CHAPEL HILL – At a time when initially the two main candidates for president were six and nine years older than Mack Brown, it’s fascinating how a narrative is being passed around that he’s too old to be North Carolina’s football coach.
One of those former candidates is still president at 81 years of age, though no longer running for re-election, and the other is 78. Brown, who turned 73 on Tuesday, two days before the Tar Heels’ season-opener at Minnesota, is a virtual whippersnapper compared to Biden and somewhat Trump.
Walking away from something he loves is only on Brown’s radar for brief stretches when he’s asked about it, which lately has been often.
He isn’t going anywhere, barring the unforeseen.
“As long as I can affect kids’ lives, as long as I can keep Carolina at a competitive point and hopefully go beyond where we are, and I’m having fun, and the administration wants me, I’m going to keep doing this,” Brown told Tar Heel Illustrated in an exclusive interview.
Now, in his sixth season in stint number two in Chapel Hill, part of the equation regarding Brown’s future is the team’s performance on the field.
The 30,000-foot view suggests UNC is in far better shape than when he replaced Larry Fedora following the 2018 campaign that saw the Tar Heels go 2-9 a season after compiling a 3-9 mark. Up close, however, the program also appears healthy because it is.
Has UNC achieved Brown’s original stated mission upon returning? Not entirely, but he’s not done yet. And, he’s had to adjust to a dramatically different college football landscape that has increased the challenge of leading North Carolina’s football program.
The NIL collective has been a problem for Brown, with the program’s results in the transfer portal the last two years serving as clear evidence. But he has adapted, and with the new CAROLINA NIL plan in place, Brown and his staff should reel in more highly regarded players from the portal next winter.
But only ones that fit. Brown is determined to run the program a certain way and win while doing so. That keeps the Hall of Famer coaching and striving.
“I really missed (coaching) in my five years with ESPN,” Brown said, referring to the period in between leaving Texas and returning to Carolina. “I loved (it), but I didn’t have the same purpose. This is all I’ve ever done my whole life.
“So, I really have more energy now working this hard than I did when I was with TV because I’ve got purpose, I’ve got things to fix We’ve never won a national championship; I’d love to win a national championship within the rules with great kids.”
Having a purpose is a key component to Brown’s future decisions.
Asked if there’s any fear about one day waking up and not having that team he and his wife, Sally, so badly wanted when he was out of coaching, and still crave now that he’s knee-deep into it, Brown offered a direct response.
“No, because I’ve already done that,” he said. “I know what that’s like.”
Working for ESPN was fun, but there weren’t any players he felt a responsibility to he could sit down with at lunch and talk football or life. There weren’t any new families to meet and welcome into his massive, yet personable tent. And there weren’t the tears to shed over victories achieved, personal goals met, or hurdles scaled.
A coach can only get those rewards by coaching.
But to stick around, a coach must win. Brown has done that to a degree, guiding UNC to bowl games in each of his five seasons, something that hadn’t been done at the school since he was there in the 1990s.
He led the Heels to the program’s first major bowl in 71 years when the 2020 team played in the Orange Bowl. The 2022 club won the ACC Coastal Division and played in the conference championship game.
Three of the last four UNC teams appeared in the Associated Press top 10 at least once, and his last four teams have been ranked in the Top 25 a combined 35 times.
Yet, the 2022 club started the season 9-1 before finishing 9-5, and last year’s group was 6-0 before ending up 8-4. Both late-season swoons started with home losses to a Georgia Tech team that had an interim head coach, a third-string quarterback, and finished 5-7, and a Virginia squad last fall that ended the year 3-9.
Carolina has dropped three consecutive games to rival NC State, guilty of egregious mistakes and breakdowns in each defeat. And the Heels have dropped four consecutive bowl games.
So, yes, UNC is second in the ACC in overall wins and league victories since Brown returned, but the late-season issues have the fan base a bit negative in many respects, and at least concerned almost across the board.
Yet, Brown is not deterred. He believes the coaching staff has identified the November problems and fixed them. And if so, the foundation of the program and accumulated talent indicates North Carolina is moving in the right direction.
“It’s really important to me that I’m doing a great job,” Brown said. “Not that people think I’m doing a great job; I know when I’m doing a great job and when I’m not. So, if I’m not doing a great job, if I’m not the best for Carolina, then I wouldn’t coach.”
Not coaching is a pitch used by opposing schools competing for some of the same players, and while it might work in some cases, the premise of how they recruit against Brown and UNC has been off.
“The first question all the recruits ask is, ‘you’re not going to be here. All the coaches tell me you’re not going to be here.’ And then I tell them, ‘Well, six guys that said I wasn’t going to be here that were head coaches were fired in the ACC, and I’m still here.”
Still there, still grinding, still adapting and changing, still as motivated as ever, still with an eye on the big prize without losing focus on the smaller individual ones, and still the man that has won 282 games, 80 more than any other active coach, Brown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
