Mack Brown Tarheel Football: The Orange Slice Boogaloo

[Derka 6162]

hugely unpopular opinion: i hated (still hate) mack brown’s locker room post game speech after the NC. hated it. it was wholly emblematic of why he needed literally the greatest player and winner in college football history (plus the greatest recruiting class ever) to finally win his first *conference* title of his career; emblematic of why more ruthless coaches (like bowden and stoops) would own him; emblematic of why his teams were so soft until VY made mack brown get the fuck out of the way and let him take over.

mack was always so goddamn concerned, or really obsessed, with everyone being great people and fathers and neighbors and sons that it’s led to him wildly underachieving as a head coach who’s one of the all time great recruiters. his team just won the greatest game of all time and all he’s thinking about is downplaying that accomplishment, and instead focusing on how everybody needs to have character and be great men and great community leaders and fathers in the future. totally fucking tone deaf, and 100% emblematic of why he didn’t win nearly as much as he should have. i think he’s a great guy, but his obsession with everyone being great people and inability to be ruthless as a leader held back some amazingly talented teams from reaching their goals and potential.

Edited 9 hours ago by Derka

[South Austin 52460]

18 minutes ago, 89Horn said:

He also had one 11 win season putting Florida in the Sugar bowl that year where they lost to Louisville coached by Charlie Strong.  Shit, never mind, just forget everything I just said.  

I choked on my coffee.  Good stuff!

[Hayduke 85]

19 minutes ago, Derka said:

hugely unpopular opinion: i hated (still hate) mack brown’s locker room post game speech after the NC. hated it. it was wholly emblematic of why he needed literally the greatest player and winner in college football history (plus the greatest recruiting class ever) to finally win his first *conference* title of his career; emblematic of why more ruthless coaches (like bowden and stoops) would own him; emblematic of why his teams were so soft until VY made mack brown get the fuck out of the way and let him take over.

mack was always so goddamn concerned, or really obsessed, with everyone being great people and fathers and neighbors and sons that it’s led to him wildly underachieving as a head coach who’s one of the all time great recruiters. his team just won the greatest game of all time and all he’s thinking about is downplaying that accomplishment, and instead focusing on how everybody needs to have character and be great men and great community leaders and fathers in the future. totally fucking tone deaf, and 100% emblematic of why he didn’t win nearly as much as he should have. i think he’s a great guy, but his obsession with everyone being great people and inability to be ruthless as a leader held back some amazingly talented teams from reaching their goals and potential.

We can always fuckstomp the enemy while maintaining character. Not being able to do so would mean a pretty dystopian world -- along with nothing but dreary movies.

[closetojumping 62589]

1 hour ago, Tex Pete said:

I agree that NC’s expectations aren’t the same as ours. But to me, it’s about entitlement. Mack acts like he hasn’t been appropriately compensated for his work. He’s been paid millions and millions of dollars and mostly been celebrated by the fans of Texas and North Carolina. He gets way more credit nationally for his coaching than he should, and he still believes he should decide when it’s time to retire, not the people who have paid him millions.

This isn’t Pop Warner football and a Coach Emeritus (which is what Mack became here) is not deserving of millions of dollars. Go catch intramurals, brother!

Just glad he’s their problem now. 

I don't disagree about anything associated to the points here except that the situation at UNC is different. The UNC boards feel an element of trapped, but they're not actively demanding an alternative. As long as he keeps winning and going to bowls, which he mostly does, they're likely to let him putt around the facilities and bitch and whine as the insecure bitch that we know he is.

[jdhorn92 1545]

Cool story bro.  I was in Mobile for the GMAC Bowl years ago.  I had a customer who knew I was a Texas Grad and Mack Brown was the keynote speaker at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast, so he invited me to town.  Got a picture with Mack, said hello etc...after the event, I hauled ass to the airport to fly back to Dallas on AA one of their small regional jets...I was the last to board so I just plopped down on row 1 since there was no one else behind me and the whole row was open....next thing I know , who boards the plane....Mack Brown.  I said hey coach take that seat the row is open....he recognized me as we had just taken a picutre together 30 minutes prior.  I talked his ear off for 2 hours and he was as gracious as could be. 

I asked him about a few plays and we had laugh or two as I always had a knack for remembering quirky plays/situations. 

Back then,  Tech was a real pain in our ass.   We were at Tech one year (Simms era) and had a lead early.  Back in those days it was like a tennis match where you had to hold serve (ie score) and hope to break serve(get a stop).  Mack was always good at deferring the ball to the second half and hoping to score late and steal a possession/score to start the 2nd half. 

