GoHeels Exclusive: Signing Day Notebook

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

As part of the American Football Coaches Association Board of Directors that proposed the addition of an early signing period in 2017, Mack Brown hadn't experienced the effects of the rule change he helped create.

But after becoming North Carolina's head coach in late November, the early signing period was expected to be one of the stiffest challenges he'd face.

Only 22 days stood between Brown's hiring and the early signing period, which began Wednesday. Still, that didn't prevent him and the rest of his coaching staff from signing an 18-member recruiting class that started Wednesday morning ranked 51st in the country and finished the day 37th, according to 247Sports.com.

"The high school coaches we dealt with the last three weeks were tremendous," said Brown during his Signing Day press conference. "They helped us, they tried to let us catch up and did a great job. Our staff, even though it was a shortened staff, did a tremendous job of meeting the families. Larry (Fedora) had some really good, quality players and kids committed, and most of those stayed. So we really appreciated that. And at the same time, we were able to get some other young people to come.

"If you would've asked me three weeks ago if we'd have what we have today, I would've been really surprised. This is much better than I anticipated it being in such a short period of time."

Here are three other notes from the press conference:

Sending a message

About 20 minutes before Brown's press conference began, four-star quarterback Sam Howell announced his decision to change his commitment from another ACC school to UNC, making him the headliner of the Tar Heels' class.

Howell, from Sun Valley High School in Monroe, N.C., is the No. 87 overall player and the No. 3 pro-style quarterback in the 2019 class, according to the 247Sports Composite ranking. He set a new state record for total yards with more than 17,000 in his career.

"Sam is a guy who grew up loving the University of North Carolina," Brown said. "We got behind on him and have been fighting our guts out to get back in. He's got really strong legs, he's got quickness and he can run. I think he's got some Baker Mayfield in him. … He's got a magnetism about him. He's really a great leader; kids are drawn to him. He's just got it all."

Brown strongly emphasized the importance of getting in-state players to Carolina during his introductory press conference on Nov. 27. Landing Howell, the No. 2 player in North Carolina, might play a significant role in achieving that goal.

"It sends a message to the other young players in the state of North Carolina that we're going to go after the best players in the state," Brown said. "And maybe the best player in the state chose us over a lot of other people."

Howell is one of UNC's five January enrollees. The others are defensive back Storm Duck, linebacker Khadry Jackson, receiver Emery Simmons and offensive lineman Wyatt Tunall.

Establishing a philosophy

Wednesday's press conference marked Brown's first since his introductory one. Since then, he's built his coaching staff, highlighted by the hirings of Phil Longo as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Jay Bateman as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

The offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss the last two seasons, Longo's Rebels ranked seventh nationally in yards per play (7.1) and ninth in total offense (510.5 yard per game) in 2018.

"We're going to be very similar to Oklahoma on offense," Brown said. "I told Coach Longo I want to score 50 points a game and have two Heisman Trophy quarterbacks back-to-back. I said that about three times and he said, 'I got it, I heard it the first time.'

"… He started studying the Mike Leach tree a long time ago. We're not going to be Mike Leach. And then he got to be very, very close friends with Kliff Kingsbury, and I like Kliff a lot. Then he's taken what they did with the Oklahoma system, with Lincoln Riley, and he's combined the power running game with a wide-open passing attack. And that's who we'll be."

On defense, Bateman used a 3-4 scheme to find success in five seasons as the defensive coordinator at Army West Point. The Black Knights finished fourth nationally in total defense in 2016. They rank ninth in that category in 2018, allowing just 293.5 yards per game.

"I tried to find the best guy out there for us," Brown said. "I'm just absolutely amazed by what Coach Bateman's done at Army. I went up there four or five years ago and I met with their staff and watched them practice, so I had known him and followed him. They held Oklahoma to 21 points this year in the regular season, and they don't have players who can play for Oklahoma.

"I feel like he probably did the most with not the least, but with lesser players than some teams they played than anybody in the country."

What's next?

Although much of Wednesday's press conference was spent talking about the players who signed with Carolina, Brown recognized there's still work to be done between now and the traditional National Signing Day on Feb. 6. Specifically, he said UNC will look add more depth at linebacker, cornerback and along the offensive and defensive lines.

"We've got 10 coaches who will go out and recruit when we get back on the 10th of January," he said. "Each one of them will have an in-state area. We're going to go to every high school in the state of North Carolina, and that's really important to us to embrace the high school coaches here and do anything we can do to help them within the rules and try to build our team from within, like we did last time."

Brown also stressed the importance of re-recruiting the players currently on the team.

Because of the hectic recruiting schedule, Brown said there have been only two team meetings since his first day on the job. But that will change soon.

"Our coaches over the Christmas holiday will call every player and talk to every player and talk to their parents," Brown said, "because we've got to re-recruit our own players and make sure they understand this isn't Coach Fedora's team and this isn't my team; this is our team and we're going to try to win immediately.

"We're going to try to start now and win every game; that's our goal, and that's not going to change."

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