If Mack Brown resigns or is fired as head football coach at Texas, there will be plenty of talented coaches lining up to replace him. And one of the greatest coaches in the history of college football, Barry Switzer, believes it's still the premier job in the country.
"I've always said that's the best job in the world," Switzer told us on 103.3 ESPN on Thursday. "Mack [Brown] coached for me in 1984 as my offensive coordinator and in our conversation one day Mack says 'What do you think is the best job in the country?' and I said 'Mack, that damn state we rob all those good players south of the Red [River] down there, that's the best job in the country, the University of Texas is the best job in the country, and I still believe that it should be, the talent that the state of Texas produces."
Switzer will be in Dallas this weekend making an appearance with former Longhorns head coach Fred Akers at Hotel ZaZa, of all places. He wasn't too comfortable discussing Brown's potential successor because of his longtime friendship with the Texas coach. But after a little prodding, he provided a name.
"I've always said Art Briles does the best job of anybody in this league," Switzer said. "He probably, and I'm not taking anything away from [Bob] Stoops, he does the best job south of the Red River. I think Art, he's got it all. He's a Texas guy, he grew up in West Texas, he played at Houston, [at the high school level] he won state championship after state championship, he did it at Houston. He's doing it at Baylor, he's doing things....good God I'll tell ya, you wait to see the OU-Baylor game, that's gonna be the best game of the year in the [Big 12 Conference].
"And they gotta go play in Waco at night on Thursday night with a short week for Oklahoma to prepare against them. And that's gonna be an exciting game. But I think Art Briles is great because the high school coaches love him. It comes down to recruiting, it's a built-in forum, he just has the ability to recruit, and high school coaches want one of their own to be successful."
Switzer certainly makes some great points about Briles, but I'm not sure UT boosters will be able to wrap their minds around hiring a coach from Baylor. Brown has been a superb recruiter over the years, but it appears that Briles does a better job developing talent.
And as Switzer knows, Briles knows how to identify and develop a quarterback as well as any college coach in the country. Would Briles leave Baylor for the UT job?
I don't think we'll ever find out.
