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CHAPEL HILL – Mack Brown is in the Hall of Fame for a reason.

His career has been legendary, and that didn’t happen just because he has coached a ton of great players. Brown knows how to assemble a winning staff, which is why comments he has made in recent weeks should intrigue North Carolina fans.

“I feel like this is the best staff that we've had, maybe the best staff I've had in 33 years now, going on 34 years of coaching,” Brown said during the Tar Heels’ fall camp.

“I really like their continuity and I really like the way that they have taught these guys this spring, and I'm excited about the response from these guys back to them. I just like what I'm seeing.”

The most obvious difference between the current staff and last year’s came after Brown parted ways with former defensive coordinator Jay Bateman and then bringing in Gene Chizik, who ran his defense when they guided Texas to a national championship in 2005. Chizik took over UNC’s defense in 2015 immediately flipping around Carolina’s fortunes, as the Tar Heels went from 6-7 and a defensive mess to 11-3 and a spot in the ACC championship game.

In 2010, Chizik led Auburn to a national championship, giving the current staff two coaches that have won national titles as head coaches. Chizik knows how to put together a staff at this level, as he was also head coach at Iowa State, and he certainly sees what Brown is talking about with respect to the current Carolina staff.

“It looks like everybody is aligned…,” Chizik said. “When staffs are aligned, that means that everybody is trying to do the best thing for the team. It’s not about, ‘I want my position to be great.’

“Yeah, you want yours to be great, but what do I have to do in practice working offense against defense? (Offensive coordinator) Phil (Longo), what do you need, Gene what do you need? What can we give you? Phil, I don’t need to see that today, can you back off on that? Gene, that’s a little bit too much for me today, can you hold off on that?”

Working together and for each other is what Chizik is talking about, and says this staff absolutely has it. But there’s more.

Brown added offensive line coach Jack Bicknell, who has extensive NFL experience and was the head coach for eight seasons at Louisiana Tech. Charlton Warren also returned to UNC after serving as Indiana’s defensive coordinator last season, and owns an extensive and impressive track record.

Offensive coordinator Phil Longo worked with Bicknell for two seasons at Mississippi, so they hit the ground running when Bicknell came on board in March. The communication among coaches is just different now. It comes at a higher level.

“It's not that anything was bad before, it's just everything is clicking right now,” Longo said. “Gene Chizik and I meet every day, we talk about all the practices, we get input from the staff. There is a lot of input from the staff.”

The holdovers on the staff matter, too.

Lonnie Galloway is in his fourth season coaching UNC’s receivers, Tim Cross is in year four with the defensive line, Tommy Thigpen is in his fourth year coaching linebackers, Dre’ Bly is also in year four with the defensive backs, John Lilly is in year three with the tight ends, and Larry Porter is in his second season (and second stint) at UNC coaching the running backs.

“There's a lot of continuity and a lot of input and a lot of camaraderie in our room right now, that always helps,” Longo said. “We want in the staff room the same thing you want on the field with the players, I think we are getting that on both ends.”

Brown is a master communicator. A tad political at times from a football and relations standpoint, but he doesn’t toss out a lot of fluff for the sake of fluff. So, when he says this might be the best staff he has assembled, the words should be taken seriously.

“I just feel like the whole thing right now is smoother and easier,” Brown said. “Not that it was bad before, but maybe this wins another game that we're all on the same page.”

And that is certainly better for UNC than the alternative.