Mack Brown makes hilarious argument on value of college football games vs. basketball, baseball

Fresh off one of the most back-and-forth affairs of the early 2022 season, North Carolina looks to reset from a thrilling 63-61 escape against a very pesky Appalachian State squad and regroup ahead of a meeting with Georgia State this weekend in Atlanta. For coach Mack Brown & UNC, ‘standard’ is the operative word.

If you’re not meeting the standard every single week in college football, you can bet you won’t last long.

“Upsets in college basketball aren’t as glaring because you play so many games,” Brown pointed out. “These games are so valuable because we don’t play many. We play fewer games than anybody in sports, and that’s why each one of them matters so much.”

He shared a personal memory from his time at Texas, one that underscored his point.

“I remember Augie Garrido at Texas, he got beat by I think Dallas Baptist in his opening baseball game and at his press conference afterward he said, ‘What a great experience for us to learn. We’ve got a long year and we can learn a lot from this,'” Brown recalled.

“And I thought, ‘We line up against Dallas Baptist and we lose it’s not a learning experience it’s a firing experience.’ So it’s just different, and that’s just part of the sport that we coach.”

Mack Brown wants UNC playing to a set standard

Play to a standard, not up or down to the level of the team you’re facing. That’s Mack Brown’s message to his Tar Heels this week, fresh off that scintillating showdown with the Mountaineers.

“I don’t want a team that shows up sometimes and doesn’t,” he said.

In fact, Brown dug deep into the memory hole to come up with an example of what can happen when a team doesn’t play to its standard but instead gets lax and plays to the level of its competition. He should know.

Brown played at Florida State starting in 1972 before eventually transitioning into a role as a student coach after several knee injuries. In 1974, his Florida State squad traveled up to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to take on Bear Bryant‘s juggernaut Alabama.

The Seminoles, mind you, had lost 16 straight games heading into the mid-October showdown with the Crimson Tide. Alabama? It had won 15 of its last 16, with the lone loss a one-point defeat at the hands of AP national champion Notre Dame in a classic Sugar Bowl showdown the prior season.

“Alabama was one of the best teams in the country when I was at Florida State and we were awful,” Brown explained. “And coach Bryant was the coach. And we went into Tuscaloosa with no chance to win. I think it ended up being 7-3 and they had to score right at the end of the game to win.

“So you never know what’s going to happen with these games. It’s one of the beauties of the sport, because there are so many upsets in college football.”

Sure enough, Alabama would pull out a late fourth-quarter win to take that game 8-7, but it left Brown with a memory he’ll likely never forget.

Said Bear Bryant after the game:

“If I were you (members of the media), I would be in the other dressing room. I’ve never in my life seen a team that was so much better coached than our team than Florida State today.”

Brown’s point in relaying the story? It’s high time for UNC to establish some consistency by playing to an internal standard rather than riding the rollercoaster of emotions and playing up and down to competition.

You can live with upsets in other sports. Not college football.

The Tar Heels enter this week as a 7.5-point favorite over the Panthers, though Brown knows those odds don’t mean a whole lot.

Especially after last week’s scare.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, what happened last week may well have been a continuation of a trend that began in 2021: inconsistent play from week to week. Brown’s hoping to avoid that this season.

“That was so miserable last year, and I just couldn’t stand it,” the fourth-year UNC coach said. “I didn’t ever know who was going to show up.”

It all circles back around to the narrow margin for error college football teams have. This isn’t college basketball. It isn’t college baseball. UNC found out first-hand last weekend it can’t afford to take its foot off the gas at any point.

This week against Georgia State Brown hopes to see a more consistent effort. Play to the standard.

“It’s just the approach you have to take,” he said.