Born & Bred // August 2019 // Be the One by The Rams Club

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ISSUE XVI

O F F I C I A L

M A G A Z I N E

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R A M S

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BE THE ONE

F O O T B A L L’ S N E W E R A

YOU PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN FROM LEGENDS. THE RAMS CLUB 2

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WELCOME

Letter from the Editor

Not to brag, but I was the one for the Tar Heels in the 1993 Peach Bowl. When Mack Brown introduced the new mantra for his Tar Heel football program this offseason, Be The One, he made it clear that anyone could be The One. Players are expected to earn the opportunity to be the one coaches want to have the ball on a key play, or the one who makes a big special teams tackle to clinch a victory. Coaches can be the one. Managers can be the one. It’s pretty simple: if you can, in whatever way you have available, help the Tar Heels win a football game, you can be the one. Which brings us to the Georgia Dome on January 2, 1993. Bracey Walker gets most of the attention for being the one in that game. Deservedly so, since he had a pair of blocked punts and a helmet-rattling hit that led to an interception return for a touchdown by Cliff Baskerville. Those plays, along with the hard running of Natrone Means and a boisterous, towel-waving UNC sideline that counteracted the infernal Bulldog cowbells, helped Brown’s Tar Heels turn a 14-0 halftime deficit into a 21-17 victory. But up in the Georgia Dome stands, we helped also. That’s where, at halftime, we determined that my family’s seating arrangement must have been responsible for the uncharacteristically poor first half Carolina performance. We wisely switched seats for the second half (which put my uncle behind an uncouth Clemson fan—yes, a Clemson fan at a Carolina-Mississippi State game—who challenged him to a fight, but that’s a different story). Almost as soon as we settled into our new seats, as Woody would put it, Mr. Jordan was meeting Mr. Walker. The rest is Carolina history, and our night ended with an energetic

PRODUCED BY THE RAMS CLUB EDITOR IN CHIEF ADAM LUCAS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS PAT JAMES, LEE PACE, SPEED HALLMAN & ANDREW STILWELL PHOTOGRAPHY JEFFREY CAMARATI, J. RYAN MONTGOMERY & UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN JUJUBE SPORTS PUBLISHING

throng of Tar Heel fans who welcomed Coach Brown and the rest of the team back to the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta to celebrate the victory, throwing cheers of “Tar!” “Heels!” across the hotel atrium well after midnight. On that night, we were the one. All of us, really, who were in that Marriott pounding Means and Walker and Brown on the back as they walked, a little wide-eyed, back into the hotel. Now, Mack Brown wants us to be the one again, and as you’ll find out in the subsequent pages, there are plenty of ways to accomplish it. You don’t have to be able to throw a 12-yard out route or hit the B gap on a blitz. But you do have to pay attention to your seating arrangement.

ADAM LUCAS Editor in Chief ramsclub.com

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“They need to know they are important. They need to know there is change coming, especially since the last two years haven’t been what they want.” —MACK BROWN ON THE IMPORTANCE OF

THE

THE NEW FACILITIES TO THE CURRENT PLAYERS

BE THE ONE EDITION ON THE COVER: With a newly installed state-of-the-art Astroturf installed, Kenan Stadium shines at all hours in preparation for the home opener, a night game against Miami on Sept. 7. PHOTO BY J. RYAN MONTGOMERY

BORN & BRED

EDITOR’S LETTER p. 3

38 CAROLINA EVERYWEAR p. 24

TAR HEEL TICKER p. 6

BE THE ONE

10 Xs and Os

Mack Brown designed his new offense and defense to give the Tar Heels a chance to win now BY LEE PACE

BE THE ONE

28 Reasons to Return

The athletic department is focused on making gameday an event that makes fans want to come back BY SPEED HALLMAN

BE THE ONE

16 Kenan on Game Day There are a host of improvements in and around Kenan Stadium for 2019 BY ANDREW STILWELL

34 The More Things Change

Mack Brown hopes to use some of the same principles that worked in his first stint at Carolina, but expect plenty of updates BY ADAM LUCAS

