On Texas Football: Former AD Mike Perrin talks Texas-OU, the progress of athletics on the 40 Acres
On the latest video edition of On Texas Football, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton interviewed former Texas athletic director Mike Perrin to get his take on the progress of the third-ranked Longhorns through the first five games (all wins) in advance of the big Red River Shootout with No. 12 Oklahoma in Saturday in Dallas.
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Perrin, a former Texas player and UT athletic director from 2015-17, said the thought of playing against the Sooners still gets his heart pumping.
“You remember that coach (Darrell) Royal [Perrin’s coach at Texas] played for Oklahoma in the 1940s,” Perrin said. “I remember vividly my sophomore year was my first exposure to Texas-OU week and it was just different from the get-go. Coach Royal told all of us sophomores, ‘y’all have never seen anything like this.
“In addition that week all week long former players would come back to Austin. They would be there at practice on the sidelines and it was very intense. Just everything about the Texas-OU game is special. It always has been apparently. There’s nothing like it in college football. Nothing.”
Perrin said he was not involved directly with the Longhorns’ decision to move to the Southeastern Conference in 2024, but by keeping track of the expiration dates of the various television contracts of the college sports conferences thought that Texas would be better served moving to the east rather to the west.
“I was very aware of it,” Perrin said of continued conference realignment. “I felt like just looking at the country and the geography and the footprints of the conferences that realignment was certainly a strong possibility.
“I guess probably 12 years ago or so there was a thought about the possibility of Texas and others going west. That really doesn’t work for the University of Texas. It’s one thing for football. But for sports that played during the week – basketball, baseball, softball, golf, things that you know are travel intensive that is really, really hard.
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“So I felt like we needed to look to the to the east, even the southeast or possibly the ACC if that was going to happen. And let me just say I played no part in any of that. But I wasn’t surprised when moves began to be made.”
Perrin lauded the work of athletic director Chris Del Conte, University of Texas president Jay Hartzell and UT Board president Kevin Eltife for their togetherness in bringing the Longhorns football program and athletic teams back into prominence.
“Not only do I get that impression, I know that for a fact,” Perrin explained. “They are three exceptional leaders and when you attend as many events as I do and hear them speak and make presentations, all three are just a dynamic team leading our university and all phases.”
Go check out the video for more info from Perrin, one of the true gentlemen and givers in the Texas athletics circle.
