Mack Brown refutes report

ByABC News
December 10, 2013, 4:02 PM

— -- Mack Brown has denied a report that he will step down as coach at  Texas.

Brown, who was recruiting on Tuesday, refuted a report by Orangebloods.com that cited high-level sources stating he would step down after 16 years as the Longhorns' coach.

"I haven't seen [the] article," Brown wrote in a text message to the website Horns247. "I'm in Florida recruiting. If I had decided to step down, I sure wouldn't be killing myself down here. I have not decided to step down."

Brown also has not notified the school that he is stepping down, a Texas source told ESPN's Joe Schad.

The university's board of regents will hold a meeting Thursday at which the future of president Bill Powers is to be discussed -- and that could affect Brown's fate, sources told Schad.

"We continue to discuss the future of Texas football," men's athletic director Steve Patterson said in a statement. "Mack Brown has not resigned. And, no decisions have been made."

Brown has made it clear he wants to return if the situation with the president is stable.

Although the situation could be clarified as early as Thursday, sources told ESPN it's possible an announcement will not come until next week.

There has been speculation about Brown's future in Austin since even before the season started, and it became rampant after blowout losses to BYU and Mississippi in September.

Brown fired defensive coordinator Manny Diaz after the BYU loss and replaced him with Greg Robinson. The move seemed to help. The Longhorns played better, and the season peaked with a 36-20 victory against rival Oklahoma in October.

Longtime Texas AD DeLoss Dodds announced earlier this season that he would be stepping down, and he was replaced by Patterson, formerly of Arizona State.

Brown is 158-47 at Texas, including a national championship in 2005 and another BCS title game appearance in 2009.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.