Things got a little crazy in Texas right around the time Mack Brown stepped down as head coach of the Longhorns' football program.
When the rumor mill was at its most frenetic, there were rumors that the university and its boosters were prepared to make a significant run at Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
Saban never really acknowledged the rumors, and would eventually agree to a contract extension to stay at Alabama, with Charlie Strong eventually taking the job at Texas.
Many involved have moved on, but a new book co-written by television personality Paul Finebaum and ESPN's Gene Wojchiechowski, entitled "My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football," contains a very interesting nugget of information.
According to AL.com, which obtained an advance copy of the book, Texas was prepared to throw a significant chunk of change at Saban to lure him over to Austin.
"Texas was dead serious about trying to money-whip Saban," Finebaum and Wojchiechowski write. "Depending on whom you talk to - Bama big hitters or Texas big hitters - the Longhorns were prepared to give Saban somewhere between a $12 and $15 million signing bonus and a salary package worth $100 million (plus performances)."
That's quite a bit of money for Saban to turn down, though he's hardly short on cash - his latest contract at Alabama pays him $6.9 million per year.
