Mack Brown Tarheel Football: The Orange Slice Boogaloo

[LTtxfan 50,005]

Phil Longo to leave UNC and take OC job at Wisconsin

Story by Zack Pearson • 33m ago

The North Carolina Tar Heels have already seen 11 players enter the transfer portal as they look for new homes next season. And now, they are going to have to replace a coach for next year as well.

Phil Longo to leave UNC and take OC job at Wisconsin© Provided by Tar Heels Wire

Offensive coordinator Phil Longo will leave the program and join Luke Fickell’s staff at Wisconsin per Bruce Feldman. Inside Carolina confirmed the report on Wednesday night.

Longo joined Mack Brown’s coaching staff in 2019, bringing the Air Raid offense to North Carolina. Over the past four years, UNC has had one of the most productive offenses in college football as well as in program history.

He was able to coach Sam Howell for three seasons and then Drake Maye for another season.

The Tar Heels are averaging 473.6 yards per game this season, which is 15th in the nation. That includes 317.2 passing yards per game, under Maye who won the ACC Player of the Year award.

The Tar Heels will now have to look for a new offensive coordinator to replace Longo. The search will begin and we should expect some interesting names to be brought in as candidates.

[Deej 77,830]

C'mon, Mack...get the band back together.

 

[ChickenNuggets 1,661]

some of y'all have no memory of the Texas program between Darrel Royal and Mack Brown... tickets were sold with 12-packs of pepsi at HEB... 

[LTtxfan 50,005]

 

[LTtxfan 50,005]

Chip Lindsey to be new offensive coordinator at North Carolina

DOUG SAMUELS      DEC 15, 2022

Central Florida offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey is set to become the new offensive coordinator for Mack Brown, sources confirm to FootballScoop.

We're told he will also coach the quarterbacks, where he will inherit one of the top signal callers in college football. Drake Maye, a redshirt freshman quarterback with the Heels, finished 10th in the Heisman voting last weekend.

Lindsey has previous offensive coordinator experience from stops at Southern Miss, Arizona State, and Auburn.  From 2019-21 he served as the head coach at Troy, where he went 15-19 overall.  He reunited with former Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn at UCF heading into this past fall.

UCF averaged nearly 35 points per game this past fall in Lindsey's first season as offensive coordinator, and they finished the year 9-4 overall.  

 

UNC fans reaction:

"Things just get better or worse?"

 

[MirrOlure 15,274]

Looks like a decent-to-good hire

[John Coctostan 640]

On 12/7/2022 at 8:14 PM, ChickenNuggets said:

some of y'all have no memory of the Texas program between Darrel Royal and Mack Brown... tickets were sold with 12-packs of pepsi at HEB... 

There were some good years with Akers, but man was it a boring style of football. And too many years after him were just a beating. Watching Eric Metcalf's generational talent get wasted on lousy teams was tragic.

[LTtxfan 50,005]

Buttertooth needed Applewhite at QB in the Holiday Bowl tonight.  Tar Heels lost a 10pt lead in the 4th qtr.

Ducks win...  28-27  

[Matuka 1,320]

“I want to apologize to all North Carolina fans…”

[deft 7,059]

At least the kids got to have some fun, and that’s what it’s all about

[Tex Pete 21,488]

17 minutes ago, Matuka said:

“I want to apologize to all North Carolina fans…”

Was he flipping the camera the bird when he said it?

[Longboard Horn 41,355]

Mack losing in the Holiday Bowl.... nothing new... 

[South Austin 53,227]

1 hour ago, Longboard Horn said:

Mack losing in the Holiday Bowl.... nothing new... 

I’m not one to race to Mack Brown’s defense, but he didn’t have a winning Holiday Bowl record at Texas (3-2).

[Longboard Horn 41,355]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

I’m not one to race to Mack Brown’s defense, but he didn’t have a winning Holiday Bowl record at Texas (3-2).

Correcting myself: Mack losing to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl(and other bowls) is nothing new. 

[JGrayDBU 376]

On 12/17/2022 at 2:30 PM, John Coctostan said:

There were some good years with Akers, but man was it a boring style of football. And too many years after him were just a beating. Watching Eric Metcalf's generational talent get wasted on lousy teams was tragic.

