Sark is BRINGING BACK the Texas Culture | Vince Young | Mack Brown | Longhorns Football | Stevie Lee

uh thank you MP Houston we appreciate you says Stevan Rod can you talk about the culture of the program when you guys were there and similarities and differences to the culture now oh that's good one thing I will say that I think is similar Stevie um and it it I think it reached its apex or Zenith like right after you left but it was getting there well it was a player run team and it was a player Le culture the players leading it and I think it got there when V and them won a national title but it was getting there even with you guys in your in your class it was it was the The Players took ownership of the culture and ownership of the program and the standard that's what I'm seeing today I'm seeing these guys take own it's theirs it it it they it it matters to them but it is something that they uh all these guys they wear 247 and I think that's what makes this culture unique is that the players and the players own it no you're exactly right um it was um it started with Shawn and Casey and then DD Lewis and then you guys in the uh your DBS had Quinton Jammer right and so they taught us how to lead that defense on up uh throughout the years and you're right when Vince came in he's he got grabbed a hold of that offense led the offense and that's when we became really really great becoming uh player Le teams year exactly right and then it fell off it fell off a little bit and we can see the records where we fell off on that a little bit so um that's that's I see it now though these these players leading each other in uh in practice getting after each other in practice and the coaches are getting after them too but they're getting after each other as players and and um I like that I think we talked about that last week so that's the that's that's I think the winning culture of what we had back then going nine wins every year you know my senior year we only lost one game to that team um cross the river and then um but but we were player Le teams and now we're getting back to that to that winning culture and being a player Le team right now hey Stevie can I and Rod for both of you guys I remember very distinctly when Vince talked apparently the word was on the street that Vince went and talked to Coach and ma this was before I was involved in the program as a staff member I was just a parent but I remember when it seemed to me Mack was was turning it over to the kids when he started letting them play music pregame when Vince was out there dancing and loosening up because M wasn't have that before it was just the regular old stadium music you know D you know that crap and then my understanding was Vince Vince got him to play some music that the players liked and Vince would be out there grooving to it and that's just kind of how he got in this thing and I thought that's a that's a great thing for a coach to feel confident enough in his players to let them have fun let them have fun and not not keep so is was I wrong uh in assuming that or was that somewhat accurate um so we it didn't start it it it wasn't just on the field it started in the locker room Vince and their their you know the number the the the um Locker were the lockers were numbered so from like one to 10 they had their own little cubby over there and so Vince being number 10 he's over there they brought in a boom box right and we were just jamming in the locker room to Vince music and you know Vince being from Houston it's going to be some Houston rappers and it was great we loved it and it did did loosen loosen us up man um and then you know who handled the the music on the field was mad dog and so um we got with Mad Dog and said this is the music that we wanted to warm up to going out for the game uh warming up for the game so it was um it was it it started in the locker room loosen up first and then it went um into the weight room and then some a little bit in practices does that allow you to feel does that allow you to feel like you have a say in what's going on and this is our team this is how we do business this is how we get ready whether it's practice or whether but but practice is one thing but doing it in a stadium of 100,000 people with a big majority of them back then being old old alumni sitting on that West Side who who didn't even want to stand up during the game to all of a sudden listen to rap music and this m music that the players are grooving to during pregame warmup that's a huge step did you feel like coach was kind of giving you guys part of the team I mean like I don't know I don't know about that because uh we felt like it was our team any anyway you know we we had uh player Le meetings even before then before Vince got there like we would kick the coaches out and we had player-led meetings and and uh so I think we felt like it was our team I think coach realized the culture of uh um of college football really as a whole um that it was moving towards these players are taking responsibility of what they doing on the on the on the field um but yeah it was a little strange man because uh we come out there and it was it was quiet on that West Side you're exactly right but when we leave they go back in to get ready to run out through the tunnel that's when they started playing the country music again you know what were you gonna say r no no I I just want set the record straight here first of all um Mac Mack allowed himself to evolve but Mack did not evolve all in one year with v yeah think m brown didn't even want us to have earrings facial hair or or braids braids yeah right we that the braids thing came with Cedric Benson he wanted to recruit Cedric Benson he he with Ricky it was fine but after Ricky he said a he basically set a new standard like nope nobody would bra I don't earrings I don't want face and he wasn't just being some uppity old you know crotchy old man he was thinking about us getting jobs he was thinking about those people you talking about in the stands coach that are you know Fortune 500 CEOs and that are boosters and donors and they'll give us jobs one day and he was thinking about how they perceive us and he wanted them to perceive us as cleancut young men they give jobs to right because Mack was bringing those guys to practice all the time he was like I'mma bring the Boost and D to practice you can't talk to him but at least y'all get to see him and you get to meet him and then one day hopefully they'll go hey I remember you in practice I'll hire you for a job so M was thinking longterm 40-year decisions not four but guys he came kicking and screaming with the braids and everything you'll notice go look at the team pictures and you'll tell when Ma decided to change his tune about braids and right Ste Le because everybody got them everybody got bra after that was like all right y'all can have braids because why because said Benson had braids I was like well said Benson gon have these dreads and stuff I let everybody get them so then everybody start to get that everybody started to get the earrings and V was not the first but not the first uh I would say he wasn't the first player to kind of force hip hop on DKR