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If you have been a Carolina football fan most of your life, you know the Tar Heels have never won a national championship. And disappointments of the last two seasons make it seem like that will probably never happen.
So after five years with two NFL quarterbacks and never getting to that magical 10-win mark, Mack Brown can use the 2024 schedule to reset some unrealistic expectations. After all, he won 10 games twice in his first stint here and he knows what it takes.
Whether too many players bypassed bowl games or there was not enough depth to handle inevitable late-season injuries, we all know the expectations are different than the 6-time NCAA champ basketball program.
I, for one, would love to win every football game on the schedule. Since that has never happened here in the modern era, I would love to see a well-coached team fight like hell in every game and – win or lose – proudly sing the Alma Mater and leave the field to James Taylor’s Carolina in My Mind.
That’s the macro. The micro is beating Duke and N.C. State every season along with any other in-state opponents, finish with a winning record and go to a representative bowl game. This would make me a contented Tar Heel alum. Anything more in the NIL/transfer portal era is pure gravy.
Last season, Brown warned about the “toughest first four games I’ve ever had as a head coach.” A great win over South Carolina in Charlotte allowed us to think big before the Gamecocks finished at 5-7 and no bowl game. App State, Minnesota and Pitt had a combined 18-21 record.
When Mack meets the press for the first time this spring, he certainly will say opening at Minnesota with a new quarterback will be a challenge but certainly UNC-Charlotte, NC Central and James Madison are teams we should beat at home. Of the eight ACC dates to follow, the four games in a packed Kenan Stadium will be fun and the road games are daunting.
Presented like that, if Carolina posts another winning record, alumni and fans will likely be more proud than let down.
Featured image via UNC
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
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A lot of people are never satisfied…
I will shortly turn 71. Before age 10 I had been to two dook football games, courtesy of my father. I would be thrilled to see Carolina win a football national championship. I will not be disappointed by seasons that end in less. For the record, Mack Brown Version 1.0 was the best football coach we have ever had and Version 2.0 is not far from that mark. We are very fortunate to have Coach Brown.
We have been fortunate to get quality individuals to come to the university and play football. As long as the players and coaching staff work hard to produce as individuals and as a team I will be happy.
Well I’m just tickled pink to have Mack Brown and his 59 percent winning percentage the past 9 years, including 4 at Texas and 5 at UNC. I don’t think we should expect to do better. I mean, we don’t have nice facilities, a good stadium, a decent budget from which to operate, a state of the art locker room and players’ lounge, etc…We’re not much better budget-wise and facility-wise than most junior high schools. And we don’t have money to pay decent assistant coaches. I’m shocked Mack does as good as he does under these circumstances. I’m amazed he was able to get by Campbell this past year. And the best thing of all is that our fans are just as tickled as me that Mack is back, that we’ll probably beat Charlotte, which is a much bigger city than Chapel Hill, and that Mack will spit a lot and take a lot of notes on the sidelines, which makes him look like he’s really a great football coach making a difference! I can’t wait for the next 10 years of Mack-ball.
Derek, were you an English major at UNC who studied the art of sarcasm?
“he was able to get by Campbell this past year.”
The Camels were tough guys, and we finished them off, once we got over the hump, as it were.
The Texas football program brings in 3 times what the Carolina prog does, like 180 million to 60, something like that. The top ten football revenue teams are all near or topping 100 million. No national champions are coming out of the programs below that level.
Pretending it’s anything different than that is just pretending. We’re lucky to have Mack Brown as a coach.
Carolina is somewhere near 30 in total sports revenue but top 10 in national championships (all sports) IIRC.
The bigger Macro, macro picture of Tar Heel football is that UNC is NEVER going to compete in NIL money with the SEC and Big 10.
The political reality in N. C. is that UNC will not and cannot leave the ACC because it would leave NCSU naked. The two schools are joined at the hip, in the ACC.
The recent push by Bubba to consolidate NIL fund raising under one umbrella will tell the tale of how inadequate the NIL base is for UNC, and even worse for NCSU.
A much better idea is to return to an era of smaller athletic programs at UNC that can support a much smaller number of non-revenue sports. Not the 26 current programs.
Living within our means as it were.
I am in favor of letting FSU and Clem’s son go seek their fortune.
