Mack Brown

Sport: Football
Age: 61
Years at Texas: 15

Salary: $5,266,667

Entering his 16th season as head football coach at Texas, expectations are higher than ever for Mack Brown and his team. Throughout his first 12 years in Austin, Brown helped cement Texas’ reputation as a perennial Big 12 contender and notched the Longhorns’ fourth national title in 2005. However, the results haven’t been quite as rosy since then. Texas has posted a mediocre 22-16 record since losing in the 2009 national championship game.  While Brown and his staff have often used the “rebuilding stage” rationale when discussing the team’s struggles over the past three years, that’s no longer the case. With more returning starters (19), including eight seniors, than any team in the nation, youth and inexperience will no longer be a factor. 

Interesting Fact: Mack Brown is the highest paid state employee in Texas and the second-highest paid coach in college athletics, trailing only Alabama’s Nick Saban.

Rick Barnes

Sport: Men’s Basketball
Age: 59
Years at Texas: 15

Salary: $2,400,000

Known for his strong recruiting classes and regular season success, Rick Barnes’ failure to produce in the NCAA Tournament over the past several years has him in the hot seat at Texas. After leading the Longhorns to the Sweet Sixteen or better in five of his first 10 seasons in Austin, Barnes has failed get past the second round of the Big Dance since 2008. Last season he missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in his 15-year tenure. Texas hasn’t been short of individual talent in Barnes’ time in Austin — he’s recruited superstars the likes of Kevin Durant, Tristan Thompson and TJ Ford. However, even with that talent, they’ve failed to produce in the postseason. With only one upperclassman (Jonathan Holmes) on this year’s roster, Barnes will have a tough task to not only make the NCAA tournament, but to possibly save his job.

Interesting Fact: Rick Barnes is the 2nd highest paid coach, behind only Buzz Williams of Marquette, in the NCAA without a National Championship on his resume.

Augie Garrido

Sport: Baseball
Age: 74
Years at Texas: 16

Salary: $950,000

The winningest coach in NCAA Division I baseball history, Augie Garrido enters his 17th season as head coach at Texas. Garrido is known for his small ball coaching style, and before the past two seasons, his Longhorn ballclubs appeared in 13 straight NCAA tournaments, winning a pair of national championships. Despite the team’s struggles the past two seasons, Garrido and his staff have managed to recruit well and the future looks bright. Led by returning senior outfielder Mark Payton, who passed up an MLB contract to return to Austin, Garrido’s club should be back at the NCAA tournament this season.

Interesting Fact: Garrido has had only one losing season in 40 seasons as an NCAA Division 1 head baseball coach, at Texas in 1998 (23-32-1).

Jerritt Elliott

Sport: Volleyball
Age: 44
Years at Texas: 12

Salary: $195,000

Entering his 13th season as head coach of Texas’ women’s volleyball team, Jerritt Elliott is the only head coach on the 40 Acres who starts the season as a reigning national champion. Elliot’s 2012 squad compiled a 29-4 record en route to his first national title, and the first for the University since 1988. The Longhorns start the year as the No. 1 team in the nation, receiving 55 of 60 first place votes in the AVCA Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Elliott, who won National Coach of the Year honors last year, will lead the Longhorns as they open the season at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Hawaii.

Interesting Fact: Elliott has led the Longhorns to the Women’s Volleyball Final Four in four of the past 5 seasons.

Eddie Reese

Sport: Men’s Swimming and Diving
Age: 71
Years at Texas: 34

Salary: $208,053

The longest tenured head coach at UT, Eddie Reese enters his 35th season at the helm of the Longhorns’ Men’s Swimming and Diving team. Reese, who worked as the head coach of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Team at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, has won 10 National Championships at Texas, most recently in 2010. Arguably the greatest swim coach in NCAA history, the Daytona Beach, Florida, native is the only college swimming coach to have won NCAA team titles in four separate decades and has been NCAA Coach of the Year on eight occasions. With 17 upperclassmen on this year’s team, including six seniors, Reese looks to return Texas to the top of the national picture, adding an 11th championship ring to his collection.

Interesting Fact: Reese is a member of the University of Florida Hall of Fame for his success as an athlete and the Longhorn Hall of Honor for his success as a coach.

Karen Aston

Sport: Women’s Basketball
Age: 49
Years at Texas: 1

Salary: $337,500

After just one year at the helm of Texas’ women’s basketball team, Karen Aston has struggled to adjust to the pressure of coaching at Texas. When former head coach Gail Goestenkors left Austin after a mediocre five-year tenure in 2011, Texas decided to hire Aston, formerly an assistant coach at Texas, from the University of North Texas. In Aston’s first year with the Longhorns, the team finished at 12-18, only the fourth losing season at Texas since women’s basketball became a varsity sport in 1974.

Interesting Fact: Aston’s salary is less than one-third of what Texas paid her predecessor, Gail Goestenkors, who made roughly $1.25 million a year while coaching the Longhorns.