Texas Football: Unusual connection between Peyton Manning and Mack Brown

The Texas football program and Tennessee Volunteers were about to be headed in opposite directions at the conclusion of the late 1990’s.

Back in 1997, the Tennessee Volunteers were one of college football’s very best programs and ruled the SEC. While the Texas football program was about to begin its ascent under the direction of head coach Mack Brown, Tennessee was trying to juice the last of the Magic they could muster behind the efforts of star quarterback and Heisman contender Peyton Manning.

Yet, there is an interesting connection that stems between the Vols and Manning to Brown with the Texas Longhorns football program. And the program that helps to bridge this connection is the Nebraska Cornhuskers. In 1997, Nebraska and Tennessee were vying to be the nation’s top team for most of the season.

From 1997, when the Huskers smacked around Peyton and the Vols to 1998 when the Longhorns upended Nebraska in upset fashion, a lot happened that reshaped the college football landscape. The Vols would begin this descent to mediocrity in the SEC East following the conclusion of the 1998 season that would have a lot of twists and turns even continuing up to the modern day.

Meanwhile, Brown would lead the Longhorns to a national title of their own and get Texas over the Nebraska hump to reign as the Big 12’s top program throughout much of the 2000’s. The Longhorns beat the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl to claim the BCS National Championship to cap the 2005 season.

Tennessee was starting to really decline in the 2000’s. They did win the first ever BCS National Championship Game while Mack was in his first year as head coach on the Forty Acres in 1998. But that’s really where the program peaked.

This interesting connection between the two programs that really marks the beginning of just how the college football landscape changed, specifically in the Big 12 and SEC, traces back to the end of the 1997 season. Tennessee and Nebraska were the No. 2 and 3 ranked teams in the nation, respectively. But Nebraska would go on to dominate the Vols by a final score of 42-17 in the Orange Bowl.

Nebraska seemed to be on top of the world to cap the 1997 season (outside of the national title controversy along with the Michigan Wolverines even though the Huskers were clearly deserving). They were the best the Big 12 had to offer, but they were also in the final year under legendary head coach Tom Osborne. The year after, current Ohio Bobcats head coach Frank Solich would take the reigns in Lincoln.

To cap the 1997 season, Texas would round out the John Mackovic era after winning just four games. Mack would take over prior to the 1998 season, after coming over from the North Carolina Tar Heels program, and lead Texas to a nine win campaign.

Texas would get to face Nebraska during the 1998 regular season in a key Halloween showdown. Texas was unranked and Nebraska was No. 7. But the Longhorns upended the Huskers to pull off their biggest win of the regular season. And this was the lone Nebraska loss to an unranked team since the Peyton-era ended in Knoxville.

Mack did what Peyton couldn’t do against Nebraska, and that was take down a team that had a ton of talent on it including the likes of star quarterback Eric Crouch and running back Correll Buckhalter.

The connection between Texas and Tennessee during the 1997 and 1998 seasons doesn’t end there, though. One of the Heisman finalists in 1997 was former Texas star running back Ricky Williams. He finished fifth in the Heisman voting, and Manning would come in second only to Michigan defensive back Charles Woodson.

In 1998, Williams would finally get his due and take the Heisman Trophy back to the Forty Acres for the first time since Earl Campbell won it more than two decades earlier. Williams beat out the likes of a UCLA Bruins quarterback Cade McNown that lived in the shadow of Manning for much of his college career during non-conference slates.

Manning and the Vols beat McNown and the Bruins in back-to-back years, in 1996 and 1997, as the two teams were both preseason national title contenders in each of those seasons.

In 1998, Tennessee had a big name head coach in Phillip Fulmer that would outpace the likes of Brown, among others, to win pretty much every major college football coaching award of the season. Among those were the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year and Home Depot Coach of the Year.

Tennessee and Texas haven’t faced each other on the gridiron since the 1960’s. But they do have valid connections concerning the transition of power in the college football landscape around the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Tennessee was ruling the college football landscape for much of that time period, but Texas was soon to assume that role heading into the mid-2000’s.

Nebraska was also a national power that was on the way down during this time period, and Texas had something to do with that. Texas being the first unranked team to knock off Nebraska in 1998 just nine games after they dismantled Manning and the Vols is a significant turning point for the program, and showed what Mack could do for them over the long haul.