Good dude, but I fear he's out staying his welcome in NC.  Incidentally, many may not know his wife was a pretty savvy business woman in her own right.  Also, Mack was AD at Tulane to go along with HC of the Greenwave.  He's not thought of very well by many on this board for doing less with more, but he is a very accomplished and good for the sport overall.  He was the right hire for us at the right time.

He claims DKR told him the key to success in Austin was putting the bb's back in the box.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by jdhorn92

[Tex Pete 20339]

9 minutes ago, jdhorn92 said:

he recognized me as we had just taken a picutre together 30 minutes prior.  I talked his ear off for 2 hours and he was as gracious as could be.

I have also had the opportunity to chat up Mack a little. He was also nice to me.

It's fake.

Remember when he called out the "$200 donors" at halftime of a game and flipped the camera (us) the bird? 2010, I think.

[statsman 5457]

3 hours ago, South Austin said:

Yeah, that's another discussion.  We didn't know this at the time when we were pumped about his HCIW designation, but he's turned out to be more of a Charlie Strong/maybe a coordinator kind of coach.  I'm not sure if he stuck it out at Texas a couple more years and then took over for Mack we and Will would be in any different places.

Scipio put it this way-“Not all defensive minded head coaches fail, but the ones that fail tend to fail the same way- overemphasis on offensive conservatism and stability, to avoid putting the defense in a bad position”.

That’s how Muschamp failed. 

[jdhorn92 1545]

5 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

I have also had the opportunity to chat up Mack a little. He was also nice to me.

It's fake.

Remember when he called out the "$200 donors" at halftime of a game and flipped the camera (us) the bird? 2010, I think.

i remember the bird interview but not the $200 quote.  Yeah he had some of that old south, Bobby Bowden aw shucks passive aggressiveness to him for sure.

[Fondren & Main 6703]

6 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

I have also had the opportunity to chat up Mack a little. He was also nice to me.

It's fake.

Remember when he called out the "$200 donors" at halftime of a game and flipped the camera (us) the bird? 2010, I think.

Yeah, he had my great aunt convinced that they were good friends due to the coaching community at UT.  He didn't come to her funeral when she passed.  Mack is and always will be a politician at heart.

[Jkwellborn 6696]

hugely unpopular opinion: i hated (still hate) mack brown’s locker room post game speech after the NC. hated it. it was wholly emblematic of why he needed literally the greatest player and winner in college football history (plus the greatest recruiting class ever) to finally win his first *conference* title of his career; emblematic of why more ruthless coaches (like bowden and stoops) would own him; emblematic of why his teams were so soft until VY made mack brown get the fuck out of the way and let him take over.
mack was always so goddamn concerned, or really obsessed, with everyone being great people and fathers and neighbors and sons that it’s led to him wildly underachieving as a head coach who’s one of the all time great recruiters. his team just won the greatest game of all time and all he’s thinking about is downplaying that accomplishment, and instead focusing on how everybody needs to have character and be great men and great community leaders and fathers in the future. totally fucking tone deaf, and 100% emblematic of why he didn’t win nearly as much as he should have. i think he’s a great guy, but his obsession with everyone being great people and inability to be ruthless as a leader held back some amazingly talented teams from reaching their goals and potential.

Nah, that was the right thing. Pretty sure I’ve heard more than a few players agree. You don’t want that to be the best thing you do in your life. That’s better than peaking in high school, but there’s a lot that is more important than that. You want people to get better and do better.

[Tex Pete 20339]

3 minutes ago, Fondren & Main said:

Yeah, he had my great aunt convinced that they were good friends due to the coaching community at UT.  He didn't come to her funeral when she passed.  Mack is and always will be a politician at heart.

I have a good friend who played here. His first couple of years on the team, he thought Mack was a raging asshole.

Mack's a multi-millionaire who has traveled the world and rubbed elbows with lots of "elite" people. His folksiness is an act.

[jdhorn92 1545]

2 minutes ago, Jkwellborn said:

Nah, that was the right thing. Pretty sure I’ve heard more than a few players agree. You don’t want that to be the best thing you do in your life. That’s better than peaking in high school, but there’s a lot that is more important than that. You want people to get better and do better.

Agreed, I think in the moment, he should have said "....to the Seniors dont let this be the best day of your life..."  and if he was more Saban-like, he would have said the rest of you returners, back to back starts next week.

[CurlyDumps 4468]

The players begged him to stay, so dadgumit he's staying.

https://www.on3.com/college/north-carolina-tar-heels/news/mack-brown-plans-remain-north-carolina-head-coach-beyond-2024-retirement/

 

[Derka 6162]

1 hour ago, Jkwellborn said:

Nah, that was the right thing. Pretty sure I’ve heard more than a few players agree. You don’t want that to be the best thing you do in your life. That’s better than peaking in high school, but there’s a lot that is more important than that. You want people to get better and do better.

I agree with his message, but i abhor the timing of it.