Texas Football: Mack’s loyalty to Cedric Benson is why AP went to OU

The top-ranked recruit in the nation from the high school ranks in the 2004 class was someone that Texas football would obviously have loved to have on campus at the time. I’m talking about the Oklahoma Sooners’ legendary running back and Palestine, TX, native Adrian Peterson.

Instead of choosing to take his talents to Austin, though, by signing with Texas in the 2004 recruiting class, Peterson ultimately decided to go north of the Red River to Norman, OK, to play for the rival Sooners. And the reason for this is something that Peterson broke down during his induction speech into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame last weekend.

Peterson blamed the former Texas head coach Brown as to why he didn’t wind up in Austin, instead playing for the Sooners.

"“For the people finding themselves mad at me going to Oklahoma, this is what I would say. If you’re going to be mad at anybody, be mad at Coach Mack Brown.”"

It sounds like Mack’s loyalty to legendary former Texas running back Cedric Benson cost him Peterson’s recruitment when it was all said and done. Mack remained loyal to Benson when talking to Peterson about the potential (or lack thereof) for immediate playing time on the 40.

Former Texas football Mack Brown cost the Horns a chance at Adrian Peterson

Some of the other major college head coaches that were pursuing Peterson at the time as a recruit out of high school (i.e. USC’s Pete Carroll and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops) said that he would be able to at least compete for starting reps at the running back position right away.

But Mack was different. Mack apparently told Peterson that he would essentially have to sit behind Benson for a year before he could realistically compete for the starting running back job at Texas.

"“Mack Brown? ‘If I come here, will I have the opportunity to come in and compete for the starting job?’ He was like ‘Well, Adrian, I’m not going to lie to you. Cedric Benson, he decided to come back for his senior year. So, we’re going to be loyal to him and we’re going to let him ride it out. But after that, you can compete for it.’ I said ‘Okay, appreciate it’ and that was it. I never told him that I wasn’t coming. But that was the decision I made based off that.”"

It really sounds like Peterson was interested in playing for the Burnt Orange at the collegiate level. But the ability to get early playing time elsewhere ultimately swung this recruitment in Oklahoma’s favor over Texas given that Peterson didn’t believe he could make an early impact for the Longhorns.

As a result, Texas and Oklahoma had some of the most potent rushing attacks in the country during the 2004 season. Peterson had a breakout true freshman campaign where he ran for nearly 2,000 yards on a whopping 339 carries, with 15 rushing scores. Peterson’s insane true freshman campaign (which went down as one of the best inaugural seasons in college football history) was enough to get him finishing second place in the Heisman voting in 2004.

Benson was also one of the nation’s best running backs in 2004. He rambled for more than 1,800 yards on 326 carries, with a whopping 19 rushing touchdowns. Benson finished up the 2004 season with more total yards (2,013) and total touchdowns (20) than Peterson thanks to the former Longhorn having a more productive campaign as a receiver.

In 2004, Benson led the Big 12 in yards from scrimmage. He also led the Big 12 in 2003 and 2004 in touchdowns from scrimmage.

However, it is interesting to think what could’ve been if Texas had a running back duo the caliber of Benson and Peterson. That would’ve made for one of the most dominant rushing attacks in college football throughout all of the 2000s. And that’s not to mention what Texas’ running back duo could’ve looked like after Benson’s departure to the NFL in 2005, with the likes of Jamaal Charles and Peterson leading the way out of the backfield.

Hindsight is always 20/20, though.

Texas finished up the 2004 season with a record of 11-1 (7-1 Big 12), en route to winning the Rose Bowl over the Michigan Wolverines. We all know what happened the following year, when Vince Young and the Longhorns went on to win the Rose Bowl for the second consecutive season, notching the program’s first national title of the new century.