Akers was the guy trying to be dragged into the new style of football wrt the forward pass, but he just wouldn't quite do it.  There was supposed to be some kind of disagreement about who got credit for the famous Robert Brewer QB draw that beat Alabama in the 1982 Cotton Bowl.  Then in the '82 season, the passing game was working.  It is my understanding that Akers would never give up control of the play calling.  He was trying to be a micromanager on offense.  I get it if that is your specialty, like a Chip Kelly.  But Akers was a DB.  

Akers was a defensive guy, but he wanted to take credit for the offensive good plays, while not taking credit for the bad plays, while at the same time putting about 90% of the really good players on defense.  

Prime evidence of this was the 1983 season.  The best defensive talent ever seen on the 40 acres.  I mean if you go back and look, we had a backup defensive player drafted.   Then look at the offense.  The running game was totally reliant upon a superman freshman, Edwin Simmons. As soon as Edwin went down with an injury the running game became a D+ at best.  Nobody good at RB left, because Fred's philosophy put way too many of the best players on D. 

TCU game.  Our defense outscored our offense and TCUs offense, with 2 TDs. 

Then look at the QB room.  Fred couldn't decide which QB to stick with, so ended up throwing his hands up and starting Rick McIvor, the rocket-arm QB against Aggy.  McIvor struck gold, showed off his arm, threw a bunch of TD passes, and Akers fell in love with the idea of Rick. 

For the Cotton Bowl, if Fred had come out of halftime with Morschell as QB the entire 2nd half, we would have won the game scoring at least one TD and one FG or two FGs.  Wouldn't have been pretty, but Georgia was 100% jacked up to stop Rick. 

15 to 10 or 16 to 10 final would have given us another NC. 

 

 

 

[TexPx 2,336]

Was he flipping the camera the bird when he said it?

[Tex Pete 21,488]

Exactly. 

[TheStoicPaisano 9,953]

[South Austin 53,227]

35 minutes ago, TheStoicPaisano said:

Every time I see that gif, I chuckle out of embarrassment, only to be quickly reminded that after that silly gesture Mack herp-derped his way to a win against OU.

[closetohumping 17,818]

9 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

Buttertooth needed Applewhite at QB in the Holiday Bowl tonight.  Tar Heels lost a 10pt lead in the 4th qtr.

Ducks win...  28-27  

Hate to see it.   
 

that’s what he gets for kicking a fg from the 2

[Doc Daneeka 6,793]

2 hours ago, JGrayDBU said:

Akers was the guy trying to be dragged into the new style of football wrt the forward pass, but he just wouldn't quite do it.  There was supposed to be some kind of disagreement about who got credit for the famous Robert Brewer QB draw that beat Alabama in the 1982 Cotton Bowl.  Then in the '82 season, the passing game was working.  It is my understanding that Akers would never give up control of the play calling.  He was trying to be a micromanager on offense.  I get it if that is your specialty, like a Chip Kelly.  But Akers was a DB.  

Akers was a defensive guy, but he wanted to take credit for the offensive good plays, while not taking credit for the bad plays, while at the same time putting about 90% of the really good players on defense.  

Prime evidence of this was the 1983 season.  The best defensive talent ever seen on the 40 acres.  I mean if you go back and look, we had a backup defensive player drafted.   Then look at the offense.  The running game was totally reliant upon a superman freshman, Edwin Simmons. As soon as Edwin went down with an injury the running game became a D+ at best.  Nobody good at RB left, because Fred's philosophy put way too many of the best players on D. 

TCU game.  Our defense outscored our offense and TCUs offense, with 2 TDs. 

Then look at the QB room.  Fred couldn't decide which QB to stick with, so ended up throwing his hands up and starting Rick McIvor, the rocket-arm QB against Aggy.  McIvor struck gold, showed off his arm, threw a bunch of TD passes, and Akers fell in love with the idea of Rick. 

For the Cotton Bowl, if Fred had come out of halftime with Morschell as QB the entire 2nd half, we would have won the game scoring at least one TD and one FG or two FGs.  Wouldn't have been pretty, but Georgia was 100% jacked up to stop Rick. 

15 to 10 or 16 to 10 final would have given us another NC. 