FIRST PERSON

BE THE ONE

20 Budgeting for Success The success of the football program has an impact on the entire rest of the athletic department BY PAT JAMES

38 ‘A Championship Mentality’

A current Tar Heel explains the way Mack Brown has connected with the current team BY ANTONIO WILLIAMS

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TA R H E E LT I C K E R SUMMER IN CHAPEL HILL

THE ERIC MONTROSS FATHER’S DAY CAMP The Eric Montross Father’s Day Basketball Camp began with a chance meeting in 1993 between Eric Montross and a 15-year-old cancer patient, Jason Clark. The Tar Heel center and the teenager had an immediate rapport that led to several more visits. Once it became clear Jason wouldn’t be able to defeat his cancer, he made a ninepage list of suggestions that would make UNC Hospital more child-friendly. For the last 25 years, Eric and Laura Montross have made it their mission— through their work with the camp, which convened for the 25th time this summer—to try and achieve Jason’s goals. The one-ofa-kind camp, which has a lengthy waiting list, has raised over $1.7 million, beginning with the Jason Clark Teen Activity Lounge and continuing through a host of other improvements.

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SUMMER IN CHAPEL HILL

GINYARD’S THIRD ANNUAL COMMUNITY DAY Photos by Peyton Williams/accphotos.com

For the third consecutive summer, the Marcus Ginyard Basketball Camp hosted its Chapel Hill Community Day. Ginyard’s free annual event uses basketball to connect youth with leading members of the Orange County community. Rising third to eighth graders learn fundamental skills, play games and compete in skills challenges, while also engaging with police officers, firemen and other local community leaders. With the suppport of New Hanover County, Ginyard’s camp expanded to include a Wilmington location this year, drawing an additional 50 campers.

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TA R H E E LT I C K E R SUMMER IN CHAPEL HILL

SUMMER IN THE SMITH CENTER Photo by Maggie Hobson

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TA R H E E LT I C K E R FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: STERLING MANLEY, WAYNE ELLINGTON, TYLER HANSBROUGH, THEO PINSON, JUSTIN PIERCE, K.J. SMITH, BRANDON HUFFMAN, WALKER MILLER, ERIC HOOTS, GARRISON BROOKS, CALEB ELLIS, SEAN MAY, KENNEDY MEEKS, RYAN MCADOO, LEAKY BLACK, KENNY WILLIAMS, LUKE MAYE, REYSHAWN TERRY, ROY WILLIAMS, TYLER ZELLER, ANDREW PLATEK, DESMOND HUBERT, KANE MA, JUSTIN WATTS, KENDALL MARSHALL, STEVE ROBINSON, CHRISTIAN KEELING. KNEELING: QUENTIN THOMAS, BRANDON ROBINSON.

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BE THE ONE

X AND O S

Mack Brown designed his new offense and defense to give the Tar Heels a chance to win now

BY LEE PACE // PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI & UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

ou’ll hear the watchwords and catch phrases on the Tar Heels’ offense now along the lines of “chasing grass” and “playing instinctively” and “don’t blink.” On defense they’ll talk of “destroying blocks” and “everyone’s a blitzer” and taking better angles and “killing the engine” with the perfect rugbytackle technique. On both sides of the ball, coordinators Phil Longo and Jay Bateman speak of the appearance of complexity but the reality to their players of relative simplicity. “We don’t want to handicap guys so they have to think so much they can’t be physical and aggressive and play downhill,” says Longo, the architect of the Tar Heels’ version of the Air Raid offense. “We as coaches don’t need to impress them with how much football we know.

