Top 10 Football Coaches in Texas Longhorns History

A team without a coach is just a mere bunch of talented players who need some sort of guidance to flourish. Coaching a team is indeed a very challenging task, you have to take the full responsibility of the team no matter what the situation is.

The primary and the most important role of a coach is to develop the skill base of the players of the team and make them learn to play as a cohesive unit.

Up and above serving as a mentor a football coach can be a role model for his players and can infuriate the sportsman spirit in them.

The Texas Longhorns have seen a large number of coaches in their glorified past, but only a handful of them managed to make an impact. Some of them added intensively to the making of the Texas Longhorns we know today.

This article is an attempt to pay homage to those wonderful coaches who brought this program to the heights of success and glory.

10 of the most influential coaches in the history of Texas Longhorns.

We haven’t ranked them solely on the basis of their winning percentage while being the coach. Consideration of a lot of other factors is taken to prepare this list. The factors like time spent with the team, personal bonding with the players, feedback from the former Texas Longhorns players, advice from the senior management, etc is given appropriate consideration

1. Darrell Royal

Class of: 1957-1976
Bio: The extraordinary performance by Texas Longhorns is contributed by this wonderful football coach. He got a college football record of 184–60–5 making him then Hall-of-Fame in his career. In the total 16 matches where he had been the coach, the team had won nine times in the postseason championships. His service was notable for the Texas Longhorns and they renamed their home stadium after his name in 1996. The potent coaching of Royal enabled the team to never lose any seasons they had played. Within two years the Longhorns became the number four team in the whole country.

2. Mack Brown

Class of: 1998-2013
Bio: Mack is well-known for reviving the Texas Football team, making them some of the iconic victories. His previous coaching achievements are testimonies for this accomplishment. He got two national awards as well as he was the most paid coach at a public institution with up to $5.1 Million as salary. The team was able to beat the University of Southern California in 2006, Oklahoma in 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2013. In 2005, the season itself was capped off as the Texas team got victorious in Big 12 Conference and national championships

3. Dana X. Bible

Class of: 1937-1946
Bio: Bible is a notable coach who trained the Texas Longhorns Football program so that they were able to leave the opponents without any score for two seasons. He is honored with the Hall of Fame and Longhorn Hall of Honor for his outstanding service to the team. It was during his time that Texas A&M was indestructibly scored 275-0 against its opposition teams. According to the National Championship Foundation and other reports he is named a National Champion.

4. Blair Cherry

Class of: 1947-1950
Bio: Blair Cherry was an assistant coach even before becoming the head coach of the Texas Football program from 1937 itself who was appointed by none other than the Bible himself. He only had a brief period as a football player and entered into a coaching career soon after his graduation. Even with his 32–10–1 record he had to face some criticism in the end due to some health problems including ulcers and insomnia. He leads his team to success in Conference Championship, Orange Bowl win and Sugar Bowl win one time each.

5. Berry Whitaker

Class of: 1920-1922
Bio: Whitaker took a notable part in making the Texas team establish a mark in football history by getting established in the NCAA. Pince holds the record as the coach with the most winning percentage of 86.5. He and his team won a conference championship at Texas creating a 22-3-1 record. He was also the basketball coach for a year in Texas before becoming the football coach.

6. Ed Price

Class of: 1951-1956
Bio: Ed Prince came to fill the role of coach left by Blair Cherry due to the untimely resignation. He was a Longhorns player before, returning as a head coach. The record of this coach is very average with a 33-27-1. He managed to win two conference championships, one Cotton Bowl along with no losses in the postseasons. But by 1954 Texas got 4-5-1, which was the first losing season for Texas in 15 years. The Football program lost in a row of 1-9 seasons and Ed Prince had no other option other than resignation in 1956.

7. Clyde Littlefield

Class of: 1927-1933
Bio: Clyde has a long period of experience in the Texas Football Coaching as Assistant Coach multiple times and as Head Coach. He is the first coach to win the team into two conference championships. While we take a look at the winning percentage of Clyde, which is .691 is very average in comparison with the other notables in the coaching history. He was an outstanding Track coach too who was honored as the best track coach of all time who had to lead the Longhorns in not less than 25 Conference Championships.

8. Fred Akers

Class of: 1977-1986
Bio: Fred in his professional career played as a Halfback, kicker, and punter. Fred has a notable winning percentage of.731. When we take the overall performance he is pretty average. In 1986, when Texas was on a losing streak he resigned and became the football coach at Purdue University,

9. Eugene Van Gent

Class of: 1916
Bio: Eugene didn’t get to coach the Texas team for not many games and also the winning record is 7-2. He made it to the list for the reason that he is the one who led the team first time to the Conference Championships. It was only after Eugene’s coaching tenure that Texas started winning in the Southwest Conference and the Big 12. He led the Longhorns to their third consecutive Southwest Conference with an overall record of 13-3.

10. R.D. Wentworth

Class of: 1894
Bio: he coached Texas Longhorns for 7 games and managed to secure a 6-1 record. He also holds the highest winning percentage.857 which was phenomenal back then. Wentworth was the first football coach of Texas. Without a coach, they were planning to cancel the program. It was he who kept the program running and brought soothing results for the club.