Chansky's Notebook: Do the Mack-arena!

Mack Brown showed some Macarena rap rhythm.

Carolina’s suddenly heroic football coach claims he can’t dance, but he promised his players that if they beat South Carolina he would hoof it with them afterward. They did and he did.

Brown gingerly jogged out of the tunnel behind his team on a recent knee replacement from a local surgeon and former defensive back. The Tar Heels were kicking off a new era against the Gamecocks in Charlotte. No one knew quite what to expect, except maybe Brown, who has the most wins of any active coach in America and was three from tying the most in UNC history (72 by Dick Crum).

After a holdover suspension and injuries to two starting linebackers, Carolina was throwing kids in there under baptism by fire. Chazz Surratt, the oft-injured disappointment at quarterback his first two seasons, started at middle linebacker and despite missing a sack on the first possession led the team with 12 tackles. Surratt was the state’s two-time high school athlete of the year, so Brown figured he could play somewhere!

The Carolina that was supposed to win punched the Carolina that hadn’t won an opener against a Power 5 school since the last time Brown was here. The first half looked a lot like the same old same old, but the Tar Heels trailed by only a touchdown and knew something. The coaching staff and strength guru Brian Hess had them prepped and in shape to punch back, and the roosters wilted in the fourth quarter.

Freshman Sam Howell started with a delay of game penalty and ended with two long touchdown drives and perfect TD lobs that could make history before his first chapter is written. Brown doesn’t have to read it; he already knows who’s his QB of the future.

After the Heels hung on to beat South Carolina for his second time, Mack teared up to the TV cameras and then disappeared into the tunnel to keep his promise. As he entered the locker room, the players were chanting “Mack! Mack! Mack!” He knew what that meant.

Brown got into the middle of the mosh pit and started swaying to their rap-like beat. Hand over his heart, other hand over his shoulder, hand to his head. It was a victory version of the Mack-arena, and he unknowingly created an ESPN classic.

In Austin, Brown won 158 games and a national championship and then short-sighted Longhorn alums thought he no longer knew what he was doing. His last three Texas teams won 8, 9 and 8 games. Do that here and start building him a statue, which we can all dance around.