Mondays are packed for Mack Brown, and he loves it.

During the football season, coaches work seven days a week. It would be eight if they found another day somewhere. For Mack Brown, the energy he wondered about is there in spades.

Brown rises about 5 o’clock every day to head for the Kenan Football Center and his office or the coaches’ locker room to get ready for an early practice. He has been up pretty late the night before preparing for the following day. This week was to be a whirlwind after his Tar Heels somehow pulled out a victory over Duke after just about giving it away on the other end of the field.

He does two “Mondays with Mack” shows, one on WCHL with Ron Stutts and the other on video with Jones Angell to send out over the internet and social media. Then comes his weekly press conference, and after more meetings and maybe an afternoon practice, his last scheduled gig is Mack Brown LIVE! at Top of the Hill.

It is also hosted by Angell, who has become his own man after succeeding the legendary Woody Durham as Voice of the Tar Heels. Jones has his style at the mic, and it really works or him. Still in his 30s, Angell has a chance to do it longer than Woody’s 40 years.

He gets a break of sorts when hosting the free-wheeling radio show before a standing room only house at TOPO. Jones doesn’t have to ask a very long question; it’s like giving the ball to a running back you can’t bring down. Mack takes a simple point and turns it into a long, broken-field scamper.

Jones also hosts Mack’s Sunday TV show, recorded in the wee hours after a game or returning from a road trip. But hand Brown any chance to promote his football team, whether Texas or the Tar Heels, and he’s off on another long jaunt. Watching Brown somehow reminds me of those painful days in the 1980s, when John Kilgo was hosting the coaches’ radio and TV shows and Dick Crum and Dean Smith were in the big saddles.

Dean never wanted his shows anywhere but in the privacy of a studio, because he only tolerated the media and was basically a shy man. Can you imagine him at Top of the Hill? I can’t. But Kilgo and Crum? That was a downer duo if I’ve heard one. So much so that a long-time Chapel Hill fan gave them the nickname Snooze and Nod.

Just one more reason to be glad Mack is Back.

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