“Then put 4 in”: Legendary Texas HC Mack Brown shares how he bent the rules for freshman Derrick Johnson

Legendary Texas coach Mack Brown, who was with the Longhorns from 1998 to 2013, helped develop the program into a championship contender. On Wednesday's episode of the “3rd & Longhorn” show, Brown sat down with his former players to reflect on his coaching style.

When asked about his approach to allowing his coordinators autonomy and his role in that structure, Brown shared some telling examples starting with linebacker Derrick Johnson.

“DJ was a great player,” Brown said (Timestamp: 19:55). “He wasn’t a good player, he was really special. So, Carl Reese says, ‘We’re just playing three linebackers. We got three older linebackers that know what to do and it’s after the third game and I said, ‘Put DJ in the game.’

"And he said, ‘But he doesn’t know as much as the other three.’ I said, ‘Then put four in.’ … I said, ‘We are not gonna have him sit on the bench. We are not gonna do it.’ So my job was to let the coordinators do their job as long as they were doing it.”

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Mack Brown on instilling confidence in his players

Mack Brown also talked about helping quarterback Vince Young find his confidence within the team after the athlete joined in 2002. When he saw that Young was having trouble with calling plays in the huddle, mainly because they were too long, he decided it was time for a change.

“So, I thought, ‘All right, let’s go. No huddle. Let’s spread out. He doesn’t have to get nervous in the huddle, let him be Vince.’ Yeah. Let him go," Brown said (Timestamp: 20:45).

Brown then told offensive coordinator Greg Davis that he wanted Young to have five passing plays and five running plays and that Young should be the one to pick them.

“So we sat down with Vince and said, ‘What are your five favorite runs? What are your five favorite passes?’ … And then all of a sudden, people couldn’t even rush him because he’d go run, so they had to sit there. Then they had to play zone, they couldn’t play man because they couldn’t tackle him. And then passing got a lot easier. And then he got confidence as a passer.

"So that was my job. My job was to take the complicated things and make them work for you guys. Because it’s not about schemes, it’s about players.”

Under Mack Brown, Texas won two Big 12 championships and a national championship in 2005.