 

 

 

So would 9-3 and the lack of a clusterfuck on Georgia’s last punt. Or 16-10 even with the clusterfuck but Ward not missing relatively easy field goals. Or a holding call on Georgia’s TD. Fuck. 

[tx ind 7,057]

44 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Hate to see it.   
 

that’s what he gets for kicking a fg from the 2

Knew right there that they were going to lose, no balls and fully conservative.

[BevoAbyss 2,183]

2 hours ago, JGrayDBU said:

9 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

So would 9-3 and the lack of a clusterfuck on Georgia’s last punt. Or 16-10 even with the clusterfuck but Ward not missing relatively easy field goals. Or a holding call on Georgia’s TD. Fuck. 

For the Cotton Bowl, if Fred had come out of halftime with Morschell as QB the entire 2nd half, we would have won the game scoring at least one TD and one FG or two FGs.  Wouldn't have been pretty, but Georgia was 100% jacked up to stop Rick. 

15 to 10 or 16 to 10 final would have given us another NC. 

Y'all are both correct. Dredging up some bad Longhorn memories. Man, that was a massively bungled game: 2 missed FGs, 2 INTs, 4 fumbles (2 lost), muffed punt, and Fred's overall offensive conservativism and indecisiveness. McIvor lit up the Aggies (45-13), but was wildly inaccurate in the Cotton Bowl (8 for 26). If Moerschell plays QB in the second half, UT wins. Moerschell was clutch.

Watched that game on a small portable TV at the furniture store (long out of business) where I worked part-time that year. Since my UT girlfriend was in California visiting her parents, after work I think I wandered into to Chuy's on Barton Springs and drowned my sorrows in margaritas and fajitas. Haven't lived in Austin 30 years, anyone know if that Chuy's is still there? 

[Hank Chinaski 6,361]

Christ y’all, should we also talk about how if Gideon holds that INT we’d have beaten Tebow/Urb and won it all in ‘08 too? And Colt’s shoulder the next year? And how you could make a strong case that we were exactly 3 plays away from 3 more titles in the last 40 years? Goddamnit.

[closetohumping 17,818]

1 hour ago, tx ind said:

Knew right there that they were going to lose, no balls and fully conservative.

Yep.  Chickenshit. 

[JGrayDBU 376]

39 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Christ y’all, should we also talk about how if Gideon holds that INT we’d have beaten Tebow/Urb and won it all in ‘08 too? And Colt’s shoulder the next year? And how you could make a strong case that we were exactly 3 plays away from 3 more titles in the last 40 years? Goddamnit.

Plays are different from decisions, imo.  You cannot control the play.  You(the coach) can make the correct decisions.  In real time, I predicted the 2009 mess.  GD/Mack already had a history of making Colt injury prone by dictating a stupid battering ram decision.   If you are going to use Colt as a battering ram you better damn well have a back up QB ready to go.  So here comes 2009, and the ball that GG threw was a bullet, completely different from Colt's ball.  The first team needed live snaps against a real team with GG.  The D1 team to use for this strategy was the directional Florida team in November.  We had a 30-0(I think) half time lead.

GG should have come out beginning of 2nd half against Florida whomever with the first team throwing everything in the playbook. 

Nope.  Colt was handing off.  Then in the 4th quarter GG was handing off.  Dumbest decision, most easily anticipated situation in the history of football at Texas.  

With just one half of live action, GG and receivers would have had enough confidence to handle the Alabama situation. 

 

It's the dumb coaching decisions that annoy me much more than Craig Curry and Blake Gideon dropping balls.  

 

 

[jdhorn92 1,598]

4 hours ago, Longboard Horn said:

Correcting myself: Mack losing to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl(and other bowls) is nothing new. 

You should check that, off the top of my head, Texas Mack had wins over LSU, tOSU, Miss St, UW, Oregon St, Iowa, Wassu, ASU, Michigan, USC...the only losses being Oregon 2x, ARK (i believe in Cotton bowl but could be wrong) and Bama

 

Edit, as i re-read your post, you may be referring to just Oregon, which would make a lot more sense.  Overall Texas Mack was pretty good in bowls, mainly b/c we shit the bed late in the season and should have been in major bowls in lieu of what we got.