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Give them what they need to know and let them go play.” “To some offensive coordinators, it’s going to look like we have a hundred blitzes,” says Bateman, hired from Army to co-coordinate the defense along with Tommy Thigpen. “But we have six. But we’ll move guys around, use different fronts and different disguises. We’re going to create this belief that, ‘Gosh, there’s so much defense.’ But in the end, we’ll be simple and aggressive. We’ll solve our problems with aggression.” The first year of Mack Brown’s return as the Tar Heels’ head coach will certainly be interesting from a schematic approach. The offense will stretch the field vertically but is committed to having the brawn and bulk to pound out three yards in the shadow of the goal line. The defense is officially listed as a “3-4” base, but Bateman shrugs that off as

a simplistic effort to corn-hole a “type” and further notes that this same defense in his last stop at Army was hardly ever lining up with three down linemen. “We’ve obviously struggled the last two years,” Brown says, referencing the Tar Heels’ five wins over the 2017-18 seasons under former head coach Larry Fedora. “So I had to figure out, ‘How can we catch up fast?’ “I think we have good answers with what Jay and Phil are doing. You look at what Army did the last few years, they had lesser players and stopped a lot of people. They took Oklahoma to overtime. And the Air Raid is what’s working now on offense. The best teams in the NFL are using elements of it. Phil is taking the best parts of the Air Raid’s ability to move the ball in the air and combining with the power running game. I like what we’re doing on both sides of the ball.” Longo has put up prolific numbers running his version of the Air Raid, most recently at Sam Houston State in the Southland Conference and then Ole Miss in the SEC. At SHS from 2014-16, Longo’s offense shattered multiple school records, the 2016 team boasting the nation’s No. 1 total offense at nearly 550 yards a game. Ole Miss was a top-20 attack in both 2017-18, and the ’17 team was the nation’s fastest-scoring team with an average of 99 seconds per scoring drive. Yet Longo prides himself on balance. His offense at Sam Houston State rushed for just over 3,800 yards in 2014 and ‘15. And you have to be good on the ground to put up the kind of red-zone numbers the ’17 Rebel offense did with a 95.3 percent conversion rate inside the 20 yard-line. “There is a time and a place in the game where you have to be able to run the ball,” Longo says. “We’re always going to have that physical component in our offense. Always.” “The term ‘Air Raid’ makes you think you throw it every time, and you don’t,” Brown adds. “It offers a good balance, and you can do either. A lot of it is taking what’s there.” The offense is built around 28 basic plays with hundreds of variations with personnel groups, formations and motions. Longo likes the “don’t blink” mantra to emphasize to players that, no matter a good or bad result on a play, forget it, get the sign for the next snap and be ready to go in a hurry. In illustrating the core philosophy of the offense, he cites great athletes who never found their niche because they were handcuffed by structure and coaching overkill. He believes in framework and organization—but to a point far less than most coaches. “It’s essential they play instinctively, and the less a player is thinking on the field, the faster he’s going to be and the better he’s going to be,” Longo says. “The guys who have that pure athletic talent, go let them display it. Never restrict them and handcuff them mentally. I hate to see a kid confined by as many rules and checks and things to think about as you find so many places. “If a player is playing instinctively, he owns that play. If he only has 28 of them, he should be playing instinctively and doing it without thinking or slowing down.”

GAME DAY MEMORIES We asked Rams Club members to share their favorite memories from football weekends in Chapel Hill.

My favorite football game-day memories involved my duties as a team manager during the late 1950’s (’57-’59). In those days we had an old army surplus jeep painted Carolina Blue, of course. One of my duties was to drive the jeep to the ice plant and bring back several bags of ice to be available when needed during the game. (In those days, they didn’t sell bags of ice at a local gas station). I also assisted Morris Mason in organizing the equipment to be taken out to the stadium field and placed where it was supposed to be along the sideline. Make no mistake, I was a team manager, but Morris was IN CHARGE. I don’t remember any tailgating in those days like it has become now. A lot of the male students wore a jacket and tie, and the girls wore Sunday church clothes. Pictures from the archives will support this. On page 194 of the book Football in Forest, you will see pictures of me (on the right wearing sunglasses) and Morris after a win over Wake Forest in 1958. Other players pictured are Don Kemper #84 and Fred Sweringen. I think those memories of game days in Kenan Stadium are some of the fondest from my time at Carolina.

