Mack Brown gone - will not return after 2024 season

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According to ESPN, UNC has contacted Steelers DC Arthur Smith about the opening. No idea if it's serious, but that's a report.
 
superrific said:
According to ESPN, UNC has contacted Steelers DC Arthur Smith about the opening. No idea if it's serious, but that's a report.
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Does anyone know Smith’s college coaching credentials? I’m skeptical of coaches who have mostly NFL experience moving to college coaching. The job responsibilities are vastly different.
 
farce© said:
Does anyone know Smith’s college coaching credentials? I’m skeptical of coaches who have mostly NFL experience moving to college coaching. The job responsibilities are vastly different.
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Smith has only been a graduate assistant at the college level for one or two years, I believe.
 
CFordUNC said:
Smith has only been a graduate assistant at the college level for one or two years, I believe.
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Yeah, I read that he had been contacted and after looking at his coaching career and record I was quite underwhelmed. UNC really needs to at least try and do more than just settle for a fairly obscure NFL assistant with no real track record as a college coach, even if he was a former UNC player. That's not going to excite the fanbase at all, I would think.
 
Hubert had no track record dont think thats gonna play a role in decision making although i hear the decision has already been made.
 
OGtruthhurts said:
Hubert had no track record dont think thats gonna play a role in decision making although i hear the decision has already been made.
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Hubert also had a built in staff, was ingrained in the program, beloved by the fanbase, and learned from the greatest to ever do it.

I would bet that 95%+ of our fanbase has no clue who Arthur Smith is. That doesn't mean he would be a bad choice. It just means I don't think Hubert is a reasonable comparison.
 
Icky Mettle said:
Yeah, I’m not so sure Paterno and Knight would have been fired if they were still in their prime when news of their scandals broke.
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I think you're right about Knight, probably, but I still think it would have been difficult for Paterno to hang on even if he were still in his prime. That scandal was so horrific and uniquely awful that I think it would have been difficult for him to survive, especially given the different social and political climate of thirty or forty years ago. But Knight likely would have survived, I agree.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
Yeah, I read that he had been contacted and after looking at his coaching career and record I was quite underwhelmed. UNC really needs to at least try and do more than just settle for a fairly obscure NFL assistant with no real track record as a college coach, even if he was a former UNC player. That's not going to excite the fanbase at all, I would think.
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Smith was the HC of the falcons. I wouldn’t call that obscure. That said, we should target current college coaches.
 
EhringhausSouth said:
Kane Wommack rising on UNC's list. Has emerged as a VERY serious candidate over last 24 hours.
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Is he considered a hot commodity? I admittedly have no idea. He's a coordinator at Alabama so that's obviously big, but his short head coaching tenure wasn't great.
 
wmheel1287 said:
Is he considered a hot commodity? I admittedly have no idea. He's a coordinator at Alabama so that's obviously big, but his short head coaching tenure wasn't great.
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I think it would be a very mediocre hire at best for UNC in a year where we may be arguably the sexiest P4 job opening (something bad has never happened before and may never happen again).
 
wmheel1287 said:
Is he considered a hot commodity? I admittedly have no idea. He's a coordinator at Alabama so that's obviously big, but his short head coaching tenure wasn't great.
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Yeah, that's why I am confused here. It doesn't seem like a good hire given we are likely going to be the best job open this time around.
 
I was thinking about it this morning, normally when UNC fires a football coach I end up a mix of relief for the program and a bit of sadness for the coaches. I know the coaches have typically tried their best and they wanted to be successful and the changes provide a massive upheaval to their lives.

For Mack 2.0, I'm just glad he's gone. I'll be even more glad when we have a (hopefully exciting) new coach so we can focus on the future.
 
SnoopRob said:
I was thinking about it this morning, normally when UNC fires a football coach I end up a mix of relief for the program and a bit of sadness for the coaches. I know the coaches have typically tried their best and they wanted to be successful and the changes provide a massive upheaval to their lives.

