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Mack Brown’s “toughest schedule” rap should be motivation, not hype.
You ever listen to Mack Brown riff on something and think, “Good point, coach, but I wish you would say it a different way.”
Brown has already gotten into hot water or on the list of UNC jokes by ABCers with his claims that his Tar Heels were screwed over by the ACC giving him the first four games he didn’t want and the last two he bitterly contested.
Since that’s half his 12-game schedule, it also may be his de facto toughest slate in 30 years of coaching at Texas in the Big 12 conference and here. But apparently not in any rating of schedules that came out so far.
Phil Steele’s annual college football magazine has released his toughest 25 schedules in the nation, and guess where the Tar Heels are: not included. No, Steele has two of Carolina’s first four opponents in his top 10. South Carolina, which plays in the wicked Southeastern Conference, is No. 2 and Minnesota of the loaded Big Ten is No. 7. The Gamecocks and Gophers are both picked to finish in the middle of their respective leagues this fall.
Of course, all preseason scheduling polls rely heavily on their opposition and how good THEY are supposed to be and how their returning players did last season and how high their incoming recruits are rated.
Brown’s fifth (and 15th overall at Carolina) team is No. 3 in the ACC preseason poll and that could be because of Drake Maye and a good freshman class plus eight transfers Brown has bragged about. It also may indict the weak ACC.
The only two of our teams listed by Steele are Duke at No. 22 and Clemson at No. 25, which tells us that Duke is better than we think and Clemson is not as good. Surely, you would guess reemerging Florida State and even the 9-1 to 9-5 Heels would have made the Steele dossier.
The SEC has 10 teams listed, the usual suspects except maybe Kentucky and Missouri. Remember, Steele’s rankings are not about those teams as much as their opponents. The Big Ten has six in Steele’s top 25 toughest schedules. The Big 12 has five and the Pac 12 three.
UNC’s first four dreaded games are one in Charlotte and two in Chapel Hill against unranked teams. The fourth is at Pitt, where the Panthers are picked sixth in the ACC. The last three have Duke at home and against Clemson and N.C. State, both on the road that caused Mack to go off on the conference.
If Carolina still has a chip on its shoulder, shouldn’t it be the challenge of beating the schedule the head coach hates? The Heels may have the best QB in the country and back-to-back-to-back good recruiting classes. Let’s hype that!
Photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.
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