Mack Brown hasn't talked about Texas a lot in his role as an ESPN analyst.
He even said in August that he had made an agreement to not talk about his former program that is now under the direction of Charlie Strong, but Brown talked at length Wednesday about the Longhorns and his successor.
Brown was asked on the Paul Finebaum Show about the transition under Strong (Batesville, Central Arkansas). Strong has dismissed nine players, including offensive tackle Kennedy Estelle, the latest Longhorn to leave the program.
Brown compared the transition to a marriage involving stepchildren and said that since Strong is now the coach, he has the right to do what he feels he needs to do. The Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday that Strong had upped Texas' drug testing program.
"When a coach comes in and takes over a new program, he's adopting 125 new stepchildren," Brown said. "Some of them love the place, but a lot of them love the coaches. They came for a different offense, they came for a defense, and every coach is different. All have some similarities, but all are different.
"There were kids that left when I came here, there were kids who left when Nick [Saban] went to Alabama. That's part of it. You're just going to have that. And one thing about Texas, it's the good and the bad."
Popping off
The champagne corks were starting to pop, and the F-bombs were just about to drop.
Hunter Pence gathered his teammates in the home clubhouse at AT&T Park to congratulate them on winning a wild-card spot and helping the San Francisco Giants head to the playoffs.
In an emotional speech that was unadvisedly but amusingly aired on live TV by CSN Bay Area, Pence dropped at least eight audible F-bombs, along with another obscenity, before producers cut away to game broadcasters Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow.
Eight F-bombs from the man who wears No. 8? Seems about right.
It wasn't intended for the public, although someone -- possibly a coach -- yelled "Language!" when Pence began his postgame speech.
It was almost as if he knew what was coming.
Home run hobble
Sean Smith provided fans with more than a little drama Friday night.
Smith hit a home run for the York Revolution in a playoff game, but he was unsure whether the ball had cleared the fence and raced down the first-base line. Smith slipped on first base, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and collapsing to the ground.
He managed to pick himself up and hobble on one foot around the bases. The home run tied the game with the Sugar Land Skeeters in the eighth inning, and the Revolution went on to a 3-2 victory in 10 innings for a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 Atlantic League Freedom Division Championship Series.
"That was one of the most emotional things I have ever seen in a game," York Manager Mark Mason told the York (Pa.) Daily Record. "That was a clutch home run. That gave us an emotional lift to stay in there and keep battling."
It was almost like a scene out of a movie. Right down to Smith celebrating with his teammates on crutches after they pulled out the victory.
"It gave me chills," teammate Justin Greene said.
QUIZ
How many consecutive starts did San Francisco's Hunter Pence have before sitting out Saturday?
ANSWER
331
Sports on 09/28/2014