T. WILKES COLEMAN REHOBOTH BEACH, DEL. ramsclub.com 11

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One system might specify a proper post-route as a receiver running downfield x-number of yards, then angling toward the “post” or other landmark. Carolina’s system has that receiver running downfield and then adjusting midstream, depending on the reaction of the defensive back. “It takes a lot of discipline to give someone freedom,” Longo says. “To tell them run 10 yards down the field and make a left-hand turn and run a post, and draw it up and insist that’s how they run the route, that does not take as much discipline as when you tell a receiver you’re going to push vertically and when there’s space, stick your foot in the ground and go find the grass. You’re giving them an opportunity to get open.” Longo stresses that the Tar Heel Air Raid can vary from year to year, depending on the strengths and weaknesses of that particular roster. Carolina has a quality running back corps this fall led by senior Antonio Williams, junior Michael Carter and sophomore Javonte Williams, so expect to see them showcased come Aug. 31 and into September. “There’s a misunderstanding about the Air Raid,” says running backs coach Robert Gillespie. “It’s all about numbers. You have to make a defense defend an entire field. The safeties aren’t as worried about runfits. They have to do a great job defending the entire field with RPOs, and that opens up a lot of running lanes. You take an extra defender out of the box, and the running back is running to space. A lot of the runs we had in spring ball were big gains.” Whatever success the defense enjoys in coming years will be built just as Brown’s juggernaut defenses were when he was at Carolina the first time in the 1990s—with recruiting stud athletes, particularly along the defensive front. But in the meantime, Bateman believes there are some “great equalizers” that can help Carolina play better defense and improve upon its 448 yards a game allowed in 2018. One is an emphasis on block-destruction and tackling method; another is a schematic mindset that he likens to playing like “rebel warriors.” After his first year at Army in 2014 when the Black Knights were No. 90 nationally in total defense, Bateman drew on ideas he’d seen from Alabama’s and Ohio State’s practices and instituted a regimen of five minutes of carefully choreographed, intense and fast-paced drills on shucking blocks and taking ball-carriers to the ground. He themed the regimen “The Difference” and slotted it at the beginning of practice every day—while the players were still fresh and to set a mindset for the day. “I got to thinking about it and said, ‘You know what, if we tackle really well and we get off blocks really well, the rest of it doesn’t matter,’” he says. “You’ve got to whip blocks and got to tackle really well. I feel like you get what you emphasize. This would be what would make us different from every other defense in the country. We’re going to be the best tacklers and be the hardest to block.” Over the next four seasons, Army would be among the nation’s leaders defensively and rank No. 4 in total defense in 2016 and No. 8 in 2018, both years allowing under 300 yards a game. “If you watch our film at Army, you’ll see kids who are really hard to

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“OUR DEFENSE WILL BE LIKE REBEL WARRIORS, WE KIND OF COME FROM EVERYWHERE AND WE TRY TO BAIT YOU INTO THINGS, CAUSE CONFUSION, CAUSE HAVOC, INFILTRATE FROM WITHIN. YOU TRY TO CREATE NEGATIVE PLAYS, YOU TRY TO CREATE INCOMPLETIONS, YOU TRY TO CREATE SACKS. IF YOU DO THAT, YOU’RE IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE.”

Before the 1993 season, my father Russell, my eight year old son Chris, and I went to the Meet the Heels day. It was our first time walking on the Kenan Stadium field, and we took Chris’s picture with every star player we came across. We even got his photo with Coach Brown and Woody Durham. Chris was happy, but my father and I were delighted to be surrounded by the Tar Heels we watched on Saturdays in the fall. These two photos are still in Chris’s room at age 33. Just an awesome day.

