Friends and foes: Swinney says UNC's Mack Brown had ‘huge impact’ on career
Although Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney and UNC Tar Heels coach and hall of famer Mack Brown will lock horns Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C., their relationship on and off the field goes back at least 10 years, as Swinney sought advice from Brown just as the younger coach was on the cusp of one of the most successful stretches of gridiron dominance in history.
Brown, who led the Tar Heels from 1988-97 before going to the University of Texas and then becoming a commentator for ESPN, signed on for a second time as UNC’s football coach in November 2018.
The Tar Heels have started 2019 with a 2-2 record, downing South Carolina and Miami but falling to Wake Forest and Appalachian State by a combined nine points.
Swinney said he thought Brown would bring a level of stability to UNC that the football program has not seen in recent memory.
"He's going to put a foundation in place,” Swinney said. “He's going to recruit. He's going to create a belief. He's already done that when you watch them through these first four games. They could easily be 4-0 right now. He will create a vision there, and I don't have any doubt that it'll materialize. I think he's having a ball. I think he's going to make them a winner. He'll make them a consistent winner again.”
Swinney said that although two people can be friends outside the lines, in the context of a football game, the atmosphere can still be competitive.
“It is fun when you compete against someone you know and respect,” he said. “I've never had a chance to coach against him. I didn't think I'd ever have that opportunity. It's a pretty neat opportunity for me to compete against one of the best to ever do it, a Hall of Famer, a guy that I think has been great for the profession. He has done things the right way."
Brown, 68, in addition to being named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018, won the national title with Texas in 2005, and he holds two Big 12 championships. He has a coaching record of 246-124-1 and is 13-8 in bowl games.
Swinney, who took over the head coach job in the middle of the 2008 season, said Brown had a “huge impact” on his tenure at Clemson, noting that Brown welcomed him to Texas when he needed assistance as a new head coach.
“When I had just gotten the job, I got our first recruiting class in, and I wanted to go meet with a couple of head coaches,” Swinney said. “Mack was the only one who would let me come. I didn't know Mack Brown, but he had followed us during the interim time and called me back. He welcomed me and my whole staff out there.
“It was great. I didn't know him, but I had a lot of respect for him from afar. I just always liked how he handled himself. I just thought he'd be a good guy to go sit down and talk and observe how they did things. I wanted to watch a practice.”
Brown was accommodating and offered Swinney advice and guidance, the Tigers’ coach said, looking back over the last decade.
"He had a huge impact on me early on,” Swinney said. “Some of it gave me confidence in what I was doing and gave me some ideas on some things that would fit our program. Texas was in a different spot than we were in 2009, but I had a very clear vision of what I wanted us to look like. Sitting down with a guy like Mack Brown in 2009 was a big deal for me."
