There has got to be something else about North Carolina football.

Mack Brown has been back for three seasons and has improved recruiting classes every year. Obviously, he got started late after taking over in December of 2018, but had time to flip Sam Howell from FSU.

Brown and his coaching staff announced the signing of what will be a top 10 class Wednesday, following the top 15 class last year. Among the 17 signees so far are highly rated kids from Alabama and Pennsylvania, who could have played for the Crimson Tide and Penn State. But they came to UNC.

It must be the brand, since North Carolina football has been up and down for the last 50 years. The Tar Heels didn’t do much on the gridiron in the 21 seasons Brown was away. Eleven bowl games and one ACC Coastal title. There were also five head coaches and an NCAA scandal.

So, why do four- and five-star recruits who weren’t even born during Brown’s first stint want to come here when they could have gone almost anywhere? Sure, Brown is a renowned salesman and his staff is familiar with the Carolinas-Virginia footprint they use as their prime recruiting territory.

But their parents and relatives must know the UNC brand – maybe from the Dean Smith basketball days, the Jordan Jumpman extending to football and the national news coming out of the university. Even when bad, it gave coaches a chance to explain what went wrong and more what goes right.

UNC has a pretty campus for sure and a persuasive coaching staff. But other schools have that, too, especially those that contend for a College Football Playoff spot every season. And the Tar Heels play in a 50,000-seat stadium, half the size of those in Tuscaloosa, Athens and University Park.

Brown’s latest class has great prospects, all captains of their high school teams, sparkling academic records and love of community fitting the profile that UNC wants in all of its students.

But there are also those who never took another recruiting visit, have parents who were college athletes and can sniff out coach-speak and even one who saw a UNC cap at nine years old and said “that’s my school!”

So, for sure, it’s also the brand, which is harder to establish and endures even longer than most winning traditions.

 

Photo via Jim Dedmon/USA TODAY Sports.

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