For Brothers Brown, only career paths differ

Some say the Brothers Brown, Watson and Mack, look alike, and some say they sound alike, and anyone who knows them both will swear they act alike, with the same downhome demeanor that charms both friend and foe.

Time was, their careers matched, too.

In December 1983, Mack was a 32-year-old head coach who just finished his first season at Appalachian State. He went 6-5.

In December 1983, Watson was a 33- year-old head coach who had just completed his first season at Cincinnati after two years as boss at Austin Peay. Watson's three-year record was 18-14-1.

Neither Brown brother stayed on their command. And their careers went in opposite directions.

Watson took the Rice job; Mack was hired by Barry Switzer to be offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.

What did Yogi Berra say? When you come to the fork in the road, take it? The Browns came to a fork in the road. Mack took the paved highway; Watson ventured down pothole boulevard.

"I made some very poor decisions at very critical points in my career," Watson said with a laugh Tuesday from his Alabama-Birmingham office. "I was young and eager and ready to go. I jumped at some jobs when I was hot."

Such decisions have Watson Brown on the threshold of history. His record of 91-142-1 gives Brown the most losses of any current NCAA football coach, any division. Brown is young enough and good enough, he could coach long enough to break Amos Alonzo Stagg's NCAA record of 201 defeats.

Watson almost surely will be 59 away come Saturday night, when his UAB Blazers visit Owen Field. It's Watson's first game back in Norman since he reignited his career with two years, 1993-94, as the Sooner offensive coordinator.

'Some really, really difficult jobs'
UAB is the best head-coaching job Watson's ever had. Austin Peay, Cincinnati, Rice, Vanderbilt. Watson Brown appears to have hacked off the coaching gods in a previous life.

Check out Mack's track since 1983. One year at OU led to the Tulane job, which is no powerhouse but not a hopeless situation. Then to North Carolina, where Mack won 69 games in 10 years. And finally on to Texas, where he has revived the spirit of Darrell Royal and won the 2005 national title.

"He has taken some really, really difficult jobs," Mack said this week. "He's done an absolutely amazing job at UAB."

Well, amazing is a little over the top. Watson guided UAB from I-AA status to I-A. Got the Blazers onto solid footing with Conference USA and in 2004 took UAB to its first bowl.

A solid coaching job, and well-deserved after stints at ghost towns like Vandy and Rice.

"Our job here (Texas) and the one at North Carolina has been much easier," Mack said. "Some of the programs ... he took were very difficult when he took them."

Both Mack and Watson were offensive innovators at OU. Mack turned Danny Bradley into the 1984 Big Eight player of the year; Watson revived the career of Cale Gundy, whose junior year in 1992 had stagnated.

"Both are really, really bright coaches," said Donnie Duncan, the Big 12's director of the football championship. Duncan hired Mack for his Iowa State staff more than 25 years ago and was athletic director at OU when Gary Gibbs hired Watson.

Duncan calls Watson an "outstanding" coach and person. "Top shelf.

"Wide-open style. Maybe a little ahead of his time. Really creative. Really bright. Just a free-wheeling coach. Lots of fun for the kids."

When Gibbs was fired in 1994, Mack became Duncan's target but backed out of the process. Some say because Watson wanted the job.

Duncan says he isn't sure what happened, other than it would have been impossible to hire Watson, having fired the head coach.

But Watson today has nothing but good things to say about the Sooners, and nothing but good to say about his little brother.

"We have a very, very close relationship," Mack said. "I love my brother to death. I talk to him at least once a week, maybe twice a week during the season.

"He's been a great resource for me. If there's a question that comes up with our team, I've got a confidant in our business that I can call up and bounce things off very, very easily."

Watson says college football is "dog eat dog." Hard to trust many people. He has a certain national-championship coach he can trust.

"I could check with Mack on things I couldn't ask anyone else," Watson said. "I'm very proud of him."

They come by their coaching honestly. Their grandfather was a 30-year high school coach in Tennessee. The Brown boys grew up around the game.

"Getting on that bus, five, six years old, traveling with the high school team, being on the sideline, we always had a good feeling about athletics and football," Watson said. "Kids all loved him and respected him."

That good feeling now reverberates around UAB and Texas. Hate the Longhorns if you will, but Mack Brown makes those around him feel good. Watson, on a lesser stage, does the same.

They did it when they were coordinators at OU. They do it now. The Brown brothers took different paths but did not become different kinds of coaches.