Edited December 29, 2022 by jdhorn92

[South Austin 53,227]

4 minutes ago, jdhorn92 said:

You should check that, off the top of my head, Texas Mack had wins over LSU, tOSU, Miss St, UW, Oregon St, Iowa, Wassu, ASU, Michigan, USC...the only losses being Oregon 2x, ARK (i believe in Cotton bowl but could be wrong) and Bama

 

Edit, as i re-read your post, you may be referring to just Oregon, which would make a lot more sense.  Overall Texas Mack was pretty good in bowls, mainly b/c we shit the bed late in the season and should have been in major bowls in lieu of what we got.

For all his faults, Mack's teams performed well in bowl games, and were 3-1 in BCS Bowls (with the one loss being the "what if" game in which Colt was injured).

And to edit your list, he lost against Washington State in the Holiday, and beat Cal in that same bowl.  Everything else checks out, I believe.

[Burt 4,137]

4 hours ago, Longboard Horn said:

Correcting myself: Mack losing to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl(and other bowls) is nothing new. 

Yeah, that 10-5 bowl record while in Austin sucked.

[BevoAbyss 2,183]

My dad said Royal's teams were one play away in 1961 (TCU, missed TD pass) and 1964 (Arky, failed 2-point). Add on the 1963 MNC and Royal would have had 3 in 4 years when his teams went 40-3-1. Plus, the two wishbone titles in 1969-70, Royal would have 5 MNCs.

With the one Fred missed and two Mack missed, Texas easily could have had 8-9 titles. Fact is, we let several titles slip away. That's a bummer.

Edited December 29, 2022 by BevoAbyss

[Valmy77 13,626]

On 11/21/2022 at 8:47 AM, Vic Mackey said:

On 11/19/2022 at 11:59 PM, CTC2 said:

Yes it is.  He had the keys to a Lambo and put it in a ditch that we are apparently still trying to get out of.

You actually believe this? It's been 9 years since he left. It has zero to do with him. We just suck at hiring coaches since him. It shouldn't take a program like Texas a decade to recover.

It started with him. And yes we played a big role by having idiotic amateurs doing our football coach hiring, but he had made the task of whomever the incoming coach was going to be very difficult.

He completely hollowed out the program of talent at basically every position. Strong was starting walk ons in 2014. John Mackovic left Mack pretty amazing talent on the offensive side of the ball at least. It still boggles my mind that Mack Brown somehow left the program in much worse position than he found it after all his recruiting and on-field success pre-2010. 

[Deej 77,830]

27 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

My dad said Royal's teams were one play away in 1961 (TCU, missed TD pass) and 1964 (Arky, failed 2-point). Add on the 1963 MNC and Royal would have had 3 in 4 years when his teams went 40-3-1. Plus, the two wishbone titles in 1969-70, Royal would have 5 MNCs.

With the one Fred missed and two Mack missed, Texas easily could have had 8-9 titles. Fact is, we let several titles slip away. That's a bummer.

Winning is hard.

[Doc Daneeka 6,793]

2 hours ago, JGrayDBU said:

Plays are different from decisions, imo.  You cannot control the play.  You(the coach) can make the correct decisions.  In real time, I predicted the 2009 mess.  GD/Mack already had a history of making Colt injury prone by dictating a stupid battering ram decision.   If you are going to use Colt as a battering ram you better damn well have a back up QB ready to go.  So here comes 2009, and the ball that GG threw was a bullet, completely different from Colt's ball.  The first team needed live snaps against a real team with GG.  The D1 team to use for this strategy was the directional Florida team in November.  We had a 30-0(I think) half time lead.

GG should have come out beginning of 2nd half against Florida whomever with the first team throwing everything in the playbook. 

Nope.  Colt was handing off.  Then in the 4th quarter GG was handing off.  Dumbest decision, most easily anticipated situation in the history of football at Texas.  

With just one half of live action, GG and receivers would have had enough confidence to handle the Alabama situation. 

 

It's the dumb coaching decisions that annoy me much more than Craig Curry and Blake Gideon dropping balls.  

 

 

Very true. But it was a dumb coaching decision that had Curry in that situation in the first place. 

