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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Bailing Out
Roy Williams probably had reasons for the soft statements. Carolina fans reacted strongly to the video of a team party after the win over Duke. Only Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe were in the video, but a statement from players and managers said it was supposed to be a closed event that other students and […]
Chansky's Notebook: Please, Go In!
UNC men's basketball faces what is an early season must-win at Georgia Tech. Art Chansky says a look at the statistics is painful, but not terminal.
Chansky's Notebook: Leaky Steps Up
Dean Smith used to say he’ll be happy with a one-point win. The legendary UNC basketball coach struggled spiritually between playing well according to his teachings, regardless of outcome, and winning no matter how poorly you play. Since his job was to win and he was so competitive, he chose the latter. If he was […]
Chansky's Notebook: Rock(et) Star
Ben Kiernan was UNC’s MVP of the Notre Dame game. When Mack Brown went over the 31-17 loss, he gave mixed reviews to the two main branches of his Tar Heels’ play. He said the offense was good in the first half and then “went dead” in a scoreless second half. He praised the Tar […]
Chansky's Notebook: Goals and Ambitions
Garrison Brooks has both opportunity and pressure. On paper, the ACC looks as weak as it has been in some time due to widespread losses to graduation and early departures to the NBA, and no sure-shot superstars in the incoming recruiting classes. A beneficiary of this development is Brooks, the Carolina senior who was second-team All-ACC last year and earned the league’s […]
Chansky's Notebook: A COVID Debate
Clemson was livid that Florida State wouldn’t play the game. Let’s be lawyers, and make a case for each of the teams that did not play its scheduled game over the weekend. Clemson had traveled to Florida State when it learned a player with mild symptoms who had practiced with the team all week tested […]
Chansky's Notebook: Draft Dodgers
Carolina and Duke players have lost ground in the NBA draft. Like everything else with sports in the COVID era, the NBA draft goes off tonight after being postponed for five months. And if you look at the various mock draft boards, certain things jump off your screen. First of all, about half the names […]
Chansky's Notebook: A Two-Thirds Bet?
What if Phil Mickelson and Mack Brown amended their bet? With the Masters being moved back to this weekend due to COVID, perhaps the three-time champion should revisit the fun bet he made with Carolina’s football coach back in 2003. The famed lefthander was still seeking his first Green Jacket when he partnered with the Texas football coach at the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Kudos To Carolina
UNC teams did a commendable job beating the odds. Who among us thought the ACC would be playing football and other fall sports last summer? With the pandemic upon us and the medical experts still learning, the seasons looked like a long shot. While other conferences pumped the breaks and/or called off football, the ACC […]
Chansky's Notebook: Extra Motivation
Carolina’s schedule could be working to its advantage. When the COVID-revised list of games came out, it looked troublesome for the Tar Heels with Virginia Tech and Florida State basically bookending Notre Dame and Miami with four rivalry games in a row right in the middle. Coaches usually don’t like that because it takes a […]
›