentially creating a two-game lead in the race for the South Division crown.

Injuries hit the Horns hard, including a stinger that knocked McCoy out of the devastating 45-42 loss to Kansas State. McCoy wasn't right, either, in the regular-season ending loss to A&M two weeks later that created the title game opening for OU to slip