[SimkinsMan 4,554]

That was an amazing interception by the Carolina defender. Fun game to watch. 

[JGrayDBU 376]

20 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Very true. But it was a dumb coaching decision that had Curry in that situation in the first place. 

I disagree and agree.  The decision to leave the defense on the field was a very solid decision, imo.  There was no reason for Georgia to punt the ball with about 4 and half minutes left in the game, unless they were psychic and predicted Texas would fumble the punt.   This was a typical windy Cotton Bowl, and the instructions should have been given to get away from the ball.  There was no reason to try to field the punt.  About two to three first downs from the Texas offense and the game would have been over. I read years later that Akers tried to get Curry to face the media right after the game, but he just couldn't do it.  

And that was just Craig thinking he lost the game.  It would not have entered Craig's mind he lost the national championship when he dropped that ball, because Nebraska lost to Miami that night. 

 

 

 

[Valmy77 13,626]

1 hour ago, BevoAbyss said:

My dad said Royal's teams were one play away in 1961 (TCU, missed TD pass) and 1964 (Arky, failed 2-point). Add on the 1963 MNC and Royal would have had 3 in 4 years when his teams went 40-3-1. Plus, the two wishbone titles in 1969-70, Royal would have 5 MNCs.

With the one Fred missed and two Mack missed, Texas easily could have had 8-9 titles. Fact is, we let several titles slip away. That's a bummer.

Tons of blue blood programs can claim this kind of luck. For every title you win, three others were right there for the taking but it didn't quite work out.

And look at the good fortune at the right moment Texas needed for the titles we did win. The hilarious choke by A&M after they had the game winning interception in their hands in 1963 and then instead of just falling down decided to run around and fumbled. The 4th down bomb in the 1969 Arkansas game. The Hail Mary to beat UCLA in 1970. The Ohio State kicker missing the game clenching field goal in 2005. Those other teams were just as good but didn't get that extra bit of good fortune to close the deal. 

[BevoAbyss 2,183]

18 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

And look at the good fortune at the right moment Texas needed for the titles we did win. The hilarious choke by A&M after they had the game winning interception in their hands in 1963 and then instead of just falling down decided to run around and fumbled. The 4th down bomb in the 1969 Arkansas game. The Hail Mary to beat UCLA in 1970. The Ohio State kicker missing the game clenching field goal in 2005. Those other teams were just as good but didn't get that extra bit of good fortune to close the deal. 

Agree. For 2005 title, add on the Bush lateral and Carroll leaving Bush on sideline for 4th and 2. I was just lamenting that the ratio of titles was not higher than 4 of 9 (very close possibilities). No one wins them all, but 6 or 7 out of 9 would be sweeter! 

[Doc Daneeka 6,793]

53 minutes ago, JGrayDBU said:

I disagree and agree.  The decision to leave the defense on the field was a very solid decision, imo.  There was no reason for Georgia to punt the ball with about 4 and half minutes left in the game, unless they were psychic and predicted Texas would fumble the punt.   This was a typical windy Cotton Bowl, and the instructions should have been given to get away from the ball.  There was no reason to try to field the punt.  About two to three first downs from the Texas offense and the game would have been over. I read years later that Akers tried to get Curry to face the media right after the game, but he just couldn't do it.  

And that was just Craig thinking he lost the game.  It would not have entered Craig's mind he lost the national championship when he dropped that ball, because Nebraska lost to Miami that night. 

 

 

 

Play defense for a fake, don’t get close to the ball if they punt. Anything else is a bad coaching decision. 

I know a guy who was on the team at the time and there were guys pleading with Akers just basically to have the defense treat the play as dead if Georgia punted. 

I blamed Curry at the time but it wasn’t his fault. 

[JGrayDBU 376]

48 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Play defense for a fake, don’t get close to the ball if they punt. Anything else is a bad coaching decision. 

I know a guy who was on the team at the time and there were guys pleading with Akers just basically to have the defense treat the play as dead if Georgia punted. 

I blamed Curry at the time but it wasn’t his fault. 

