When they don't win, we want a new Quarterback. If it's not the QB, we want a new offensive coordinator or a new defensive coordinator. Or, we want a new head football coach altogether. We just aren't happy with mediocre and not coming out on top of the standings.
Your favorite team wins 3 straight conference championships and then they go 4-7 and everybody wants change. Right or wrong, it's just part of the game. That's true in football, basketball, baseball or any other sport on the planet. Produce results or hit the road, is the mentality of the majority of sports fans. We just want to win and we want to win now.
Sometimes change is good and everybody lives happily ever after. But, change can also bring harm to those that don't deserve it. Some people let it be known that they believe they have been treated unfairly. While others just go about their business and act like the class acts that they are and never complain about how life can be at times.
Vernon, is a small Texas town located near the Oklahoma border just outside of the Panhandle and Northwest of Fort Worth. Vernon is the home of the W.T. Waggoner Ranch which is the type of ranch that gave Texas it's reputation of everything being large. The Waggoner Ranch is the largest spread in Texas under one fence with some 520,000 acres. Vernon is also the home town of Roy Orbison, the Grammy winning singer and songwriter.
Vernon, Texas is on the Texas/Oklahoma border near the panhandle and kids grow up there watching Texas Tech, or Oklahoma, or Texas. Fans of those schools generally don't tend to like each other and football is still king in Texas last time I checked.
Brandon Nava is the youngest child in a normal American family of 4 boys.
Brandon was the youngest of 4 four football loving boys, so naturally he grew up around the game. He was always at the football field, always playing football and involved with the game in some way. He also played baseball, basketball and participated in track and field and he was really good at all of them being the athletic kid that he was. He was just
In 1988, the Nava family moved from Vernon to Mesquite, Texas a suburb of Dallas. With a swelling population of over 143,000 people, Mesquite is a huge metropolis compared to a rural town like Vernon which has a population of slightly over 10,000 people. Mesquite, despite it's size, still has that Texas feel to it with the famous Mesquite Rodeo.
The youngest Nava boy, Brandon, was beginning to grow and suddenly he was the biggest, the strongest and the toughest kid around and that showed up on the football field and in other sports.
Brandon played all 4 major sports at Mesquite High School, football, basketball, baseball and track and field. He was good enough, athletically, to excel at all of the sports. All of that changed suddenly after he dislocated his elbow and was unable to play baseball for a while. When the injury had healed up, Brandon returned to baseball. By this time, Brandon had grown to around 6-3 and around 220 to 230 pounds and that had drawn some interest.
The head baseball coach, Rick Geer, asked Brandon into his office to have a word with him and told Brandon that Head Mesquite Football Coach Mickey DeLamar had something to discuss with Brandon.
Coach DeLamar met with Brandon and told him he had been saving something for him for after football was over so that Brandon could focus on football. Coach DeLamar had a huge stack of letters from colleges around the country wanting Brandon to play football for them.
As soon as the Mesquite High School football coach turned the recruiting over to Brandon, he started receiving as many as 20 letters per day from various schools across the country.
Recruiting Brandon Nava the hardest were Nebraska, Michigan, UCLA, Texas A&M and Texas. Those were his top 5, but there was also Texas Tech right there on the edge and wanting to get Nava's services. Recruiting Brandon for Texas Tech was Rick Dykes who was an assistant for his father, Spike Dykes, at Texas Tech at that time. Current Baltimore Raven Head Coach John Harbaugh was recruiting Brandon for his school back in those years, Cincinnati.
Theoretically, a college has 25 scholarships to give out per year. They also have a limit of 85 total available for football scholarships. They have a plan going into each recruiting class and take only so many players per position each year if they can get the right players to accept an offer for a scholarship.
A school might play a 4-3 defense and might try to take in 4 Defensive linemen and 3 Linebackers in any given year. Certainly, if a guy like Jadeveon Clowney wants to wait till signing day or later, any school in the country will hold a scholarship for him. He is that good.
But, to the standard 3 star or 4 star recruit out there looking to go to a college to play football on scholarship, the really big time colleges out there may or may not hold a spot for you. If they fill up at the position you are playing they may or may not have a spot for you on signing day.
All of that to say that a highly recruited guy like Brandon Nava will get a scholarship on signing day, but because of circumstances it may not be at the school he wants to attend sometimes.
Of Brandon's early favorite schools, Nebraska was the first one to come off of the board. They had filled up at his position and called him to tell him that they had no more room for him.
Michigan was next, filling up with the number of Linebackers they were taking in that recruiting class.
