University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
Lucas: First Day
November 28, 2018 | Football, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Mack Brown will have many challenges in his new job, but Tuesday he capably met the very first one.
By Adam Lucas
Tuesday was about nostalgia. Today is about winning.
The most fun memory brought back by Mack Brown's (re)introductory press conference on Tuesday afternoon at Kenan Stadium was his weekly radio show.
When Brown was the head coach of the Tar Heels from 1988-97, those shows were appointment listening. For one hour each week, Brown and Woody Durham would take calls. Actually, Durham would field the calls. Brown would make new best friends.
My father and I would always find a reason to be in the car during those shows. We'd drive around the Triangle, listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network on his car radio. There was a very simple way to figure out if the callers had ever listened to Brown's show before. If they didn't immediately announce their name at the outset of their call, they were a newbie.
It was like clockwork.
Caller: "Coach, what do you think of this young quarterback we have named Deems May?"
Brown: "Who's calling?"
Caller: "This is Billy from Pittsboro."
Brown: "Billy, I'll tell you, we love that young man…"
That was a memory that had disappeared over the last 30 years, but it reappeared on Tuesday afternoon. It turns out it wasn't an act, wasn't just a job security tactic by a coach trying to build support. It was real, authentic Brown, and he brought it back with him 20 years later. As Brown took questions from the media, he started every answer with the questioner's name. And if he wasn't sure of the name, he clarified it before he delved into his response.
It's a very little thing. It also makes a difference. On those hot August afternoons at Kenan Stadium when the Tar Heels held Meet the Heels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was Brown standing out there—in his Apex One polo and blue coaching pants—meeting every autograph seeker by name. He seemed incapable of affixing his signature without first learning your name. Every autograph to a youngster was written, "To _______, a future Tar Heel great."
It didn't win him any games. But it sure won him our devotion during years when it might otherwise have been difficult to support Carolina football.
That's the same kind of commitment he earned from his players. "They were coming here on a hope and a wish and a prayer, because we were awful," Brown said on the Carolina Insider podcast back in August. "And we played them all."
Nearly a dozen of those players who came on the "wish and a prayer" were at Kenan Stadium on Tuesday on very short notice—so short that as he prepared to go meet the media at noon, Brown was still learning the details of his new/old team's 2019 schedule. He was excited to learn that the opener is against South Carolina.
"My first game here was at South Carolina," he said. And then he showed the kind of recall every good coach possesses. "They beat us 31-10. Deems (May) was something like 14-for-39." The score was exactly right; May's line was actually 13-for-34. But still impressive for instant recall of a game that happened over 30 years ago. And May went on to an eight-year NFL career, so things worked out well for him after he switched positions.
There is no guarantee. As your broker will tell you, past results do not guarantee future performance. But Brown clearly still has that personal touch, which will almost certainly resonate with recruits and their parents. And don't make the mistake of pigeonholing Brown as some kindly grandfather. He doesn't get enough credit for his adaptability or for his competitiveness.
One of the players at Kenan on Tuesday was Jason Stanicek, who guided a largely option-based Carolina offense very successfully from 1991-94. But by 1996, Brown had turned over the keys to Chris Keldorf, the option had almost vanished, and the Tar Heels were throwing the ball all over the field.
When he viewed the Tar Heel defense as too soft in 1994, needing 41 points to beat Duke and dropping a 35-31 decision to Texas in the Sun Bowl, Brown gave the mandate that eventually created two of the best defenses in program history in 1996 and 1997. He worked the first string against the first string in practice more often to foster an environment of competitiveness and reinforce his constant emphasis on speed.
And he closed the borders of North Carolina to other schools.
"When we got here, Danny Ford and Clemson had 44 players from North Carolina on their team," Brown said in August. "We had 14. I said, 'Excuse me,' and we went to change that."
Carolina currently lists 51 in-state players on the roster. NC State has 63. Ford was the acknowledged roughneck of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1988. Brown had no qualms about immediately letting him know times had changed.
Brown's pitch to regain supremacy in the state isn't a secret. "If you want to make something of yourself in this state when you finish college, come to the University of North Carolina and you can be special," Brown said of his message to high schoolers in his last stint. "The leaders in this state went to Carolina. This is your University."
Carolina football received more national attention on Monday and Tuesday than it's had combined since playing in the ACC championship game in 2015. There will be some skepticism, sure, but Brown's first job isn't to persuade the pundits. Brown understood when he was hired that August of 2019 won't be his first test. His challenge started Tuesday and will extend through the winter and spring, reminding Carolina fans that football can be fun again, and that those 12 gamedays in 2019 are important.
In 1988, my parents took me to that first game Brown coached in Columbia against South Carolina. The Tar Heel world was excited about this new coach who learned our names and promised hope. We went to Columbia, because something was happening and we wanted to be part of it, to be there.
Brown has already won the only possible recruiting battle that he could have won on his first day at work. Tuesday night, we sat at the dinner table, and my kids—my beach-loving teenagers, who treasure their three-day Labor Day weekend and would rather hang out with friends in the ocean than drive three hours each way with their parents to watch football—talked about the South Carolina game in Charlotte in August of 2019, because they were excited about this new coach who learned our names and promised hope.
"I want to go to that game," they said unanimously. And Mack Brown's first day, just like that, was a success.
Tuesday was about nostalgia. Today is about winning.
