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Carolina Cool
BUILDING A PROGRAM
2
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STAGE 2: ON THE VERGE
CAROLINA COOL
MACK BROWN ONCE AGAIN HAS CAROLINA FOOTBALL ON THE VERGE OF A NATIONAL IMPACT
BY LEE PACE PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI
SAM HOWELL: THE FACE OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE A NATIONAL STORY THIS YEAR.
In 1996, the look was dark wood with the elegance of a whiteshoe law firm. Today the Kenan Football Center ground floor has been redesigned in white walls with navy and Carolina blue accents and eye-catching graphics, and there’s more in the works on the fourth floor that will be completed by August.
In 1996, there was a room nestled into that main floor with a big screen, theatre-type chairs and a sound system to play mood pieces and recruiting pitches. But now that everyone watches video on their phones, that area’s been reworked into a hightech photo staging area chock full of Air Jordan sneakers and plenty of lights and platforms for recruits to snap social-media photos.
And in 1996 when the Kenan Football Center was being designed and built, the head coach of the Tar Heels was a 45-year-old Mack Brown, already with a successful resume but a coach still with a climb to come toward a national championship at Texas. Today he’s a 70-yearold (as of August 27) going on 25 who spent half an hour one June afternoon switching out of a half dozen coaching wardrobes and Nike shoes to tape a Tik Tok video with freshman defensive back Dontae Balfour. In due time, more than 160,000 of Balfour’s followers were watching Brown shimmy to the music of Fat Joe & Remy Ma.
“Kids want to see me embrace their world and their lives,” Brown says. “I’m on Twitter because of them and I’m now on Tik Tok because of them. Dontae was talking at dinner one night and threw the idea out. I said why not?
“It’s fun to see them laugh, they like having an old guy embrace their world. I can do that.”
Indeed he can as shown by the 30 months Brown’s been back at his post as the Tar Heels’ head coach. Carolina won seven games in 2019 (more than doubling its combined win total from the previous two years) and played before sell-out crowds six times in Kenan Stadium, navigated the perilous waters of Covid-19 to an eight-win season in 2020 and has reestablished itself as the team to beat in North Carolina recruiting circles.
Meanwhile, Brown and his staff are going nose-to-nose with reasonable success versus teams like Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State on a national level. “It’s fun, it’s exciting, people we’re recruiting against are on the national scene,” Brown says. “We’re right in the middle of it. It’s a fight, it’s a good fight, it’s a fun fight. Everyone knows we’re a factor. They know we’re coming and coming hard. “Getting Sam to flip from Florida State and Drake Maye to flip from Alabama to here, that sends a message to recruits. They see things are happening here and say, ‘I want to be part of it.’”“ “KIDS WANT TO SEE ME EMBRACE THEIR WORLD AND THEIR LIVES. I’M ON TWITTER Now the Tar Heels are perched on the precipice of a break-out year, the kind Brown engineered in 1996 when a solid program took BECAUSE OF THEM AND I’M NOW ON TIK TOK that proverbial next step into the nation’s top 10 with a 10-2 season
BECAUSE OF THEM. DONTAE WAS TALKING that rolled into an 11-1 juggernaut AT DINNER ONE NIGHT AND THREW THE IDEA OUT. I SAID WHY NOT? IT’S FUN TO SEE in ’97. They have a Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Sam THEM LAUGH, THEY LIKE HAVING AN OLD GUY Howell, the most experienced
EMBRACE THEIR WORLD. I CAN DO THAT.” offensive line in program history and an intriguing cupboard of skill position players jockeying for position to replace departed standouts at running back and receiver. Three years of productive recruiting has restocked a defensive roster that only during the 2009-10 seasons under Butch Davis remotely sniffed the quality of athletes Brown fielded in 1996-97. Of particular note is the stockpiling of elite defensive linemen and edge players, the recruiting fruits over the last two years including Des Evans, Kedrick Bingley-Jones, Myles Murphy, Clyde Pinder Jr., Kaimon Rucker, Jahvaree Ritzie and Keeshawn Silver. “We have more players now than when we got here, especially the front seven,” defensive coordinator Jay Bateman says. “The front seven pieces are more physically aligned with what you need to compete.” And the Tar Heels have three competent and experienced kickers and a roster deep enough to supply the kind of defensiveback/linebacker/receiver types needed to cover kicks and open lanes for the return specialists.