RUSSELL CLARK WILMINGTON, N.C.

the method preferred by rugby players, who never wear helmets and need to keep their heads out of harm’s way. Bateman and his staff learned the rugby tackle and taught it to their players going into the 2015 season. “The next year, we had one player miss a game with a head injury,” Bateman says. “That’s huge. There were always some things about tackling as it had been taught forever that didn’t make sense to me. I’m supposed to run inside-out on the ball and then get my head across. That’s physically impossible. That always caused me conflict. The game of football was so under attack, as a coach if you don’t do something different, you’re sticking your head in the sand. The last couple of years at Army, one or two kids missed one game for concussions and we’re playing at a higher level and playing against better opponents. You say, ‘Gosh, this has got to be a piece of it.’” It’s only after emphasizing the importance of warding off blocks and taking runners to the ground with precision that Bateman even broaches

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block, and are really good tacklers,” Bateman says. “When I got here and I watched the film, the thing I knew I could improve was our angles to the football, our tackling and our block destruction. I want us to be known as a violent tackling team. When it flips, you can tell because you suck the air out of the running game.” A second watershed decision further built the Black Knights’ defensive tradition—that of overhauling the team’s tackling technique. Army’s defense had 14 games total missed by various players because of concussions in 2014. Bateman watched Seattle Seahawks games and read about Coach Pete Carroll’s tackling philosophy. The Seahawks were using what they called the “Hawk” technique of attacking the runner’s thighs with the defender’s nearest shoulder, wrapping his legs with both arms and driving or rolling the runner to the ground. The technique is more popularly known as the “rugby” tackle because it’s

BE THE ONE

the subject of scheme, and even then he says that identifying the Tar Heels’ base as a “3-4” is almost superfluous. “Scheme is a really over-rated thing,” he says. “If our scheme is not multiple enough to put our best 11 on the field, then I should be fired. People say, ‘Are you 3-4?’ I say, ‘Yeah, sure, we’re 3-4, but we line up in everything.’ It just depends on what’s our best call and who are we playing? Last year, we were in two-down more than anything.” What Bateman will say, though, is that the Tar Heels will not play defense in a “Tampa 2” mode of having two deep safeties, playing lots of zone, trying to generate heat with four down linemen and keeping everything underneath. “If you’re just dropping in what I call ‘vision coverage’ where I’m seeing the ball and I’m breaking, you used to be able do that and be pretty good,” he says. “The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a Super Bowl doing that. Today, though, the ball comes out so fast and quarterbacks are so accurate and receivers are so good in space. “Our defense will be like rebel warriors, we kind of come from

everywhere and we try to bait you into things, cause confusion, cause havoc, infiltrate from within. You try to create negative plays, you try to create incompletions, you try to create sacks. If you do that, you’re in pretty good shape.” And the first rule: Everyone is a blitzer. “I love it,” says Trey Morrison, a nickel back. “We can come from anywhere on the field. I’ve lined up everywhere this spring.” “I love being with coordinators who think ‘attack,’” adds cornerbacks coach Dré Bly. “That’s what Jay did at Army and that’s what made him successful. We have a variety of looks and bring guys from all over the field. Our guys are embracing the moment and excited about this new opportunity.” The combination of spring practice and August scrimmages as these two systems collide against one another is sure to create some angst in Mack Brown’s core. Celebrating a big play on one side of the ball might be whistling past the graveyard on the other. In due time we’ll see these playbooks and philosophies evolve against big boy football teams.

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“WE DON’T WANT TO HANDICAP GUYS SO THEY HAVE TO THINK SO MUCH THEY CAN’T BE PHYSICAL AND AGGRESSIVE AND PLAY DOWNHILL. WE AS COACHES DON’T NEED TO IMPRESS THEM WITH HOW MUCH FOOTBALL WE KNOW. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW AND LET THEM GO PLAY.”

