Don’t worry, Mack Brown will be ready for kickoff. I know.

When the release came out that Mack Brown had his right knee replaced Monday (by Mike Bolognesi, a Duke surgeon and former UNC football player), I got out my calendar and started counting backward from August 1, the day practice opens.

I had my knee done at this time last summer and didn’t think I would be able to walk by August — let alone leading a college football team through training camp. The first month after surgery, it was so painful, I wanted to kill myself. The second month, I wanted to kill my physical therapist for helping me straighten my leg.

Because that’s the key, busting up that scar tissue. Otherwise, your knee will always be bent and the surgery will have been a waste of time. The pain might be gone, but you’ll be limping worse than before you went under the knife. But by August 1, actually July 31, I was at Fenway Park watching the Red Sox, walking only with a cane.

By early August, I no longer wanted to kill anyone and was on the bike getting my full range of motion back. I think this is Mack’s second knee operation, which will complete straightening out perhaps the most bow-legged coach in America as well as the active coach with the most wins.

Mack will be back on the sideline against South Carolina on August 31 in Charlotte, and he may be even standing up straight rather than in that spread-legged crouch with hands on knees.  Brown said a few weeks ago that he has as much energy as he ever had as a coach, and in fact he’s a better coach after five years off the sideline and working for ESPN, calling games and analyzing them in the studio and visiting practices at dozens and dozens of other schools. That helped him hire the great staff he has put together at Carolina.

So, don’t worry about Mack. But what about Bolognesi, the Duke doctor? When the Tar Heels play the Blue Devils here on October 26, will he be sitting in the royal blue section rooting for his old coach with the new knee?  Hmmm.

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