The coming-to-a-television-set-near-you-soon Texas Longhorns cable network took a giant step forward this week when ESPN announced it was putting Dave Brown and Stephanie Druley in charge.

Brown and Druley, unknown outside the self-proclaimed World Wide Leader’s headquarters, have been heavy hitters in Bristol, Conn. Their moving to Austin shows just how serious ESPN is about its investment.

Of course the $300 million ESPN is sending to the University of Texas was a pretty good indicator of the media giant’s intent. Bringing Time Warner in on the deal ensures the network will get plenty of carriage.

And now, Brown and Druley signal that quality programming is ahead.

Brown has been in charge of getting top-notch college football matchups on ESPN. Before that, he was ESPN’s college basketball matchup guru. He understands the tick-tock of both games and knows just about everyone there is to know in college sports. Druley has been in charge of the network’s NFL studio shows, which from a production standpoint have been first-rate on her watch.

Brown no doubt was selected to help grease the wheels with Texas’ Big 12 rivals who see a Longhorns network as a lose-lose proposition for them. That’s a “lose” in exposure and a “lose” in the competitive world of recruiting.

“I hope those schools look at it that when we do games involving them, it’s more exposure for their programs as well,” said Brown, ever the diplomat. “The other schools in the Big 12 are important. We can’t function without them. I look forward to working with all of the athletic directors on a closer basis.”

Brown was speaking via cell phone this week on a commute from Georgetown to Austin. Turns out his brother and sister as well as their parents already live in the Austin area. Originally from Syracuse, N.Y., Brown’s brother earned a master’s degree at Texas and decided to stay in the area and ply his trade in the architecture business. His sister so enjoyed visiting her brother, she too settled in Austin. The parents followed. Given the opportunity to join his family and being in on the ground floor of a new venture, Brown didn’t have to think twice.

Druley is from Houston. She is a Texas grad. She’s coming home. Most famously in these parts, she was the executive who chose Fort Worth over Dallas to be ESPN’s Super Bowl home. She is on vacation and was unavailable for comment.

Brown promised that the yet-to-be-named network, scheduled to be launched in August, will mirror the ESPN model. He expects to have as many as 75 people on staff by launch time.

“We will model everything we do after what we have done at ESPN,” he said. “That means we will put on as many live events as we can. And then, which is the reason it’s so outstanding that Stephanie is here, we will offer a lot of studio programming that will give us a strong offering to complement the games.”

So on a college football Saturday, for example, the Longhorns network will offer a Texas GameDay pregame and return after the action airs on ABC, ESPN or Fox Sports Net with an exhaustive postgame.

During the week, Brown hopes to “offer any kind of behind-the-scenes access we can get.

“We want to build as tight an emotional connection between athletes and fans as we can,” he said.