BORN & BRED

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BE THE ONE

KENAN ON

GAME DAY There are a host of improvements in and around Kenan Stadium for 2019

BY ANDREW STILWELL // PHOTOS BY J. RYAN MONTGOMERY & CAROLINA FOOTBALL

ans who enter Kenan Stadium for a football game this upcoming season might notice something new about the playing surface “between the pines.” Or, according to UNC’s Director of Athletic Grounds and Turf Management Casey Carrick, they might not. “I think aesthetically, everyone’s going to come into the stadium and there will be a lot of people who won’t notice we’ve changed it out at all,” Carrick said on UNC’s new “synthetic grass” football field, which will make its gameday debut on Saturday, September 7 as UNC hosts Miami. “On a gameday, it was always painted up and ready, and that’s what it will look like now.” The synthetic grass football field in Kenan Stadium, a product manufactured by Astroturf, and featuring a 2.5-inch “blade of grass” and infill of sand and rubber, is an identical playing surface to two of the three practice fields installed as part of the new football practice complex. For Carrick, the consistency of the installed turf was important, both from a practice and player safety standpoint. “We wanted to put the same turf in (at Kenan Stadium) as the practice field, so it’s consistent,” he said. “If the team is on the practice field outdoors one day, and indoors the next, it will feel the exact same to the players. We didn’t want the guys to feel like there was a difference from one field to the other. “We looked at many different options and made sure we were putting a safe synthetic product in,” Carrick continued. “I think with the rubber and sand combination percentage, along with a Brock power base, which helps with shock absorption and head impact and is underneath all three synthetic fields, we’ve made this field as safe as a field as we can put in.” However, just because the grass stays a consistent length, doesn’t mean there isn’t maintenance involved with the new fields. “With a grass field, we’re mowing, fertilizing, irrigating, things like that. We were painting the field every game week to get it ready for Saturday,” Carrick said. “With the synthetic grass, the lines are inlayed, it always looks painted up and ready to go. We do groom it. We check the infill levels. It’s a little less maintenance, but it’s definitely different maintenance than what we were doing with a grass field.” Rick Steinbacher, UNC’s senior associate athletic director for capital projects and facilities, is hopeful that the synthetic playing field will also result in advantages for Carolina football, both on and off the field. “You have a better speed advantage on synthetic grass as opposed to natural grass,” Steinbacher said. “We hope to be able to recruit incredibly well and have a team that benefits from that speed advantage on most days. Recruiting happens 365 days a year now, so having a field that looks game ready every single day is really, really cool. The field might look a little different on gamedays than fans are used to, but it will look different in a really positive way.” A new playing surface isn’t all that’s benefitting the football program as it heads into the 2019 season. There

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BORN & BRED

have been facility improvements across the board, from the completion of the football practice complex, to upgrades in the weight room, the Gatorade fueling station, as well as inside the Carolina Football locker room. “For the locker room, we took the best lockers in the country, gathered input from our players, and developed lockers that are completely unique to Carolina, exceeding what’s been produced in the past for other programs,” said Carolina head coach Mack Brown. “The effect on the players with all of these upgrades has been fantastic. It’s so cool to see them check out all of the new things, take pictures and videos, and walk away with smiles on their faces. “The facilities at North Carolina have quickly become some of the best in the country,” Brown continued. “They are a reflection of the excellence our University stands for.” Like his former player Steinbacher, Brown believes that the improved facilities are already creating a buzz with future Carolina student athletes. “It’s been a key talking point for us in recruiting. The prospects are seeing the transformation in real time, and they see the commitment to football,” Brown said. “Everything we’ve done is first class, and as they’re comparing Carolina with other schools, they know they can come here and have the best of the best to pursue their dreams athletically, academically and from a facilities standpoint.” Working with Coach Brown has been a great experience for Steinbacher, who played for Brown at Carolina from 1990-1993. “I’ve made the statement probably more than a hundred times in the last six months,” Steinbacher said. “I knew he was great to play for but he’s even better to work with. He’s been so many places as a head coach and a commentator and just gets what makes college football special. “Coach Brown has been awesome. We’ve had a few gameday meetings with him, and he’s given us a really clear direction,” he continued. “‘Let’s be us. Let’s be Carolina. Let’s make Carolina the cool place to be, whether for a student, an alum, a fan, a recruit, but most importantly for the players. Let’s make Kenan Stadium the cool place to be.’ We’re really trying to hone in right now on just what exactly that means.” Part of making Kenan Stadium the “cool place to be” extends to continuing to improve the gameday experience for fans as well. “When I think of Kenan, I think of everything kind of within the footprint of Kenan,” said Michael Beale, assistant athletic director for marketing at Carolina. “As we talk about the footprint of Kenan, we also extend ‘gameday’ from the time you leave your door to the time you get home. And we are going to continue to improve the overall fan experience.” “About three years ago, we came up with eight areas to really focus on during football gamedays through surveys and our own experiences,”

