North Carolina led rival Duke 17-0 at halftime on Saturday in Durham.
And in the end, the Tar Heels collapsed and lost, 21-20, relinquishing the Victory Bell to their hated Tobacco Road rivals.
It’s the second straight week where UNC’s football team has done something embarrassingly noteworthy. Last week, it was giving up 70 points at home to James Madison, where afterwards Tar Heels coach Mack Brown seemingly offered to resign in the locker room before walking it back. UNC also didn’t allow players to speak to reporters after that shocking home loss, nor did players talk to the media this past week leading up to teh clash against Duke.
In his career, now spanning two stints in Chapel Hill – the first from 1988 to 1997, and now the second since 2019 – Mack Brown has always been good at two things: Messaging and beating Duke.
Saturday marked the first time Mack had lost to Duke since 1989 – Steve Spurrier was the coach of the Blue Devils then. Mack had won 13 consecutive Victory Bell games.
And since the offseason – when Mack vowed he wasn’t retiring and pointed fingers at those who he accused of negative recruiting against him, when he spent a signing day talking about things N.C. State coach Dave Doeren had said, when he decided to not hold a televised spring game, and when he refused to name a starting quarterback – something seems to be off with his public relations savvy.
And so, it seems like Mack, at the age of 73, has lost his two best fastballs. The Tar Heels’ rivals are 5-0 for the first time since 1994 and are coached by Manny Diaz, whom Mack fired as defensive coordinator at Texas when the Longhorns got slammed by a Taysom Hill-led BYU team in 2013.
With all of this in front of Tar Heels’ fans now, a lot of them are tired of Mack and think it’s time for his 2.0 era in Chapel Hill to end.
We wondered today how this #UNC team would handle adversity. Answer? They were up 20-7 and folded like a Temu suit.
— Joey Powell (@Joey_Powell) September 28, 2024
Ok UNC fans… is this the end of the Mack Brown era?
— Just Means Less ACC (@FQACC) September 28, 2024
And now we're storming the field. Have fun, Duke fans. I'm gonna go scrub my eyes out.
— Tar Heel Blog (@tarheelblog) September 28, 2024
Head coach who wins The Bell > Head coach who looks like a bell
— Ben Swain (@TheBenSwain) September 28, 2024
We. All. Knew.
Every. Single. One. Of. Us. Knew. https://t.co/pB6aaMvyNq
— Sean (@SeanPetrizzi) September 28, 2024
Many are saying Mack won't go quietly, but I don't think that's the case. He knows it's not working, and at age 73 and in the Hall of Fame, there's no legacy to fight for. I think (hope?) he'll retire at the end of the season, as well he should, with UNCFan's thanks 4/4
— Doc Kennedy (@DocHeelfire) September 29, 2024
When Mack Brown returned to Chapel Hill in 2019 after spending a few years on television, he pulled the program out the gutter that Larry Fedora left it in. Over six seasons in the Mack 2.0 era, the Tar Heels have a winning record. It’s inarguable that he restored the program to competency.
But what do the Tar Heels have to point to as their big success during Mack’s second run? What do they have to show for having produced two NFL quarterbacks in Sam Howell and Drake Maye? A lopsided loss to Clemson in the 2022 ACC title game? A double-digit defeat to Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M in the 2021 Orange Bowl?
If we’re to judge the temperature of the UNC fans by their comments on social media, it sure feels like the Tar Heels are tired of underachieving and failing to meet expectations.
