UNC Mack Brown cracks top 40 college football coaches list
UNC football head coach Mack Brown is entering his fourth season in Chapel Hill but this one is unlike any other so far in his second stint.
Brown already knows there are a lot of challenges ahead for his team, coming off a disappointing 2021 campaign. But the pressure isn’t on UNC to deliver like it was a year ago. Brown and his staff have the task of righting the ship here in 2022 and going into this year, the head coach still ranks among the best in college football.
ESPN recently released their annual rankings of the top 40 coaches in college football, breaking them down into categories. In the “next-up” section, Brown came in 6th, missing out on the top 10 overall:
“Brown’s run at Texas gains more credibility with each passing year. The program hasn’t come close to capturing what he achieved since ousting him. Brown never won fewer than nine games in his first 12 seasons at Texas, which included a national title in 2005, two Big 12 titles and six division titles. Texas was the national runner-up in 2009 and had seven AP top-10 finishes between 2001 and 2009. Brown also guided North Carolina to consecutive AP top-10 finishes in 1996 and 1997, and a No. 18 finish in 2020. Sustained success is now the goal for Brown in his second stint at UNC, which hasn’t won the ACC since 1980.”
The only Atlantic Coastal Conference coach to make the top 10 was Dabo Swinney out of Clemson, while Hurricanes Mario Cristobal finished one spot ahead of Brown in the honorable mentions. The only other ACC coach to appear on the list was Wake Forest Dave Clawson, who made the overachievers list.
It will be interesting to see if an ACC title win this year could bounce Brown into the top 10 college football coach list next season.
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