Later, UCLA had also filled up at LB. They called Brandon and asked if he would consider coming out to UCLA and playing defensive end. Brandon told them no, he was not interested in any position other than LB. He was a LB at heart and wanted to stay at LB.
That left only Texas and Texas A&M. Texas Tech still had an outside shot at landing Brandon at that point.
Brandon had a good friend and teammate that played along side Brandon since middle school. He was a LB named Josh Cannon. Cannon played at Middle LB and Brandon played Outside LB and they had been big buddies since Brandon had moved to Mesquite. Cannon had committed to play football at the University of North Texas. But, Cannon suddenly got sick with the rare Guillain-Barre Syndrome. North Texas football coach, Ken Simonton and his staff, were
Brandon and Josh Cannon were good friends and, of course, Brandon went to see him in the hospital, as good friends often do. The punter for the UNT football team, Jeff Graham, was also there visiting and as people often tend to do he asked what Brandon was going to do about his football future, which school he was going to sign with.
Brandon being the laid back high school 18 year old that he was, had not made a decision about where he was going to college and really wasn't in that big of a hurry. Graham said he would not advise that. He said what Brandon had already found out a little that when schools run out of scholarships that is it. Brandon had seen Nebraska, Michigan and UCLA back out of recruiting him because they had filled up at his position.
Jeff Graham advised Brandon to pick a school and commit. Wisely, Brandon listened and thought it was about time to pick a school. But, the problem was, which one?
Brandon went into his room and got cards from each school and just started rifling through them and the Texas card kept coming up. Decision making process of a laid back 18 year old kid was the opposite of scientific, but the Texas card kept winning.
He started thinking about Texas and he had visited and he had liked Austin, the school, and the coaches and just about everything about Texas.
Texas was it.
He called Recruiting coordinator Randy Rodgers but there was no answer. He called again and again and there was no answer. It was getting rather late in the evening and Rodgers should have been answering the phone. He tried one more time and still no answer.
He called again and Randy Rodgers actually answered the phone that time. He had been in the shower but was excited to hear from Brandon and was excited even more to hear that Brandon wanted to commit to Texas. But, he said that he couldn't take his commitment and would run it by the coaches. Head coach John Mackovic called him in a few minutes and was excited also to hear the news.
The Brandon Nava family had been on pins and needles waiting for Brandon to make a decision. They were all waiting around to see who he would pick and they would all be fans of that particular school. If he picked the Red Raiders, they would be a Red Raider family. If he picked Michigan, they would have been a Michigan family. Same was true for the Aggies, if he had picked them.
As he told them he was going to be a Longhorn, they were all excited and each individual member of the family pulled him aside at some point and told him they were glad he picked Texas because they had always been Longhorn fans.
Brandon's father stayed out of the recruiting process. That's somewhat rare these days as so many moms and dads want to pick the school for their kids. But, Brandon's dad let Brandon pick where he wanted to go and he was supportive of his son no matter what.
Tradition and history were a big part of why Brandon picked Texas.
Two games stood out for Brandon from the year before when he was still in high school, which is why media exposure is so very important in recruiting. The Texas- Oklahoma game in which freshman James Brown led the Horns and Stony Clark's goal line stand won the game, was an important game to Brandon. Also, the Sun Bowl game featuring Texas vs North Carolina. Who'd have known at the time, Texas would face North Carolina with Mack Brown and Texas won 35 to 31 in what would be the most exciting bowl game of the season.
Those 2 games would be a huge influence on Brandon in deciding to be a Horn.
Not surprising, since Adrian Peterson was a big Texas fan until the Sooners blew out Texas in Dallas and Peterson was influenced to head North of the Red River and join the Sooners.
If you talked to a 100 different recruits you would probably hear 100 different reasons why they went to a certain school.
Texas A&M coach, RC Slocum flew in on a private jet to meet with Brandon and his father. Brandon wanted to come in and play early and contribute. He asked Coach Slocum straight up what Coach Slocum felt about freshmen playing. Brandon was a LB and the Aggies were recruiting him as such. They were really good defensively back in those days. Coach Slocum told Brandon and was very honest about everything. He told Brandon that they didn't get to where they are now by playing freshmen. Brandon knew right then and there that the Aggies were not going to be the school he picked.
Dan Rocco recruited Brandon for Texas and he is now the head football coach at Richmond University and doing really well.
Brandon signed with Texas and showed up in August of 1995 for his freshman season.
Brandon is pretty much in agreement with most guys you will talk to about playing major college football. The biggest differences between high school football and college football is the time involved, the number of players at your position compared to what you knew in high school, plus the size and the speed of the other players.