and on mat it actually was us it was Trick Daddy I BS you not the first rap artist probably played in DKR was Trick Daddy Back In day all the old heads you go to games probably remember this because they used to play Leanne wac I am not joking Matt Brown would go out there and play Leanne wac I hope you I hope you D yeah I Hope You Dance it was a slow ballot everybody Stadium about to cry and I Hope You Dance before game and like this such a great like M it is a great song but I am ready to go ahead and smash some heads and I do not hear the lean wac she's not gonna get me motivated to do it all right we actually got M start playing some Trick Daddy and it was I love V but V wasn't the first one dancing r b go ask the people I would dance in pregame warm-ups every pregame warmup Robbie would go down the end zone with my DBS and I'd start dancing I would dance every time Trick Daddy came on and I remember some of y'all probably did too so Matt came slowly and I wouldn't say it was part of us that made it matter of fact the Leadership Council that I was a part of in 2002 you know Ma has a model every year all right he let he let the Leadership Council pick out the model and our year we wanted coach we wanted to say fit was gonna be our model but stood for fit literally that that was the model stood for it because we were tired of everybody talking you know talking about Texas look like tan play like Jane we we was gonna have the eant attitude and go out there and show the world right and M was like nah they I was like ma nobody's gonna know what it means we gonna know what it mean tell everybody else it means something else fit tell make up something but for us we'll know what it mean and M was like nah we ain't ready for that yet let's go with wit whatever it takes in you remember that I remember had we had PS that we had to wear on our shirts yes the model one year was dream yes so so I I love ma but that basically the last kind of Lynch pin of it that was V that was v y v y was what put Mac over the ti ma was like you know what I'll let y'all let let let them have the team it's their team and look what it did and that's when M learned oh the best teams are the player Le teams I gotta H I gotta make sure I bring in the right leaders and let them have the team and that's why that that those coat years were so damn good because Mack didn't even try Mack was like no no it's on Cru control I'm not going to try to interject and you can make the argument that he let it go in cruise control too long before he decided to interject right he's like you know what no it's D team now it's coach team like uh Matt step in step in need some o line help step in step in how about some little upgrades on offense step in and he never did so that's my take and I say I love Mack but Mac didn't it it all happened in one year guys it was a slow gradual process for matol and now look now he's wearing Jump Man tennis shoes dancing in a lot locker room you know what I mean he got got got fitty and and all Kanye and everybody else on his on his uh on his phone like he's he's now an evolved grandfather of a coach but it started way back in like 01 02 you go to the Jumpman headquarters it's a little different there Rod I mean Max gotta try something in that in those shoes yeah no but that's that's it's a great discussion but I'll say this though the passing down now the guys Stevie Lee just like you pointed out the guys you learned it from the Casey Hampton Sean Rogers and the DD Lewis and the guys I learned it from the Greg Browns and the Quinton Jammers and how we took pride in passing it down to the youngsters after us right the Nathan Bashers for me the Michael Huffs for me that's happening now the pride in receiving the culture and the standard and then the pride of owning it and then the pride of passing it down and making sure it's done properly and I talked to quandre about this he quandre admitted to me said Yes somewhere got lost because remember quandre was in the locker room with us quandre was a little little a little dude and quandre was Quin Jam's little brother and he was in the locker room with us all the like the 02 03 04 guys he was hanging out with us all the time and right yeah yeah yeah quandre was around I got a quick story about quandre I sold quandre a house and um the other agent the agent said oh well how do you guys know each other quandre looked at the agent like oh well I known him since I was seven years old I was like no you didn't that's true though it's is true yeah right and so quandre knew about that that that torch right passing of that torch and he admitted to me Steve he's like yeah somewhere it got lost it got lost like because he remembers it being passed down and then got lost but now they picked it up again and I don't think they gonna drop it not this group man that's what likes about and then that's and that's why I'm feeling um Texas football is um this upward trajectory right now because um they're building something with a great Foundation right right so last year the great Foundation was the players buying into uh uh shark's uh whole system and now the I feel like these kids are are are running with it now so starting with that great Foundation now we got to maintain this Foundation right um um there's you know there going to be some there's always adversity and we just got to come together and fight through the adversity we already seeing a little bit of adversity in the coaching staff right so um well wish shart so uh long as we all stay together continue to uh to build off this Foundation we can be good for a long time guys I told I told my wife um you know uh I think um Nick Sav saw the writing on the wall you know that's why he wanted to get out of college football hey well that's what I saying R that's why it's so important every year every year you can't just turn it over you can't just you got to make sure that that that that culture is going to stay and those guys are leading and that I think you're exactly right with Matt he just it got so good for so many years that he just thought we're gonna win 10 every year at least and the players are going to take care of things and somewhere that got lost it did somewhere it got lost and it's something that as a head coach you have to stay on top of yeah for uh I don't want to yeah I talked to Mad Dog Mad Dog said that his hands were tied at some point to where he could not discipline some of the players like he wanted to so uh and that's where we started to see that that plateau and then kind of we fell off a little bit interesting because I talk and I'm sure you have to Stevie I've talked to Coach beckon I'm sure you have to coach Shipley and Coach beckon I didn't realize he had so much old school in him yeah he got some coach he got some old school in him now you know why he got old school in him cuz he's from the Tree of Mad Dog and Shep okay okay he he falls not too far from that tree man um in fact I went to bexon's uh uh surprise birthday party a few months ago and Shep walked in I got a picture with him man turn around look I turned around saw Shep I was like damn where those 120 dumbbells at I got he get scared get them flashbacks man