A Coaching Connection

Hubert Davis and Mack Brown have a relationship that predates much of their individual success

BY LEE PACE // PHOTOS BY MAGGIE HOBSON

Mack Brown in his first year as Carolina’s football coach in 1988 signed a quarterback from Lake Braddock High in Burke, Va., named Todd Burnett. His top target for two years was a lanky, 6-4 receiver named Hubert Davis.

“I actually got letters and recruiting interest from Carolina football,” Davis remembers. “But my senior year, I was only 155 pounds. There is no chance I would have attempted to play football in college. But I absolutely loved football. If I’d been bigger, I would have tried to play both football and basketball at Carolina.”

Thirty-three years later, Davis had just been named head basketball coach at Carolina and one of his first public sightings in early April was at a Tar Heel football practice being run by Brown in the third year of his second tour of duty in Chapel Hill.

Davis playfully chided Brown that the Tar Heels never offered him a football scholarship.

“Well, it worked out okay for you,” Brown shot back.

Davis came to Carolina at the same time Burnett did, Davis on a basketball scholarship to play for Coach Dean Smith. Given his fondness for football and friendship with Burnett, Davis was a big fan of the Tar Heel football team when it was working to dig its way out of a 2-20 hole in Brown’s first two years in 1988-89 to have eight straight nonlosing seasons and six straight bowl bids before Brown moved to Texas in 1998.

By coincidence, Davis was in Texas as well during that time frame—on the roster of the Dallas Mavericks, a three-hour drive north of Austin. A trainer for the Mavericks had a nephew who punted for the Longhorns, so they arranged to get tickets for Davis and his wife Leslie to go a Longhorns home game. Davis renewed acquaintances with Brown and was given an open invitation to come to any Texas home game he wanted.

“After that, we became Texas Longhorn football fans,” Davis remembers. “We hung out in Coach Brown’s office after games and had a great time.”

By this time, Davis was in his mid-20s and had been in the fishbowl of the NBA. He developed a keener understanding of the demands for time, attention and decisions on the CEO of a major sports operation.

“I couldn’t believe how well Coach Brown handled everything thrown

his way,” Davis says. “Texas football is pretty big. It’s an elite program, the best of the best. He could prepare, practice and coach the game. Then he dealt with the media. Then he dealt with recruits and had genuine conversations with the parents. And he could turn down the volume and spend time with his family.

“I thought it was amazing how he handled all of that. That comes back to me thinking of running this program and needing to manage and excel in so many different areas throughout the day.”

Davis spent 20 minutes at football practice the day he was introduced as the Tar Heels’ head coach and came away with several pieces of advice, most notably on how to manage in-season conditioning.

“We were talking about running sprints after practice, and Coach Brown said he used to do that but doesn’t anymore,” Davis says. “He said that practices are structured and they’re coached in such a way the guys are running so much, they don’t need to run after practice. I took that and have implemented it into our basketball practices. I told them if they give this team everything they have in practice, I’ll never run sprints when we’re done. I told them, ‘Our practices are designed

to put you guys in a position to be at your “ “YOU HAD WONDERFUL MENTORS IN COACH SMITH, GUTHRIDGE AND best on the floor. The only time we’ll run sprints is if you do not give full effort.’” Brown also told Davis that he was on Day One of the Hubert Davis Era—not some version of the Dean Smith or Roy WILLIAMS AND I’M SURE YOU HAD Williams eras.

SOME IN THE NBA. TAKE ALL THE “You had wonderful mentors in Coach Smith, Guthridge and Williams and I’m sure PIECES FROM THEM, BUT YOU’VE you had some in the NBA,” Brown told him.

GOT TO BE YOU. MAKE SURE YOU “Take all the pieces from them, but you’ve got to be you. Make sure you take your

TAKE YOUR PERSONALITY AND personality and your ideas. You can’t try YOUR IDEAS. YOU CAN’T TRY TO BE to be someone else or worry what anyone thinks. It’s your job and your chance. You SOMEONE ELSE OR WORRY WHAT have to do what you think is best.”

ANYONE THINKS. IT’S YOUR JOB Brown has photos in his office in Kenan Football Center of he and Smith posing in AND YOUR CHANCE. YOU HAVE TO 1993 with the football team’s Peach Bowl

DO WHAT YOU THINK IS BEST.” trophy and the basketball team’s NCAA title trophy and another taken in early 2019 after his return to Chapel Hill of he and Williams. In September, he added a photo of he and Davis from that spring football practice back in April. “I loved Coach Smith, I loved Coach Guthridge and I loved Coach Williams,” Brown says. “Now I can’t wait to have another coach I’m friends with and watch him have success.”