The answer wasn't exactly an endorsement.

"What we'll do is — you constantly look at what you can do to re-evaluate and upgrade your program," Brown said.

The Texas coach in his 10th year went on to say he'll evaluate all of his coaches after Thursday's game against Arizona State in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl.

Brown said he spent the past two weeks looking back over a season plagued by inconsistency, adding, "I've probably worked harder the last two weeks than I have my entire life."

It was a season that saw Texas need to recover onside kicks in the final minutes to secure victories against Arkansas State, Central Florida and Nebraska. Texas suffered the worst home loss in Brown's tenure in a 41-21 shocker against Kansas State, which finished 5-7. UT trailed TCU, 10-0, at halftime at home before winning, 34-13, and led only 17-10 at Baylor midway through the fourth quarter. There were also losses to rivals Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Talent wasn't the issue, Brown said.

"People have talked about this team maybe not being as talented as the last two," Brown said. "This team was talented enough to win each week. Maybe they weren't as talented as all those guys in the NFL. Still doesn't matter. They were as talented as the guys we were playing against."

Brown said when a team doesn't play up to its talent, it's the coaches' fault.

"When we lose a game, I question my leadership, the staff's and then the players," Brown said. "And I question the players last because we're supposed to recruit and develop leaders. So any lack of leadership is on us."

Brown took a chance on promoting Akina to defensive play caller. He did it, in part, to stabilize the position after having Carl Reese, Greg Robinson and Gene Chizik all call plays on defense in a four-year span.

Outside of last year's 26-24 Alamo Bowl victory against Iowa, Akina had never called plays on defense before this year. His only play-calling experience was as offensive coordinator at Arizona from 1992-95.

Brown also trusted Akina's recommendation to hire Larry Mac Duff as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach before the season. Mac Duff worked as defensive coordinator at Arizona under Dick Tomey from 1987-96. Mac Duff and Akina, both of whom earned $300,000 this season, worked together at Arizona in 1996, with Mac Duff calling plays on defense and Akina serving as defensive backs coach.

But whether it was substitution patterns that called for older players to start and younger players to rotate in or inability to make adjustments, the defense has given up a school-record 4,498 yards, including a school-record 3,306 passing yards.

Texas never generated a pass rush, posting just 25 sacks, among the lowest in the country, and experienced one missed tackle after another.

"When we looked back at the regular season, we felt like we didn't have that great team chemistry like we had on our past teams," said junior defensive end Brian Orakpo. "The thing I noticed was the older guys not relating to the younger guys and not coming together as one.

"The older guys probably wanted to do too much or the younger guys wanted to do too much. That doesn't work in our defense when you have to be gap sound and do your assignment and trust the teammates on the field with you."

Much was made of the coaching staff's decision to start veteran linebackers Scott Derry, Rashad Bobino and Robert Killebrew, rather than start sophomores Rod Muckelroy, Jared Norton and Sergio Kindle of Woodrow Wilson.

At midseason, Akina made an impassioned case for continuing to start the veteran linebackers even though the younger players were making some big plays and appeared to have more athletic talent despite their inexperience.

"The older ones have spilled a lot of blood for this program. And I'm one that maybe believes they should still be playing," Akina said. "There's nothing on tape that says they should not. And yet the younger ones are playing well, too, and there's nothing on tape that says they should not be playing, either. That's why you see them rolling in and out."

And while most will look to the secondary for the reason Texas has given up so many pass yards, very few have been deep passes. Most of the damage has been done with catch-and-run plays at the linebacker level.

Brown said his patience expired after a 38-30 loss at Texas A&M.

"A&M was unacceptable because they came out and did something totally different than they did all year and we didn't handle it well," Brown said.

Asked after the A&M game how his defense performed this season, Akina said, "I thought it was inconsistent. The inconsistency has probably been the biggest thing with our team this year and for sure our defense."

Akina couldn't explain why his players couldn't stop Oklahoma State for two and a half quarters, then completely shut down the Cowboys over the final quarter and a half in a come-from-behind victory.

"I wish I could say the calls changed," Akina said. "But the execution was just better."

Defensive tackle Frank Okam of Lake Highlands said watching film of the defense against TCU, when UT gave up just 251 yards, compared to giving up 533 against A&M, "was like watching two different defenses."

Brown could ask Akina to stay on as co-defensive coordinator, give up play-calling and go back to coaching the secondary, where Akina has turned out six current NFL players, including two Thorpe Award winners (Michael Huff and Aaron Ross). Akina has turned down jobs coaching defensive backs in the NFL with Baltimore, Cleveland and St. Louis since he's been at Texas.

If Brown demoted Akina, Brown might be inclined to let go of Mac Duff, who has the least history with the Texas program, and bring in someone else to call plays.

For now, Brown is not saying what he'll do. But Brown made a call to arms with his team's bowl practices — more hitting, 6 a.m. workouts and punishment served by the entire team for individual mistakes. It's clear he expects to see a lot of improvement on Thursday.