“We’re better this year at every position except tailback and receiver,” Brown says. “And those two positions are much like when we got here two years ago. We had some talented guys, but no one had stepped up and emerged. I look at those groups and see a lot of potential.”
The success of the program harkens to Brown’s introductory press conference in late November 2018.
“You’ve got to be the cool place to be, and we were the cool place before and we can be again,” he said.
There are any number of elements to the level of “Carolina Cool” the program exudes in 2021. There’s the academic prestige (No. 5 among public universities in U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best Colleges). There’s the quintessential college town environment (No. 3 Best College Town by Forbes Magazine). There’s the overall athletic prowess of the Carolina program (46 NCAA Division I national titles, with legendary basketball coach Dean Smith once quipping, “Ahh, I thought we were a women’s soccer school”). There’s Carolina being one of four Jordan Brand schools in the nation. There’s a rabid fan base that in a fall 2020 study ranked seventh nationally in the number of social media followers.
“The cool place to be is where guys see players having fun,” Brown says. “They think it’s a place they want to come. Many elements of this job are the same today as they were when we were here in the nineties. We have a tremendous academic school that is an attraction for smart young people who care about their academics and have earned the right to be here. That separates us from a lot. And we’ve got one of the best college towns in the country. I would challenge anybody with the beautiful trees on this campus to tell me another one is more beautiful.
“The fans and facilities are a huge part of it. Would the fans come? Is the school really committed to football? Those answers clearly are ‘yes.’ Look at our sellouts in 2019. Look at our facility enhancements—what we’ve done and what we’re planning.”
The coup de grace in recruiting, whether it was Mike Thomas in 1989 or Sam Howell in 2019, is Brown’s ability to connect with the youngster, his parents, his grandparents, his high school coach, the drum major in the school band and the guy flipping burgers at the nearest meat-and-three. And to do so in an environment surrounded by former players and assistants whose loyalty is rock solid. Eight members of the current
coaching and support staff have played for Brown at Carolina in the 1990s or Texas afterward. “Coach Brown understands the state of North Carolina, he understands the University of North Carolina, he understands what kids like,” says recruiting coordinator Billy High. “He genuinely cares about them and listens to them. He understands what the kids want, and that comes through in recruiting. He’s honest with them, he’s real with them. That word has gotten out.” In speaking of the comfort level Brown’s had slipping back into the job after five years in television, he’s cited his longstanding relationship with Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, who in the mid-1990s was on the Carolina athletic training staff and running cutting-edge research into football and concussions, and “ “IT DIDN’T MATTER IF YOU WERE A STAR RECRUIT LIKE COREY HOLLIDAY OR AN ANKLE-TAPING, GATORADE-MIXING, ICEwith Clayton Somers, a student trainer from 1989-93 and now vice chancellor for public affairs and secretary at the university. “It didn’t matter if you were a star recruit like Corey Holliday or
WATER BOTTLE-CARRYING STUDENT ice-bath-preparing, band-aidsticking, water bottle-carrying TRAINER. [MACK BROWN] TREATED student trainer,” Somers says. “He EVERYONE WITH THE SAME LEVEL OF RESPECT AND ‘COACHED’ EVERYONE ON HOW treated everyone with the same level of respect and ‘coached’ everyone on how to be successful TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE.” in life. He would always talk about how football related to life, but his passion convinced you that you could succeed on the field, in the classroom and later in life.” Brown says he’s infinitely wiser and more secure and confident now than his first tenure through Chapel Hill. Being away from coaching for five years and enduring the restrictions of Covid-19 made him appreciate the game and the job more. “The guys on the staff now who played here then say I haven’t changed much at all,” Brown says. “I’m sure I’m a little softer and gentler and at the same time, I’d like to think I have same level of discipline and accountability.” The Tar Heels ascended as high as No. 4 nationally before Brown departed for Austin in late 1997. Back then ACC’s Goliath was Florida State, today it’s Clemson. This year’s squad is significantly better on offense than those teams and the defense is at least in shouting range. Reminding everyone that a quarter of a century happens in the blink of an eye, the Tar Heels’ spring game in April ended with quarterback Jefferson Boaz throwing to Will Crowley, the ball intercepted by Christopher Holliday. All three are sons of Tar Heels from the early 1990s.
JAHVAREE RITZIE: IMPRESSIVE RECRUITING CULTIVATING FUTURE STARS.