I appreciate that insight.  It does make me wonder just exactly what were the instructions for that play?  I would think a good special teams coach would have called timeout to make sure every player knew exactly what the instructions would be.  Do you ask your d to catch that ball?  I can't imagine a special teams coordinator asking that of his defense.   One interesting bit of trivia is that I believe Jitter Fields was the other DB back there and he evidently yelled "you" to Craig.  If that is true then the call was to catch the ball?  Hard to believe.  

 

[Doc Daneeka 6,793]

I appreciate that insight.  It does make me wonder just exactly what were the instructions for that play?  I would think a good special teams coach would have called timeout to make sure every player knew exactly what the instructions would be.  Do you ask your d to catch that ball?  I can't imagine a special teams coordinator asking that of his defense.   One interesting bit of trivia is that I believe Jitter Fields was the other DB back there and he evidently yelled "you" to Craig.  If that is true then the call was to catch the ball?  Hard to believe.  
 

I’ll see if I can find out.

Agree that the expectations should have been crystal clear (and that the expectation should have been to run away from the ball if Georgia actually punted). That those weren’t the instructions is why I blame the coaches and not Curry.

The upside of having a DB field a punt in that scenario is infinitesimal compared to the downside. Hell, letting them down it at the one and ending up with a safety and a free kick would be essentially the worst case if the punt isn’t fielded. They’d still have needed a TD to win and would’ve had a longer field.

[Longboard Horn 41,355]

7 hours ago, Burt said:

Yeah, that 10-5 bowl record while in Austin sucked.

Read again. Mack losing to OREGON IN BOWL GAMES

[Longboard Horn 41,355]

7 hours ago, jdhorn92 said:

You should check that, off the top of my head, Texas Mack had wins over LSU, tOSU, Miss St, UW, Oregon St, Iowa, Wassu, ASU, Michigan, USC...the only losses being Oregon 2x, ARK (i believe in Cotton bowl but could be wrong) and Bama

 

Edit, as i re-read your post, you may be referring to just Oregon, which would make a lot more sense.  Overall Texas Mack was pretty good in bowls, mainly b/c we shit the bed late in the season and should have been in major bowls in lieu of what we got.

Yes I'm only referring to Oregon.

And yes you're correct about the Arky loss in the Cotton Bowl. 1999 season to Houston Nutt.

[Blotto 24,021]

Keeping Mack locked down through the 27 season. If he coaches it out, he'll be like 77 years round. 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35576738/north-carolina-football-coach-mack-brown-signs-1-year-extension

[Hook1997 5,509]

38 minutes ago, Blotto said:

Keeping Mack locked down through the 27 season. If he coaches it out, he'll be like 77 years round. 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35576738/north-carolina-football-coach-mack-brown-signs-1-year-extension

Why’s he signing a one year extension at the same rate when his contract isn’t up for two years?  What’s the benefit here?

[MirrOlure 15,274]

He should coach there as long as he wants. He’s light years ahead of anyone they’ve had before, and they’ve shown they can’t do shit after him

[Blotto 24,021]

5 minutes ago, Hook1997 said:

Why’s he signing a one year extension at the same rate when his contract isn’t up for two years?  What’s the benefit here?

My guess is just to take away the recruiting angle of opposing schools saying "macks done in x years" if he always has 5 years left on his contract. I doubt he coaches another 5 seasons. But as long as he's willing, its pretty clear UNC cant do any better.

[cochamps 1,885]

On 12/29/2022 at 2:46 PM, Doc Daneeka said:

Play defense for a fake, don’t get close to the ball if they punt. Anything else is a bad coaching decision. 

I know a guy who was on the team at the time and there were guys pleading with Akers just basically to have the defense treat the play as dead if Georgia punted. 

I blamed Curry at the time but it wasn’t his fault. 

Back to this for a minute…I had a sick feeling when I saw us line up with punt returners.  Why?  I saw the exact same scenario against UH in November.  We fumbled that one too, but were lucky enough to recover that one.

So fucking stupid to have anyone near a punt.  

 

[satyanash 15,608]

 

[South Austin 53,227]

He wrote “Fuck you, pay me,” didn’t he.

Edited April 26, 2023 by South Austin

[closetohumping 17,818]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

He wrote “Fuck you, pay me,” didn’t he.

“Nick Saban didn’t win it all with my players “