Report: Texas president KO’ed Mack Brown’s return

The details of the final days of Mack Brown’s tenure at Texas are starting to come into focus.

Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports is reporting that, as of the morning of Dec. 14, Brown had the support of athletic director Steve Patterson and the Texas brass to return for the 2014 season.

That morning, Brown hosted a breakfast with recruits and afterward had an upbeat talk with Patterson for a few hours about changes for the program moving forward.

But, about an hour after that meeting, Patterson called Brown and told him that he needed to see him at the football offices:

The source told Yahoo Sports that Patterson arrived at the football building with a jarring change of heart for Brown: You need to resign. That was the decision of University of Texas president Bill Powers, and Patterson was the apologetic messenger. The source said Powers, a longtime friend and supporter of the football coach, abruptly yanked the rug out from beneath Brown after supporting his continued tenure the previous two days.

So although the school later that day portrayed Brown’s decision to resign as voluntary, he was in fact pushed out by the university president.

This is obviously water under the bridge at this point, but it certainly doesn’t portray Texas in a good light. Brown, who won a national title for the Longhorns, probably deserved better than to be jerked around like that.