Texas would like to have its next head football coach hired by mid-January, athletic director Steve Patterson told reporters on Monday night at the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
In his first comments on the coaching search since Mack Brown announced his intentions to step down, Patterson said that the new coaching staff needs to be in place by Jan. 15 -- the end of the NCAA's dead period for recruiting.
"We have to be back open for business in the middle of the month once the dead period ends," Patterson said. "The coach has to put together a staff and get up and running, keep the recruits we got and fill up any spots we've got open."
The Texas coaching search, for the most part, has been quiet since Brown's announcement earlier this month. CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler was on hand at the Alamo Bowl on Monday night, and suggested that the school was waiting for the Longhorns' season to end before kicking the coaching search into high gear.
"After asking around while in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl, I get the sense Texas was waiting until after this game – in part out of respect for Brown – before converting preliminary research to a full-blown search," Fowler wrote in his Coaching Changes Daily. "The leaks have been minimal up to now, in part because Texas hasn't been overly aggressive yet. Plenty of time here."
One of the candidates reportedly on Texas' list, Jimbo Fisher, reportedly signed his new contract with Florida State on Tuesday morning before the team left for Pasadena. A press conference is expected when the team lands to announce the details of his new deal.
