Saturday Blitz
Fansided

Texas Football: 10 greatest coaches in program history

By Quinn Douglas

facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
5 of 11
Next
21 Sep 1996: Head coach John Mackovic of the Texas Longhorns along with the rest of the team members salute with the University’s tradmark “hook’em horns” during the playing of the school anthem following the Longhorns 27-24 loss to the Notre Dame Fighti
21 Sep 1996: Head coach John Mackovic of the Texas Longhorns along with the rest of the team members salute with the University’s tradmark “hook’em horns” during the playing of the school anthem following the Longhorns 27-24 loss to the Notre Dame Fighti /

7. John Mackovic: 1992-1997

  • Career Record: 41-28-2
  • Awards and Accolades: 1994 & ’95 Southwest Conference Champions, 1996 Big 12 Champions

John Mackovic comes in at number seven on the all-time list. Mackovic played his college football at Wake Forest from 1962 to 1964. Following his graduation he spent a season as a graduate assistant at Miami of Ohio and the spent stints at San Jose State, Arizona and Purdue as assistant coaches before becoming head coach of his alma mater in 1978. He spent three years at Wake Forest before he became Tom Landry’s quarterbacks coach for the Dallas Cowboys for two seasons.

More from Texas Longhorns

In 1983, Mackovic became head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and spent four years there before being fired following the 1986 season. He returned to coaching in 1988, becoming head coach of Illinois, and spent four successful seasons in Champaign before leaving to take the head coaching job at Texas.

Mackovic’s first two teams were mediocre at best, losing five games in both seasons, but finally took off in year three, finishing 8-4 and winning the Southwest Conference. The Longhorns would win the conference one last time in 1995 before leaving for the newly formed Big 12 Conference. Mackovic’s Longhorns provided one of the most memorable upsets of the 1990’s when his squad upset the Nebraska dynasty in the inaugural Big 12 Championship Game, 37-27.

His tenure in Texas would end on a sour note however, finishing 4-7 in 1997 and being fired at the end of the season. Mackovic would go on to coach the Arizona Wildcats, but his tenure was shrouded in controversy due to his brick and mortar attitude and only lasted two and a half seasons.

Home/Texas Longhorns