CHAPEL HILL – Forgive Mack Brown if he shows a bit of reverence for late former Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden and the university he put on the map by building what was easily the top college football program in the nation for about a 20-year span beginning in the mid-1980s.
It also happens to be Brown’s alma mater.
Brown was a superstar as a football, basketball, and baseball standout at Putnam County (TN) High School, earning state Player of the Year on the gridiron. He initially went to Vanderbilt before transferring to Florida State. Multiple knee surgeries ended his playing days while still in college, so Brown embarked on a coaching career, launching it while still a student at FSU.
He was, and to a degree still is, a Seminole; an actuality not worthy of debate. But more than that, he is a member of the college football coaching fraternity, a legitimate brotherhood of sorts that includes a layering of mentorships.
Brown’s humble nature has allowed for the occasional story praising former coaches he's worked under, such as Barry Switzer at Oklahoma, or whose brains he picked. Long before racking up Darrell Royal tales once Brown became the head coach at Texas in late 1997, the eventual Hall of Famer was listening carefully and taking notes.
Sometimes he did this from coaches who were beating in his tail. That’s where Bowden comes in.
In 1985, when Brown was in his first season at the helm at Tulane, which was one of many southern independents at the time, his Green Wave opened the season versus the 19th-ranked Seminoles.
FSU hadn’t yet launched into its historic run, but the ’Noles were pretty darn good and on the right trajectory. Three top-10 finishes in a five-year span and five times in the final rankings over the previous eight seasons had the Seminoles humming, which was remarkable given what Bowden inherited.
So that first game in 1985: No. 19 FSU 38, Tulane 12.
A year later in Doak Campbell Stadium: FSU 54, Tulane 21.
And in 1987, the season Brown led the Green Wave to a bowl game, which grabbed the attention of UNC AD John Swofford, prompting his luring Brown to Chapel Hill: No. 4 FSU 73, Tulane 14.
Resentment? Nope. Disgust? Perhaps, but Brown was hungry to learn, and who best to attain knowledge from than the guy whose team regularly whacked your own?
The Green Wave started Brown’s first season 0-8, and his second campaign 1-5. But he had already established a line of communication with the folksy FSU head man.
“I called him once (when an assistant at Iowa State), and we’d lost a few straight games to Oklahoma, and I said, ‘Coach, you’ve got Florida, how do you beat your rival? What do you do?’
“And he said, ‘Oh coach, when you get good enough and tired of hearing it you’ll beat ‘em.’ And that’s the down-home sense of humor but, like Coach Royal, he could take complicated things and make them real simple.”
Brown’s first UNC team opened the season 0-6 playing a demanding non-ACC schedule that included South Carolina, Oklahoma, Auburn, and Louisville. So, the young Carolina coach called his mentor seeking counsel.
“He said, ‘Boy, you’re doing this perfect,’” Brown recalled earlier this week. “‘Man, you’re setting that standard low. They’re (FSU fans) mad at me now if we don’t score enough points or if we don’t play a good enough first quarter. You’ve got it perfect. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll be fine.”
Brown’s second UNC team won its opener but that was it. So well into the season, he called Bowden again.
“He said, ‘Bud, you may need to pick it up a little bit,’” Brown remembered, smiling. “‘Last year was fine, but they’re gonna get tired of you losing this many.’”
Times were different for Brown at Carolina a decade later. His last two UNC teams finished in the top-10 and were on the cusp of beating Bowden’s juggernaut and securing a spot on the national scene. The Heels certainly climbed that mountain.
In 1992, No. 8 FSU beat 4-1 UNC, 36-13, in Tallahassee. A primetime game in 1993 saw No. 1 FSU clobber 14th-ranked Carolina, 33-7, at Kenan. A year later, the No, 13 Heels were competitive but fell in Tally 31-18.
The 1995 meeting was played in a monsoon in Chapel Hill and ended with the No. 6 Seminoles claiming a 28-12 victory.
The 1996 contest was Carolina’s best against FSU in the decade. Top-ranked FSU 13, No. 11 UNC 0. The Heels held the ’Noles to just 213 yards, but FSU recorded eight sacks, blocked two punts, and a field goal. The game was a bloodbath.
And in 1997, on “Judgement Day” in college football, the only time ESPN Gameday has been in Chapel Hill, saw No. 3 FSU beat up No. 4 UNC by a score of 20-3.
“We had two chances to beat them out of the nine that they beat us; the rest of them we had no chance.” Brown said. “We had one chance down there in the rain (1996). The game was close at the end, and we got a horrible call on a screen at the end, and then our last year here… and we couldn’t block them.
“They were the best defense that I’d ever seen, and they beat us 20-3. But (Bowden’s) back was hurting at that time. He had a little stool he sat on during the games. And I said, ‘Coach, my goal for this game is to get you off that stool.’
“And he says, ‘Mmm, not gettin’ off that stool, boy. Imma be on that stool for the whole game, so you can’t get me off that stool.’
“And we didn’t.”
Brown gets a chance to finally beat his alma mater Saturday, when a struggling FSU team visits Kenan Stadium. UNC will honor Bowden, who passed away Aug. 8, with a mural along the brick wall near where the Seminoles will enter the field and their fans will be seated.
Reverence. Respect. Admiration. Love. And appreciation.
“Bless Coach Bowden,” Brown said. “We miss him and want to thank he and his family for all they’ve given to so many and especially to college football. It wouldn’t be the same without him, and Florida State sure wouldn’t have the history that they’ve had without him.”