It’s a serendipitous start to the Carolina football season.
Nine months ago, who would have believed the Tar Heels could dig their way out of the apathy that engulfed the program after they had slogged to a 2-9 record, making it 5-18 over two years after four straight bowl seasons. Larry Fedora had lost whatever good karma he had brought to Chapel Hill.
No young coach, no matter how sterling his resume, could have awoken the alumni and fan base. Luckily, Bubba Cunningham and Mack Brown already had a working relationship with Carolina football. Mack was serving as an advisor to both Bubba and Larry.
When Cunningham deemed a change had to be made, he asked Brown if he wanted to come out of a five-year retirement from coaching, and fortunately Mack still had it in his heart and mind. He wasn’t done mentoring young men and younger coaches – and was the only person on the planet who would have taken the job and gotten a rise out of those who had happily turned to basketball.
Brown inherited much better players than he had the first time here in 1987, and flipped a few 11th-hour recruits like quarterback Sam Howell, and he hired a star coaching staff. Together, a mixture of veterans and youngsters got ready for their opener against South Carolina and pulled off a fourth-quarter shocker in Charlotte.
Now, here is the really lucky part. The home opener Saturday night is against ACC rival Miami – not Liberty, Middle Tennessee or Elon – teams that drew poor crowds and embarrassed Fedora into not inviting recruits until more people would be in the stands. After all, he was recruiting kids also sought by SEC schools, where there are always 90,000 roaring regardless of the opponent.
So Mack Brown is already known from his Hall of Fame and national championship days at Texas, working with ESPN and his memorable dance after beating the Gamecocks. And the dozens of recruits he invited Saturday night will watch the Tar Heels take to the new artificial turf at Kenan before a slammed sell-out. Every one of the new blue chair backs filled with fannies, just the way Mack likes it.
If the Heels upset the talented Hurricanes, it will make a great story even better. Win or lose, Brown will tell the recruits there is room for them to play next year and beyond in front of a very excited home crowd they just witnessed for themselves. Almost a no-lose situation.
A serendipitous start, to say the least.
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