CFB 2013-2014

Mack Brown and Bill Powers never wanted Nick Saban. And they have now fractured big-money support at the top of the university by thwarting efforts by top boosters and a group of regents to land Saban for a second straight year.

Brown gave everyone a warning in November that he wasn't about to let Saban come to Texas to save the Longhorns after Brown's failed, four-year rebuilding plan had left the program at 30-20 overall, 18-17 in Big 12 play and 0-8 in their last eight games at home vs ranked opponents.

"Nick is a friend and he's done a tremendous job at Alabama," Brown told the Tim Brando Show in November. "Nick's not trying to get my job. I mean, I know Nick. So I don't have to worry about that. And if I do my job, there won't be any job to be open to get, so I think that's the other thing."

Brown was wrong on two fronts. Brown was well aware of efforts being made at that time by top boosters and a group of regents to land Saban for a second straight year. And Brown's ego was raging.

At the time of Brown's comment to Brando, Texas was on a six-game winning streak and in contention for a league title (although Texas would then suffer the worst home loss of the Mack Brown era in a 38-13 waxing by Oklahoma State).

Brown was dead man walking at 1-2 after giving up 550 yards rushing to BYU and replacing Manny Diaz with Greg Robinson, followed by a 44-23 home loss to Ole Miss. And he knew it. Saban might be coming.

Texas was a near-interception and a near-fumble away from losing at 3-9 Iowa State and fourth-and-7 away from losing to West Virginia. If any of those plays go against Texas, Brown's survival at UT would have been unsalvageable.

But in November, Texas was contending for a Big 12 title, and it didn't matter if Blackjack Mack was rolling out 9-card 21s to win games.

With 30 minutes left against Baylor, Texas still had a shot at a Big 12 title that would save Brown's job. But Texas lost the game 30-10, and UT's big-money Saban supporters were ready to accept Brown's playbook.

The sentiment of that group was revealed in an Associated Press story in September, when it was revealed current regent Wallace Hall and former regent Tom Hicks had a conversation last January with Nick Saban's agent.

According to the AP story, Tom Hicks went to Mack Brown two days later and asked him if he wanted to keep coaching. Brown said yes. The drive for Saban was put on hold, until Brown's 8-4 regular season in 2013.

Brown knew all season if he didn't meet certain criteria - 10 wins, a BCS bowl berth or at least a share of the Big 12 title - he would be stepping down because it would be too difficult to claim progress with the fan base. And the negativity would be too much.

But Brown's saving grace was that Bill Powers never wanted Nick Saban, either.

Brown and Powers knew what was coming. And that's when they began trying to delay any resignation announcement (UT's Saban supporters wanted Brown to resign Sunday after the Baylor loss).

No one ever wanted it to look like Brown was being fired. It had to look like Brown was ready to step away because the negative recruiting and constant job security questions after a failed four-year rebuilding project had become too much.

Brown knew that, and it gave him the power to control when any such announcement would come. If he waited long enough (I'm told there was a deadline of Monday, Dec. 16, for any Saban offer), Brown could kill the UT Saban supporters' efforts a second straight year.

By waiting until after Powers had received a vote of continuance as UT president from the board of regents on Thursday, Brown and Powers successfully filibustered any chance Texas had of getting Saban.

In a meeting Friday with his attorney, Joe Jamail, as well as Powers and new athletic director Steve Patterson, Brown threatened to go public with behind-the-scenes efforts to take him down, including press leaks.

That word got to Saban's camp almost immediately, and within an hour Saban had agreed to new contract at Alabama that will pay him more than $7 million per year, according to reports.

Saban was already going to be seen as a bad guy for leaving Alabama. He wasn't about to leave that situation and replace a bitter, scorned Brown in Texas' ongoing version of Game of Thrones. UT's dysfunction had already caused numerous athletic director candidates to take themselves out of consideration for the UT job.

So on Friday night Mack Brown's camp immediately starts telling reporters he was going to step down except for press leaks.

Press leaks not just to me but to Brett McMurphy, Joe Schad, Bruce Feldman, Jenn Engel and others.

Brown's blaming of press leaks was merely his way of trying to take down myself and Orangebloods.com, because we've never bought into Brown's control-the-message obsession.

But the regents and big-money supporters who have been driving changes in the athletic department and led the hire of Steve Patterson are now convinced Powers and Brown were in cahoots to make sure Saban never made it to Austin.

Brown has always put controlling the message above all else. He has ripped reporters who cover the program like Brian Jones, Jon Madani, Ahmad Brooks, Rod Babers and even Lowell Galindo of LHN, who named his son, Mack, after Mack Brown.

Mack takes everything personally. Everything. And, right now, his thin skin just cost a group of regents and powerful billionaires at Texas another shot at landing Nick Saban.

And where Texas goes from here - does Mack Brown stay or go - will tell us who is calling the shots and, perhaps, where the battle lines are being drawn among the school's wealthiest supporters.

Right now, it's Bill Powers and Mack Brown in charge.