Now is not the time for Texas to tread lightly. Now is the time to make bold, daring moves.
Like hiring Tom Jurich away from Louisville.
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There’s little question football makes everything run at Texas, and when everything is running smoothly, football success makes every problem seem less daunting.
Steve Patterson never got that concept, never embraced the beast that is Texas football and alienated too many big-money donors with his combative management style.
Texas doesn’t need someone with Texas roots, it needs someone who knows the value of football over all else — in every manner possible — and who has the personality and temperament to make the biggest of donors feel like God himself made the sun burnt orange for a reason, you know.
That guy is Jurich, the AD who took a basketball-fueled athletics program at Louisville and turned it into a football beast. Hiring Jurich would also reunite him with Texas coach Charlie Strong, whom Jurich hired at Louisville. Together, they brought the Cardinals to a BCS bowl and the elite of the nation.
But that reconnection is a small part of what makes Jurich the bold choice.
When he was hired at Louisville in 1997, he was told football was a way to pass the time until Midnight Madness opened the doors to all things roundball. Instead of shying from the monster that is basketball, he embraced it — but also convinced the community (and big-money donors) that an elite football program would bring Louisville from minor conference purgatory to major conference heaven.
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Make no mistake, the ACC added Louisville because of the football program — not the basketball program. The ACC added Louisville because of Jurich and his relentlessly positive approach, and how he raised millions of dollars for new facilities all over campus and made little ol' Louisville look and feel like an SEC school without ever offending the deep, passionate basketball fan base.
He somehow got Rick Pitino to take the basketball job in 2001, and he poured money into the football program, upgrading recruiting budgets and expanding the stadium. Louisville recently announced the initial stages of another stadium renovation, and state-of-the-art football facilities.
Two years ago, Texas made a bold move when it hired Strong from Louisville. One more bold move — paying Jurich whatever he wants to run Texas athletics — would bring everyone back together and on the same page.
Like it was before Patterson arrived, when Texas was dictating college football realignment and when ESPN was falling over itself to land the Longhorn Network.
When football made everything better.