College Football
Brown’s final game at Texas will be the Alamo Bowl
AUSTIN, Texas – Mack Brown, the Texas football coach who led the Longhorns to the 2005 national title and ranks second at the school in career victories, is stepping down after 16 seasons.
In a statement released by the school Saturday night, the coach who was brought to Texas to revive a dormant program in 1997 acknowledged it was time for a change after a 30-20 record, including 18-17 in the Big 12, over the last four seasons.
Texas went 8-4 this season and lost the Big 12 title to Baylor in the final game of the regular season. The 62-year-old Brown will finish his Texas career in the Alamo Bowl against Oregon on Dec. 30.
“It’s been a wonderful ride. Now, the program is again being pulled in different directions, and I think the time is right for a change,” Brown said. “I love the University of Texas, all of its supporters, the great fans and everyone that played and coached here ... It is the best coaching job and the premier football program in America.
“I sincerely want to get back to the top, and that’s why I’m stepping down after the bowl game. I hope with some new energy, we can get this thing rolling again,” Brown said.
Brown led the Longhorns through a run of dominance from 2001 to 2009 when Texas went 101-16, won two Big 12 titles and twice played for the national championship. He has 158 victories at Texas, No. 2 behind the late Darrell Royal, who won 167 in 20 seasons with the Longhorns. Brown is 244-121-1 overall in 29 years as a head coach.
“This is a very difficult day for everyone in the University of Texas family,” Texas president Bill Powers said. “Mack Brown is one of the best football coaches in the country.”
The school scheduled a news conference Sunday for Brown and to discuss a search for his replacement to take over after the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
Brown’ only losing season at Texas was in 2010, when the Longhorns fell to 5-7 after playing for the 2009 season national championship. But Brown’s inability to win more Big 12 championships – Oklahoma won or shared eight league titles from 2000 to 2012 – and four consecutive years of at least four losses fractured the fan base and prompted calls for his departure.
World Cup Ski Racing
Ligety and Miller fail to finish first runs in giant slalom
VAL D’ISÈRE, France – For the first time in nearly five years, Ted Ligety didn’t reach the final of a World Cup giant slalom race.
The first skier down the hill, Ligety took a gate too wide, went down on his hip and out of his opening run Saturday on the steep and icy Stade Olympique de Bellevarde course. Two-time defending World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher won the giant slalom, while Bode Miller also didn’t finish his first run after tripping over his skis near the bottom.
Ligety and Miller finished 1-2 last weekend in Beaver Creek.
Hirscher finished 0.76 seconds ahead of Thomas Fanara of France in a combined time of 2:17.21. Stefan Luitz of Germany was third.
Weirather wins a women’s super-G on the family slope
ST. MORITZ, Switzerland – Tina Weirather produced a fitting birthday present for her mother, two-time Olympic gold medalist Hanni Wenzel.
Weirather won a World Cup super-G race in St. Moritz on Saturday on her mother’s 57th birthday – and at the same resort where Wenzel became the slalom world champion in 1974.
Weirather timed 1 minute, 17.38 seconds to finally climb atop the podium after finishing runner-up three times already this season. Kajsa Kling of Sweden was second, 0.31 seconds back, and Anna Fenninger of Austria trailed by 0.39 in third.
Weirather’s flair for speed certainly follows her father, Harti Weirather, who won downhill gold at the 1982 World Championships staged at Schladming in his native Austria.
Associated Press