Texas was running a 3-4 defense when Brandon was there. They brought in 4 LBs in Brandon's recruiting class, Dusty Renfro, Anthony Hicks, Matt Jones and Brandon. He walked into a room that was holding a meeting for the team linebackers and including walk-ons there were over 20 guys in the room. It was kind of intimidating for a freshman coming into a major college football program.
Brandon was tall and fast in high school. Suddenly, everyone was tall and fast. He went from being the #1 guy to the #22 guy, and that was a major shock.
It is a huge time commitment when you get to college. In high school, you go to school and then practice and that's pretty much it.
In college, you go to the weight room from 6 to 8 in the morning and then you go to class. From there, you go get taped up or go to the training room and sit in the whirlpool. You might watch film before practicing for 3 hours and then shower and get treatment again. Then it was off to study hall and then back for film study for hours and hours till maybe midnight. In order to be good, you have to know the tendencies of other teams and players.
Then, you get up tomorrow and do it all again. The time commitment was a complete shock for Brandon coming out of high school and for players all over the country. I'm sure any player you talked to would tell you the same.
The reason players get in so much trouble is that school ends and they suddenly have all this free time in their hands.
The second shocker was the effort. In high school you kind of got by on your ability. In college your coaches required and demanded total and absolute effort out of you. Not only in work outs, but in film study and in every area. He probably only gave 70% in high school, honestly.
Another shocker, and maybe the biggest of all, was the speed of everyone. The offensive linemen are nearly as fast as you are and can knock the crud out of you when they caught up with you. They are like refrigerators with arms. They can be 6-3 to 6-6 and up to 300 pounds and even more and can run with you.
Play books were huge. You had to know every aspect of the game.
It probably took Brandon Nava a year after he stopped playing football to finally catch his breath.
College football coaches are not only coaches, but they are like the CEO of a large business or company. People always say that you get an education for free but you pay for it with your own sweat equity. A player goes from high school with maybe a few thousand in the stands to running out with 100,000 screaming people and there is really nothing like it on earth. The people in the stands have had hard weeks and the players are playing for themselves but also for all the people watching.
Brandon Nava was part of the John Mackovic program at Texas. Mackovic's team tied for first in the SWC in 1994, they won the SWC in 1995 and then they won the first Big 12 title in 1996. They lost 8 guys to the NFL in 1997 and then they lost a lot of starters to injury.
The 1997 team fell apart and they went 4-7. The players and everyone could see the writing on the wall in the last weeks and then they lost to the Aggies in College Station. Brandon went home to see his family after Thanksgiving game and he saw on ESPN that John Mackovic had been fired. John Mackovic didn't even get to speak to his team that he had recruited or even give them an exit speech.
With the huge salaries that coaches are getting now, Brandon gets why changes are necessary but when a coach goes into your living room he is asking for a commitment to this school and to the staff and to everything about the program. When a coach is in transition it is a tough situation for guys like Brandon Nava with John Mackovic when he was there they were building a foundation and suddenly it was all gone. Brandon was an outside LB with aspirations to play in the NFL, whether a possibility or not, they were still there. Then, another coach comes and everything you have built and every foundation you have built and all of the trust and relationship is just suddenly all gone. You. as a player, have a new coach and they don't know you and they have different aspirations and expectations and different requirements. When a new coach comes in and everything is harder. They just assume you are soft and have bad work out ethics, which totally reminds of what people are hearing now about the same program after Mack Brown is gone.
Then, he discovered he had a heart problem he was only finding out about right in the middle of the coaching change.
This was the first off season under Mack Brown and his new strength and conditioning coach, Jeff, Madden. It was grueling and come hell or high water he was going to whip the team into shape. Brandon was one of the faster LBs and suddenly he couldn't keep up in workouts. He couldn't keep up with his running group and couldn't even keep up with biggest linemen.
He missed 8 or 10 workouts due to a condition he didn't know about. They finally figured out that they needed to go get him checked out and they sent him to a cardiologist and found out what was going on.
Doctors found he had Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome.
He had surgery about 3 weeks before 2 a days his junior year. Nava went from starting as a sophomore and playing on every special team to a back up Defensive End and not playing hardly much at all. Brandon Nava played 11 total plays his junior year. Basically, he had to sit on the bench the entire year.
Then came the questions from family and friends. Was he not trying hard enough? What was the deal? Why aren't you playing anymore?
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| Casey Hampton |
Mack Brown was very upfront and he told Brandon he needed to gain some weight.
Cole Pittman was an incredible talent, but very young. He was ahead of Brandon on the depth chart, also. Cole Pittman was just coming into his own and about to make a name for himself at Defensive Tackle when he was tragically lost in an automobile accident a short time later.