We need to abandon the current ungainly conference and return to our roots. (CD Chesley, Sail with the Pilot, Greensboro coliseum)
Chantsky, if you are satisfied with mediocre, then why not have a much smaller nouveau ACC, with schools like Dookie, Wake Forest, and Virginia who share some of the moral and cultural values of UNC?
Cal? Stanford? SMU? Syracuse? Excuse me.
To Be Rather than to Seem.
So we should feel good if UNC football with its weak schedule has a winning record against poor competition. Okay. All that does is verify what we have seen the last 4 or 5 years: Mack Brown has not established a winning cultural mindset at UNC. What have we heard from him? Eight wins should be enough for the ungrateful fans. Just be satisfied. Why aspire to do better? Why aspire to compete with the best teams in the country and maybe even defeat some of them when you can water down the schedule and just be satisfied? If the challenge has become too much for him then why does he not honorably step down?
A lot of people are never satisfied…
I will shortly turn 71. Before age 10 I had been to two dook football games, courtesy of my father. I would be thrilled to see Carolina win a football national championship. I will not be disappointed by seasons that end in less. For the record, Mack Brown Version 1.0 was the best football coach we have ever had and Version 2.0 is not far from that mark. We are very fortunate to have Coach Brown.
We have been fortunate to get quality individuals to come to the university and play football. As long as the players and coaching staff work hard to produce as individuals and as a team I will be happy.
71? Shoot Barry, you’re just a whipper snapper. I have you by years
Well I’m just tickled pink to have Mack Brown and his 59 percent winning percentage the past 9 years, including 4 at Texas and 5 at UNC. I don’t think we should expect to do better. I mean, we don’t have nice facilities, a good stadium, a decent budget from which to operate, a state of the art locker room and players’ lounge, etc…We’re not much better budget-wise and facility-wise than most junior high schools. And we don’t have money to pay decent assistant coaches. I’m shocked Mack does as good as he does under these circumstances. I’m amazed he was able to get by Campbell this past year. And the best thing of all is that our fans are just as tickled as me that Mack is back, that we’ll probably beat Charlotte, which is a much bigger city than Chapel Hill, and that Mack will spit a lot and take a lot of notes on the sidelines, which makes him look like he’s really a great football coach making a difference! I can’t wait for the next 10 years of Mack-ball.
Derek, were you an English major at UNC who studied the art of sarcasm?
“he was able to get by Campbell this past year.”
The Camels were tough guys, and we finished them off, once we got over the hump, as it were.
The Texas football program brings in 3 times what the Carolina prog does, like 180 million to 60, something like that. The top ten football revenue teams are all near or topping 100 million. No national champions are coming out of the programs below that level.
Pretending it’s anything different than that is just pretending. We’re lucky to have Mack Brown as a coach.
Carolina is somewhere near 30 in total sports revenue but top 10 in national championships (all sports) IIRC.
The bigger Macro, macro picture of Tar Heel football is that UNC is NEVER going to compete in NIL money with the SEC and Big 10.
The political reality in N. C. is that UNC will not and cannot leave the ACC because it would leave NCSU naked. The two schools are joined at the hip, in the ACC.
The recent push by Bubba to consolidate NIL fund raising under one umbrella will tell the tale of how inadequate the NIL base is for UNC, and even worse for NCSU.
A much better idea is to return to an era of smaller athletic programs at UNC that can support a much smaller number of non-revenue sports. Not the 26 current programs.
Living within our means as it were.
I am in favor of letting FSU and Clem’s son go seek their fortune.
We need to abandon the current ungainly conference and return to our roots. (CD Chesley, Sail with the Pilot, Greensboro coliseum)
Chantsky, if you are satisfied with mediocre, then why not have a much smaller nouveau ACC, with schools like Dookie, Wake Forest, and Virginia who share some of the moral and cultural values of UNC?
Cal? Stanford? SMU? Syracuse? Excuse me.
To Be Rather than to Seem.
I’d be happy to have a student athlete program in all sports. I’m not happy with the current pro team system.
So we should feel good if UNC football with its weak schedule has a winning record against poor competition. Okay. All that does is verify what we have seen the last 4 or 5 years: Mack Brown has not established a winning cultural mindset at UNC. What have we heard from him? Eight wins should be enough for the ungrateful fans. Just be satisfied. Why aspire to do better? Why aspire to compete with the best teams in the country and maybe even defeat some of them when you can water down the schedule and just be satisfied? If the challenge has become too much for him then why does he not honorably step down?