Mack Brown has heard every insult a road crowd can come up with. Maybe Oklahoma State fans didn’t believe in keeping it football. The former Texas head coach pulled back the curtain on one of the wildest sideline experiences from his years in Stillwater. He felt amused recalling how Cowboys fans sitting directly behind the Longhorn bench spent a whole game relentlessly heckling him. 

“At Oklahoma State, I think I’d thrown my headset or something, so it wasn’t working,” Mack Brown recalled during an episode of The Stampede podcast. “I had it off and we scored a touchdown. And the boys sitting behind us really knew everything. They said, ‘Oh, great. Mack’s not on the headset. They scored. That just shows you how stupid he is.’ They didn’t get off the headset the whole time.”

That headset jab wasn’t all. There’s also the personal jabs, something every coach who has survived a hostile road stadium knows all too well.

“They talked about your girlfriend,” he added. “They talked about your mama. They talked about your wife. And then your names.”

It was Mack Brown’s way of explaining just how personal road environments could become in college football’s old Big 12 days. And few places matched the atmosphere Oklahoma State created whenever Texas came to town.

Unfortunately for Oklahoma State fans who brought the noise, Texas kept bringing the wins. For all the abuse Mack Brown absorbed from the stands, his Longhorns almost always walked away with the victory. He finished 11-2 against the Cowboys during his 16 seasons in Austin, opening his tenure with 11 consecutive victories over the Cowboys. His teams kept spoiling Oklahoma State’s hopes of climbing into the Big 12 South race, sometimes with convincing blowouts and other times with dramatic comebacks that left the home crowd stunned.

Mack Brown’s record in Stillwater was even more remarkable. He went a perfect 6-0 at Oklahoma State’s stadium, making all that creative trash talk age like milk. However, the winning streak broke in 2010 when the Cowboys beat them 33-16 in Austin followed by a 38-13 defeat in Stillwater during his final season in 2013. But by then, he had already built one of the most lopsided coaching records against the Cowboys. And even though he isn’t pacing a sideline anymore, he hasn’t drifted far from the Longhorns.

Retirement has given Mack Brown room to reminisce on Texas’ golden years 

After retiring following his second stint at North Carolina, Mack Brown returned to Austin, where he has remained closely connected to the program. Earlier this year, the 74-year-old visited Texas practice and spent time with DC Will Muschamp and defensive pass game coordinator & secondary coach Blake Gideon, continuing the role many around the program describe as its “professor emeritus.”

He’s also quite candid about his coaching journey. Last year on David Pollack’s See Ball Get Ball podcast, Mack Brown admitted that even success has a shelf life.

“We got tired at Texas,” he admitted. “Sixteen years is a long time at a place like Texas. Sally [his wife] always said it’s four presidential terms. So that’s a long time to be at the University of Texas, so it was probably time for me to leave there and for them to get somebody else new, because you get worn down.”

Now, alongside Vince Young on The Stampede, Mack Brown is revisiting the stories that defined one of Texas football’s greatest eras. That includes the 2005 national championship, the unforgettable Rose Bowl win over USC, and plenty of road trips where opposing fans tried everything possible to throw him off his game. The insults, it turns out, were memorable. And the results were even more so.