The most fun memory brought back by Mack Brown's (re)introductory press conference on Tuesday afternoon at Kenan Stadium was his weekly radio show.
When Brown was the head coach of the Tar Heels from 1988-97, those shows were appointment listening. For one hour each week, Brown and Woody Durham would take calls. Actually, Durham would field the calls. Brown would make new best friends.
My father and I would always find a reason to be in the car during those shows. We'd drive around the Triangle, listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network on his car radio. There was a very simple way to figure out if the callers had ever listened to Brown's show before. If they didn't immediately announce their name at the outset of their call, they were a newbie.
It was like clockwork.
Caller: "Coach, what do you think of this young quarterback we have named Deems May?"
Brown: "Who's calling?"
Caller: "This is Billy from Pittsboro."
Brown: "Billy, I'll tell you, we love that young man…"
That was a memory that had disappeared over the last 30 years, but it reappeared on Tuesday afternoon. It turns out it wasn't an act, wasn't just a job security tactic by a coach trying to build support. It was real, authentic Brown, and he brought it back with him 20 years later. As Brown took questions from the media, he started every answer with the questioner's name. And if he wasn't sure of the name, he clarified it before he delved into his response.
It's a very little thing. It also makes a difference. On those hot August afternoons at Kenan Stadium when the Tar Heels held Meet the Heels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was Brown standing out there—in his Apex One polo and blue coaching pants—meeting every autograph seeker by name. He seemed incapable of affixing his signature without first learning your name. Every autograph to a youngster was written, "To _______, a future Tar Heel great."
It didn't win him any games. But it sure won him our devotion during years when it might otherwise have been difficult to support Carolina football.
That's the same kind of commitment he earned from his players. "They were coming here on a hope and a wish and a prayer, because we were awful," Brown said on the Carolina Insider podcast back in August. "And we played them all."
Nearly a dozen of those players who came on the "wish and a prayer" were at Kenan Stadium on Tuesday on very short notice—so short that as he prepared to go meet the media at noon, Brown was still learning the details of his new/old team's 2019 schedule. He was excited to learn that the opener is against South Carolina.
"My first game here was at South Carolina," he said. And then he showed the kind of recall every good coach possesses. "They beat us 31-10. Deems (May) was something like 14-for-39." The score was exactly right; May's line was actually 13-for-34. But still impressive for instant recall of a game that happened over 30 years ago. And May went on to an eight-year NFL career, so things worked out well for him after he switched positions.
There is no guarantee. As your broker will tell you, past results do not guarantee future performance. But Brown clearly still has that personal touch, which will almost certainly resonate with recruits and their parents. And don't make the mistake of pigeonholing Brown as some kindly grandfather. He doesn't get enough credit for his adaptability or for his competitiveness.
One of the players at Kenan on Tuesday was Jason Stanicek, who guided a largely option-based Carolina offense very successfully from 1991-94. But by 1996, Brown had turned over the keys to Chris Keldorf, the option had almost vanished, and the Tar Heels were throwing the ball all over the field.
When he viewed the Tar Heel defense as too soft in 1994, needing 41 points to beat Duke and dropping a 35-31 decision to Texas in the Sun Bowl, Brown gave the mandate that eventually created two of the best defenses in program history in 1996 and 1997. He worked the first string against the first string in practice more often to foster an environment of competitiveness and reinforce his constant emphasis on speed.
And he closed the borders of North Carolina to other schools.
"When we got here, Danny Ford and Clemson had 44 players from North Carolina on their team," Brown said in August. "We had 14. I said, 'Excuse me,' and we went to change that."
Carolina currently lists 51 in-state players on the roster. NC State has 63. Ford was the acknowledged roughneck of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1988. Brown had no qualms about immediately letting him know times had changed.
Brown's pitch to regain supremacy in the state isn't a secret. "If you want to make something of yourself in this state when you finish college, come to the University of North Carolina and you can be special," Brown said of his message to high schoolers in his last stint. "The leaders in this state went to Carolina. This is your University."
Carolina football received more national attention on Monday and Tuesday than it's had combined since playing in the ACC championship game in 2015. There will be some skepticism, sure, but Brown's first job isn't to persuade the pundits. Brown understood when he was hired that August of 2019 won't be his first test. His challenge started Tuesday and will extend through the winter and spring, reminding Carolina fans that football can be fun again, and that those 12 gamedays in 2019 are important.
In 1988, my parents took me to that first game Brown coached in Columbia against South Carolina. The Tar Heel world was excited about this new coach who learned our names and promised hope. We went to Columbia, because something was happening and we wanted to be part of it, to be there.
Brown has already won the only possible recruiting battle that he could have won on his first day at work. Tuesday night, we sat at the dinner table, and my kids—my beach-loving teenagers, who treasure their three-day Labor Day weekend and would rather hang out with friends in the ocean than drive three hours each way with their parents to watch football—talked about the South Carolina game in Charlotte in August of 2019, because they were excited about this new coach who learned our names and promised hope.
"I want to go to that game," they said unanimously. And Mack Brown's first day, just like that, was a success.
FB: #TheCall26 Signing Day Press Conference
Thursday, December 04
UNC Men's Basketball: Dixon's Clutch Play Leads Tar Heels Past Kentucky, 67-64
Wednesday, December 03
WBB: Courtney Banghart Pre-Texas Media Availability
Tuesday, December 02
MBB: Hubert Davis Pre-Kentucky Press Conference
Monday, December 01