Mack Brown sounds off

Texas coach Mack Brown says he is a proponent the idea to add an early signing day (in December) for college football. He thinks the idea would minimize rules infractions. But he says the sport can never be completely clean. Some key nuggets on that topic from Brown's signing day news conference:

-- "We will never get rid of cheating. You can't catch the good ones and they can still sleep good at night. I do think (an early signing date) would save money and take pressure off the kids. More tough decisions are made near ... signing day because more coaches panic and more families panic when the pressure gets on."

-- "You're always going to have violations by schools because some coaches are going to cheat. That's the way they've made their living. That's in every profession, not just ours ... You're always going to have some families that buy into that and you're always going to have a certain level of families that look you right in the face and lie to you."

-- "I've talked to Joe Paterno about it ... and said, 'Joe, what do you do with guys that are being bought?' And he said, 'Stay away from them.' I said, 'Do you turn them in?' And he said, 'Nah, it doesn't do any good. Just stay away from them."

-- "There's been some publicity this year about colleges backing out (on players), and that's a very difficult thing. You can offer too may because more come than you (expect) and you can get caught. But there's not much publicity on parents that look a coach in the face and lie. That's a two-way street. Parents tell a coach (their son) is coming and then change their mind. But a coach can't tell a kid, 'You have a scholarship' and then change his mind. I don't understand the difference. I do with kids. I don't with parents."

_ Jimmy Burch