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I might also add, in a George Bailey sort of way, it's all Watson Brown's credit that we are where we are.

Had he not saved his baby brother Mack from drowning in that icy river (that part borrowed from "It's a Wonderful Life"), everything would have been different.

Instead, Mack took the money and ran from Texas, "retiring" in December, 2013. Texas then hired Charlie Strong from Louisville.

Louisville went and got Bobby Petrino from Western Kentucky. He then decided to hire Garrick McGee away from his head coaching position at UAB to be his offensive coordinator.

The same McGee who was a disaster as a head coach and who we could not afford to buy out. Instead, Louisville paid US a buy-out to get him! We were going nowhere with McGee as our coach, and what little life was left in the program he probably would have killed off with another 3-9 season.

But with him gone, we were able to hire Bill Clark. Of course, the president and trustees assumed we were already dead in the water and didn't offer him a long-term contract, knowing their plans that we would be one-and-done. But Coach Clark changed the whole culture of UAB football, turned things around on the field, and created a spark of enthusiasm that ignited to an even greater blaze when they shut us down.

If Mack never leaves Texas, setting in motion a series of events that got us out of the McGee contract and got us Coach Clark, we probably don't have football right now, and the university's enrollment is continuing to tank.

Thank you Watson Brown.