That is for anther blog here. The loss of Cole Pittman was devastating on so many levels. Not only did a family lose their beloved son, but Texas lost an outstanding citizen and inspirational leader and a team favorite. It also cost Texas a really good defensive player and then eventually would cost Texas a starting Defensive End in Cole's younger brother, Chase. Just devastating.
I asked Brandon what the differences were between the two different coaching staffs, Mackovic's and Brown's.
The difference between the two staffs was John Mackovic was an NFL guy and ran his program like an NFL program and made them wear a suit and tie and Mack Brown was more of a people person. Mack played better defense and was better on special teams. Mackovic was an offensive genius.
Mackovic's Strength coach was Rock Gullickson, Dana Laduc was the long time Strength coach before Gullickson. Jeff Mad Dog Madden was Mack's Strength and Conditioning coach. Gullickson was Brandon's strength coach for 3 years. Strength coaches are very important in the day to day life and spending time with the players. Strength coaches wear a lot of hats, big brother, disciplinarian, and other important roles. In the 4th quarter some teams will run out of gas and the teams that have the good conditioning are the ones doing the work during the off season. Strength coaches take that personally. Rock Gullickson is with the St Louis Rams now. He's been all over the NFL. Madden is one of the best today and one that kind of started a lot of things. There are many different strength and conditioning styles but at the end of day they are just there to motivate and get the best out of you and ask everything out of you. Once you get to know them then you will do anything for them. Pat Moorer is new guy for coach Charlie Strong.
When asked what he knew or how he felt about the
The only thing Brandon has heard is that Charlie Strong has two passions in his life, football and family. He got here and was behind the 8 ball immediately and hit the ground running with recruiting and then went through Spring Ball. He's always had really good defenses and good teams. Strong seems to know what he is doing. Big 12 is different than what Strong is used to, and most people don't realize that half time Texas was tied with Baylor 3-3 at the half. As bad as it has been lately on the 40 Acres, it's not that far off. Brandon did not say as much, but it feels like he thinks the 2014 edition of the Texas Longhorns should be pretty good.
I am not a fan of the Longhorn Network and asked how Brandon felt about things.
There is an extreme bias towards SEC in media. It's been slanted from media stand point.
Longhorn Network when it came out he thought it had the potential to be really good or really bad. He has never had it or even seen it. He could see all the games before the Longhorn Network. He doesn't see much coverage on ESPN of the longhorns. He feels it has limited the coverage of the Horns. He feels like it has been kind of minimized a little bit. If you have it you can see some good stuff. Longhorn Network has not benefited the university other than financially. It's a work in progress.
In topics they are discussing on ESPN, then ESPN leaves it up to the Longhorn Network now and the average guy just doesn't see the Longhorn brand, anymore. You just don't see the horns covered much anymore, and the Aggies have filled the void.
College and NFL football fans have high expectations and want to win it all every year. When a team falls short for whatever reason, the fans often want change. It is a what have you done for us lately mentality.
Change can be good. Sometimes change can bring more of the same and sometimes things can even get worse on the football field.
But what we fans don't see or don't get sometimes is the people that can be hurt behind the scenes sometimes. Jobs are lost, people are replaced and sometimes people that aren't deserving come through battered and torn.
Brandon Nava is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet or run across on this planet. He is a good guy in every possible way. Brandon Nava never said one negative word about the new coaching staff when I talked with him at length, and never said one bad word about the school for replacing his coach. I have talked to Brandon quite a few times and I have never heard one negative word coming out of his mouth about anyone.
Any negative comments about this situation I am discussing in this post come from me. As a football fan, I knew all about Mack Brown when Texas hired him from North Carolina. I knew he was an outstanding recruiter and a pretty decent coach. I was excited for him and for the school and for the state of Texas in general that such a guy would come in and maybe take Texas to a national title or two.
He did win one and lost out on another. What I never really ever considered before is what happens to the majority of the guys really involved. Ricky Williams was a junior at Texas at the time. Nothing bad is going to happen to a franchise player like Ricky Williams. Williams won the Heisman Trophy in Mack Brown's first year at Texas and things worked out really well for him other than some poor judgement by Ricky.
Guys like Brandon Nava were a different story. Nava was a LB. He wanted to be a LB. The new staff moved him to Defensive End and then later to Defensive Tackle knowing fully well that he was not going to play there and had no chance to play there other than to add depth to the roster.
Best for the team? Yes, but was it good for Brandon Nava?
Not so much, but he gave his all and he never complained.
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