Chansky’s Notebook: More good than bad

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Carolina owes a huge debt of gratitude to Mack Brown.

The media (including yours truly) has speculated about whether the Hall of Fame football coach will retire (or be fired) after his 16th overall season at UNC. If so, it will reach the same length of time he coached at Texas from 1998 to 2013.

Inside Carolina’s Greg Barnes wrote an analytical story about how the Tar Heels are “stuck in mediocrity” five and a half years after Brown’s second stint in Chapel Hill.

The Daily Tar Heel’s Emma Moon predicts, “The Mack Brown 2.0 era is over” and asks, “Was it really ever an improvement” over his predecessor, Larry Fedora, as both have a 41-30 record in their first 71 games here can show? .

Fedora ended his stay with two seasons of disappointment, eventually anger and then apathy as the stadium emptied as the mythical Oct. 15 start of basketball practice approached.

Both coaches went 1-4 in bowl games, won an ACC Coastal Division title and lost competitive championship games to league powerhouses Clemson, Fedora in 2015 and Brown in 2022. They had programs that had strong offenses and gritty offenses Coordinators provided defenses under constantly changing conditions.

Of Brown, Moon concludes: “Has he made any difference at all?”

While IC and DTH have fact-based theories, Brown has definitely improved the program inherited from Fedora. Yes, he won a national championship in Texas. And no, that will never be a realistic possibility in a so-called “basketball school.”

But if Bubba Cunningham makes a coaching change, the new one will find a football program with higher brand recognition, significantly improved facilities and a tradition of selling out Kenan Stadium.

Brown is undoubtedly an icon of his sport, portraying himself as a father figure to players and a mentor to young coaches. He pushed Cunningham for at least two major renovations to the Kenan Football Center, which is now a showpiece. Despite having a smaller capacity than most Power 4 stadiums, Kenan still rocks with a full house.

Winning championships is always the top priority because with that comes more money. But at UNC, season ticket sales and filling seats go a long way toward generating revenue that had declined sharply in the Fedora era.

And if Carolina finds the right young coach who doesn’t have the same drive, he’ll still have plenty of work to do due to Brown’s natural marketing skills.

When Mack was hired in late 2018, a longtime member of the athletic department was asked about the return of the then 67-year-old Brown. “I think it’s great,” he said, “but is there a succession plan?”

Not yet, although it will be a much more coveted job this time around with Mack Brown coming back and doing more good than bad.

Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward

Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including bestsellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has been a contributor to the WCHL for decades, making his first appearance as a student in 1971 The “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his opinion column “Art’s Angle” appears weekly on Chapelboro.

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