For Mack 2.0, I'm just glad he's gone. I'll be even more glad when we have a (hopefully exciting) new coach so we can focus on the future.
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Yeah, it would be different if it was a young guy with a lot of fight and fire, and just had crappy players. Mack is an old guy who was just happy to be there and wanted to be everyone's grandpa. Plus, he underachieved with Howell and Drake at QB, losing games they never should have lost, and having collapses at the end of the season, mainly because the defense never improved.
 
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I thinks it's gonna be Sumrall in the end as the top target. At least that is my hope. Hopefully they can get him. No one can seem to get Matt Campbell to leave Iowa State, his expressed interest in our job I think was more or less a chance to get a raise and extension.

Sumrall is a top target for Central Florida, now that UCF is a P4 job, they could make him listen, but I think we will still be the best job open. I suppose tOSU could fire Day, I don't see it just yet.

Some bizarre names supposedly expressing interest, but Bubba needs to stay focused on his original target(s).

Going to be fun to watch unfold over the next several days.
 
Rank the last 10 UNC head football coaches based on their time at UNC and counting Mack Brown 1.0 and Mack Brown 2.0 has separate coaches.

I’ve got:
1. Mack Brown 1.0 - 69-46-1 (.599 win %), four top-25 finishes including two top-10 finishes with one top-5 finish, highest ranking = #4 (AP - 1997), eight seasons with winning records vs. two seasons with losing records (only seasons with losing records were first two seasons), best season record = 10-1 (1997; team finished 11-1, but he did not coach the bowl game).

2. Dick Crum - 72-41-3 (.634 win %), four top-20 finishes including two top-10 finishes, highest ranking = #8 (Coaches Poll - 1981), six seasons with winning records vs. three seasons with losing records and one .500 season, best season record = 11-1 (1980). Most of his success was in the first half of his UNC coaching tenure, with his top-20 finishes taking place in years 2, 3, 4, and 5 (out of 10).

3. Bill Dooley - 69-53-2 (.565 win %), three top-20 finishes, highest ranking = #12 (AP - 1972), six seasons with winning records vs. four seasons with losing records and one .500 season, best season record = 11-1 (1972).

4. Mack Brown 2.0 - 44-31 (.587 win %) (with a bowl game yet to be played), one top-25 finish (#18 in Coaches Poll; #19 in AP - 2020), four seasons with winning records vs. one season with a losing record and this season currently at .500 with a bowl game pending, best season record = 8-4 (2020).

5. Butch Davis - 28-23 (.549 win %) counting vacated wins, but 12-23 without counting vacated wins, three seasons with winning records (counting vacated wins) vs. one season with a losing record, best season record = 8-5 (three times, counting vacated wins- 2008, 2009, 2010).

6. Larry Fedora - 45-43 (.511 win %), one top-25 finish (#15 in both Coaches Poll and AP poll - 2015), four seasons with winning records vs. three seasons with losing records, best season record = 11-3 (2015), went 8-0 in conference play in 2015.

7. Everett Withers - 7-6 (.538 win %). Super small sample size, but he’s the only UNC head coach on this list not to have a season with a losing record.

8. Jim Hickey - 36-45 (.444 win %), one top-20 finish (#19 in Coaches Poll - 1963), one season with winning records vs. four seasons with losing records and three .500 seasons, best season record = 9-2 (1963).

9. Carl Torbush - 17-18 (.486 win %), two seasons with a winning record (not counting 1997 when he filled in as head coach in the bowl game) vs. one season with a losing record, best season record = 7-5 (1998).

10. John Bunting - 27-45 (.375 win %), one season with a winning record vs. four seasons with losing records and one .500 season, best season record = 8-5 (2001).

*Note: The AP Poll ranked the the top 20 teams until 1989, when it expanded to the top 25. The Coaches Poll ranked the top 20 teams until 1990, when it expanded to the top 25.
 
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