Mack Brown to UNC

Dirty Jacket said:
So you’re suggesting that a solution to our instability at the AD position is to have the current AD (who actually has a vision forward - whether you agree or disagree is a matter of discussion elsewhere) to quit? Alright fam, alright. 7-5 ya later.
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Stansbury has done nothing. Football? Basketball? Baseball? All in decline.
 
vapspwi said:
Braine didn't do us any favors with Hewitt's contract, which I believe we are STILL paying for. DRad might have erred in saddling us in debt for the stadium expansion that seems kind of pointless now (but that was the arms race at the time). MBob was an enigma.
JRjr
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Stadium expansion was Braine not Drad.
 
For the youngsters who don't remember, Mack Brown took from UNC from two 10-loss seasons at the beginning of his tenure to two 10-win seasons at the end of his tenure. His final year (Dre Bly, remember him?) they were a Top 5 program, that still finished second in the ACC because he was coaching at the same time FSU was steamrolling everyone. (That year FSU finished #3.)

That said, I think this is a really strange hire. It doesn't usually work out to bring back the ol' coach who did great years ago. Bill Walsh at Stanford. Bill Snyder at Kansas St. John Robinson at USC. Joe Gibbs with the Redskins. It's just too unlikely to capture lightning in a bottle twice, with a different staff, different circumstances, different everything, etc. Factor in Mack Brown's age, and this is unlikely to turn out the way it did before. I wouldn't be surprised if he got them to 7-5 or 8-4 consistency... but no more.

CSB: I have a family member who was a teammate of Mack Brown's at FSU. Nothing juicy to report.
 
BrentwoodJacket said:
Why do most other teams have deep pockets and we do not?
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UNC always has had money to throw around (thanks to the Kourys and some others). The Dean Dome seats 23K and think about how long it's been around now. When I was living in that area of NC they were doing a lot of work to Kenan Stadium too.
But I am not worried about this hire at all. It's like the Redskins going back to Joe Gibbs and as great as a coach as Joe Gibbs was, his second stint was less successful.
I want to see how much they spend on the Mack Brown staff vs. the Fedora staff. I get the feeling they were ponying up some dough already for their coaches. And what are they going to tell recruits - Mack's gonna be here for 2-3 years and then we'll see who the next HC is?
 
Ceiling Cat said:
Mack Brown has a history of being a great coach and recruiter, but much of that was 10-20 years ago. Here is the important question: How much of that is applicable now? Are recruits still enamored with Mack Brown now as they were in 2008 or 1998? Can Mack Brown still coach effectively as the game has changed? There have been a lot of coaches that come back to CFB and failed. Mike Price at UTEP comes to mind, also Dennis Erickson* at Arizona State, as well as a few others.

I get the feeling this hire doesn't really work out and most kids arent super excited to play for some old guy that did something in 2005. The angle that it is a long term move to set up the next hire kinda makes sense.

*A Dennis Erickson is rad. I randomly met him at a bar watching the 2014 ACC Championship and he was very complimentary of CPJ and Mike Leach.
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Agreed. This is a totally different Mack Brown. Might as well be a different guy altogether but I guess he could stabilize some things before they appoint another guy.
 
aeromech said:
You guys remember that Mack Brown went 5-7, 8-5, 9-4, and then back to 8-5 in his last years at Texas right? It isn't like UNC has more to offer than Texas, which is why Mack Brown left UNC for....Texas. He is now significantly older, slower, and less energetic than his glory years. If he puts together an incredible staff and steps aside then maybe, otherwise he will just be a distraction like Bobby Bowden on the sideline at FSU during Fisher's first years.

I am just having a hard time getting nervous about Mack Brown at UNC.
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With where we are, i am nervous about anybody at UNC
 
I have no idea why folks still have a problem with stadium expansion. Those stands have been there for 15% of the existence of our stadium. Get over it already.

I actually hate Wardlaw a bit worse, but that probably stems back to pre expansion when we kicked FG's and XP's into a wall. I miss the crummy horseshoe we had. Wish we had an FSU or Clemson style endzone in the south.
 
gnats67 said:
Agreed. This is a totally different Mack Brown. Might as well be a different guy altogether but I guess he could stabilize some things before they appoint another guy.
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He is obviously a place-holder until UNC can get their act together. It is surprising that UNC does not seem to have a plan, given the way Fedora was imploding for most of the past two years.
 
Yukonwreck said:
Stansbury has done nothing. Football? Basketball? Baseball? All in decline.
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I understand your frustration with the state of the program, but this isn't true. Stansbury finally has us on the right track. He's already conducted a small fundraising effort to hire recruiting support staff which is currently in place. He is also leading a much larger 200MM campaign that is already ahead of its target. Major infrastructure improvements which you may scoff at but play a vital role in recruiting kids to Georgia Tech. A lot of what he's done, and doing, is removing unnecessary negatives that hold us back-- like the Adidas deal, or locker room. We're not going to all of a sudden get 10 4-star athletes every year because of Adidas, but it removes a huge unnecessary hurdle our coaches have to recruit against. Same for the upcoming Edge building overhaul.

So many things are going on behind the scenes, and that's just football. Lots of reasons to be excited. One which should excite you especially is the general plan for Paul Johnson to retire gracefully in the next few years. IMO Stansbury wants desperately for CPJ to right the ship, be a part of the Georgia Tech turnaround, and hang them up in a few years. By that time we'll be done paying Hewitt and Gregory, will have more money coming in due to the new ACC deal and fundraising efforts which should allow us to put together a quality staff.
 
Mack Brown is 67, the same age as Saban, but he will be the oldest head coach in the ACC. The issue that comes to mind is not that he is too old, but it seems like a short-term hire. Connecting with young athletes for recruiting purposes these days would be a real challenge at 70, unless he surrounds himself with younger assistants who will fill that void.
 
Think it will greatly depend on who he hires as OC & DC.

And if one of those guys is designated as the HC in waiting.

I am just hoping we can do better vs them than we have the past 5 years.
 
jacket67 said:
Mack Brown is 67, the same age as Saban, but he will be the oldest head coach in the ACC. The issue that comes to mind is not that he is too old, but it seems like a short-term hire. Connecting with young athletes for recruiting purposes these days would be a real challenge at 70, unless he surrounds himself with younger assistants who will fill that void.
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Mack Brown may be the same age as Saban; but put them side by side and Brown looks years older.
 
texstinger said:
Think it will greatly depend on who he hires as OC & DC.

And if one of those guys is designated as the HC in waiting.

I am just hoping we can do better vs them than we have the past 5 years.
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I thought he was hiring Gene Chizik and Kliff Kingsbury as DC and OC
 
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