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Someone from UNC finally called out Dave Doeren. It’s about time.

Mack Brown met with the media Wednesday on national signing day. He had not held a press conference since before the N.C. State game, which the Wolfpack won impressively. Unfortunately, Doeren was insipid with his celebration.

“After our last ball game with a rival school,” said Brown, “the head coach of that school called our players pieces of (the expletive word rhymes with “bit”). I’ve never heard something like that before. And I’m disappointed. I thought it was classless.

“Number one, we didn’t play well in the game,” Brown continued. “We didn’t coach well in the game. It’s been very well-documented, and I got that. But you don’t call kids a piece of ‘bit.’ I’ve addressed it with our team. I apologized to them. These kids are one of the top academic [football] groups in America. They got an award for being in the top 13. They’ve won a Coastal division. They’ve won a bunch of games. They’ve been to an Orange Bowl and five straight bowls. For them and their parents, they didn’t appreciate being called a piece of ‘bit.’

UNC head coach Mack Brown takes a timeout during the Tar Heels’ game against N.C. State on November 25, 2023. (Photo via AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker.)

Brown talks a lot, but have you ever heard him say anything close to that? Or heard you heard?

Football coaches have been known to say a lot of things they wouldn’t say in public. But cameras of all kinds are now in college locker rooms, so nothing is private anymore, and someone videoed Doeren’s vulgar insult.

After Doeren’s post-game interview with the ACC Network, where he was very civil, Wolfpack linebacker — and one time UNC commit — Peyton Wilson praised State’s football culture and then, “unimpressively” said something like our program has culture and blue program doesn’t. On national TV.

Years ago, the Big Ten reinforced its sportsmanship bylaw that most conferences have, which prohibited unduly critical public comments of a coach or player from another institution, along with a lot of other legal jargon. And it was considered successful during the tenure of retired commissioner and UNC alum Jim Delany, a one-time Tar Heel hooper.

The ACC must have such a bylaw, and Commissioner Jim Phillips may have reinforced the league’s sportsmanship bylaw and handled Doeren’s insulting vulgarity privately without any public notice.

To date, no public statement has been made that Doeren and Wilson received anything. If Phillips has also not done anything, what is he waiting for?

 

Photo via AP Photo/Karl B. DeBlaker.


Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.

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