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Mack Brown is not known as a tough guy coach, but he has to be one this week.
His Tar Heels have scrapped back from a four-game losing streak to earn bowl status but are at the crossroads. They have gone 1-10 against Power 5 schools to end the last three seasons.
At 6-4, Carolina faces a Boston College team Saturday that definitely has a tough-guy leader. Bill O’Brien has coached the Houston Texans of the NFL and Penn State of the Big 10. He’s coached Tom Brady to Super Bowls. He’s been the OC at Alabama.
BC is buried beneath the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox and has a collective chip on its shoulder. The Eagles have been an outlier in the ACC since joining the league in 2005. They are 5-5 and need one more win to go to a bowl that would get them some headlines, having to beat UNC or Pitt next Saturday, both at home.
Brown has done his best coaching job here in getting the Tar Heels back to a sixth straight bowl after wobbling at 3-4. They have won their last three and want to finish 9-4, which would be a better record than Brown had with Sam Howell or Drake Maye at QB.
But if they lose to the Eagles, they will be ripe for another sour finish with a fourth straight loss to NC State and a ho-hum bowl game in which Omarion Hampton might miss to prepare for the NFL Draft.
More than half of the Tar Heels have never been to Boston, where they have heard it is cold and it will be for a noon kickoff. BC is bigger and stronger than any team Carolina has faced this season, running the ball as much or more than what on paper is a better opponent but maybe not on a 50-degree day in Chestnut Hill.
Of course, Brown’s team will try very hard. But it is also facing the possibility of a third U-turn this season and limping home with a 6-7 finish would likely end Brown’s UNC career.
He will have to tamp down the euphoria that has grown in his program, which has run the ball successfully, improved its kicking game and continued with good defense in wins over Virginia, Florida State and Wake Forest, all three they’ve left without bowl bids.
Brown says they have finally built the depth they lacked in swoons over the last three years. Most injuries have healed, Jacolby Criswell is more confident with every start and Hampton is a record-breaker.
But will they be tough enough in the trenches against a team that prides itself on toughness in a city that exudes it and will use it from the jump? Carolina has to get the jump on Boston College first.
“They will hit us in the mouth,” Brown said of the Eagles. “We want to win. We’re not going to be soft.”
Featured image via Associated Press/Colin Hackley
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.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
What is the definition of a “tough guy coach”? Does it involve winning football games? Are there other coaches with winning traditions that are not some ill defined definition of tough?
Omarion doesn’t talk tough, but he’s a winner. So is Coach Brown.