BY ADAM ZUVANICH l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

If not for a certain last-second play at Jones AT&T Stadium on Nov. 1, Mack Brown might have won a second national championship at Texas.

His Longhorns were undefeated and ranked No. 1 before the 39-33 loss to Texas Tech, their only blemish in 2008.

But Brown didn’t seem bitter when he returned to Lubbock Friday to speak at the 27th annual West Texas Football Clinic held at the Holiday Inn Park Plaza. He actually has relatively fond memories of that fateful night on the South Plains.

“There was great spirit that night, the blackout worked, and I thought it was a great game,” Brown said. “They just made the last play.”

Brown, who was speaking at the West Texas clinic for the second time, addressed more than 500 high school and college coaches from all over Texas and parts of New Mexico and Oklahoma. He offered his wisdom and expertise about how to build a successful program and maintain it, and he also delivered some inspirational anecdotes and a handful of funny stories.

Today’s speakers include Tech coach Mike Leach and defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill.

“The high school coaches enjoy listening to them talk successful coaching, and we try to get those kind of coaches in here every year,” said Bobby Davis, who directs the clinic along with another former Frenship coach, Jerry King. “Those coaches are very nice to us, because they agreed to come. A lot of coaches in those positions won’t do that sort of thing.”

Brown said the Longhorns send at least one coach to the clinic every year because the region “really is important to us in recruiting.” The Longhorns have had several impact players from West Texas during Brown’s tenure, including Colt McCoy (Tuscola Jim Ned), David Thomas (Frenship), Roy Williams (Odessa Permian), Cedric Benson (Midland Lee) and Aaron Humphries (Monterey).

One of Texas’ 2009 signees is Frenship’s Mason Walters, rated as one of the top offensive line prospects in the country.

“We’ve had some great players from this area,” Brown said. “… These coaches do a great job and football’s very important here.”

Brown also weighed in on Leach’s contract saga, which finally ended Thursday when the Tech coach signed an extension that will keep him in Lubbock through 2013. Brown said Leach and is good for the Big 12 Conference and especially for the South Division, which boasted three top-10 teams last season.

“Mike’s done a great job and I was sure they’d work it out, because he’s won and this business is about winning,” Brown said. “Tech’s doing a great job right now — they had another very good recruiting year — and I’m glad they all got it worked out.”
 
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