As the story goes, Mack Brown had to win the Big 12 to remain as Texas' head coach in 2014. His Longhorns were in position to do just that following Oklahoma's come-from-behind win over Oklahoma State in the early afternoon of Dec. 7, 2013, setting up a winner-take-all game between Texas and Baylor in Waco for the Big 12 championship. After playing to a 3-3 score in the first half, Baylor notched 17 unanswered points in the third quarter, and finally put the game - and the Big 12 championship - away with an 18-yard Glasco Martin scoring dash with 4:04 remaining in the game. Baylor 30, Texas 10.
A week later, Brown announced his resignation after 16 years as Texas' head coach, leading to a chain of events that ended with Capistrano Valley Christian School (CA) offensive coordinator Eric Preszler being promoted to head coach.
What?
Brown's resignation led to Texas hiring Charlie Strong away from Louisville, which led to Louisville hiring Bobby Petrino away from Western Kentucky, which led to Garrick McGee leaving his post as UAB's head coach to become Petrino's offensive coordinator at Louisville, which led to UAB hiring Bill Clark away from Jacksonville State, and on down the list until you get to the California high school ranks.
Max Olson of ESPN.com mapped the chain reaction from Texas' coaching change, eventually discovering that a total of 103 coaches on staff at 47 different colleges, four NFL clubs and two high schools were touched by the falling of that one domino.
"When Mack Brown decided to step down from here, guess what? A lot of families here were affected. It wasn't just Mack Brown or one or two assistant coaches. There were kids, wives, families," said Vance Bedford, who, in the first wave of the ripple, followed Strong from Louisville to Austin as defensive coordinator.
We've all been touched by ripple effects like this whether we realize it or not, but this story does a great job of putting the pieces together to show just how interconnected the coaching industry truly is.