Steinbacher said. “The biggest was seat comfort, so that’s why we’ve installed the blue chair backs throughout the stadium. It’s not new this year, but it’s a major thing we’ve looked at to improve fan comfort. Another focus is tailgating. “In regards to tailgating, the nice thing about Kenan Stadium is that it’s a beautiful historic stadium, right in the middle of campus, and the most challenging thing about Kenan Stadium is that it’s a beautiful historic stadium, right in the middle of campus,” Steinbacher said with a laugh. “We’ve worked with Tailgate Guys to create tailgating experiences for the last few seasons, and have had a lot of success with them in the Kenan Amphitheater.” However, the Kenan Amphitheater won’t be the only place you’ll be able to find the familiar tailgate tents of Tailgate Guys this coming football season. Through a partnership with the University’s grounds team, there will also be new Tailgate Guys tailgating options around the Bell Tower. “We’ve removed all of the hedges from the Bell Tower area and leveled that area out with new sod,” Beale said. “It’s really going to enable us to enhance our pre-game tailgating that we do with Tailgate Guys. The amphitheater is pretty much sold out for the season with tailgating, and we needed a place to grow. The Bell Tower was a logical next step.” The in-stadium environment is important to Coach Brown’s vision for gameday. “Coach Brown is all about the fan experience, the fan engagement,” Beale said. “What he has done for us has been very supportive and he has said ‘Hey, if you need my assistance, and it’s going to help the gameday atmosphere and recruiting, we are all in.’ Just knowing we have him as a resource to go to, and that he’s supportive, and understands the method behind our madness, has been really exciting.” The goal is to improve the overall experience at Kenan Stadium, extending from the players on field to the fans in the stands. “We’re going to revamp everything we do in-venue just to accomplish the two goals which are sometimes challenging: to get the student-athletes really fired up on the field, and getting the fans engaged in the stands,” Beale said. “The way to do that is by enhancing what has worked, and taking a long look at the things that have not been as successful, and if we alter them, how do we alter them? It’s stepping back, taking a look, and not being afraid to change things. The status quo? We’ve got to push beyond that. For us, it’s about fan engagement, it’s about keeping our fans ‘in the game,’ it’s getting our fans more engaged, and almost to a certain extent, turning the ‘keys to the car’ over to them. We really want them to drive the overall experience.” “We want Kenan to be a truly special place to be on gameday,” Steinbacher said. “We want to make it really special and something that people don’t want to miss.”

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“EVERYTHING WE’VE DONE IS FIRST CLASS, AND AS [RECRUITS ARE] COMPARING CAROLINA WITH OTHER SCHOOLS, THEY KNOW THEY CAN COME HERE AND HAVE THE BEST OF THE BEST TO PURSUE THEIR DREAMS ATHLETICALLY, ACADEMICALLY AND FROM A FACILITIES STANDPOINT.”

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Budgeting for

Success

The success of the football program has an impact on the entire rest of the athletic department BY PAT JAMES // PHOTO BY J. RYAN MONTGOMERY

ost NCAA Division I schools across the country, especially the 65 that compose the so-called Power Five conferences, rely on their football and men’s basketball programs to generate enough revenue to cover their total expenses. But there are few places where that’s more vital than at North Carolina, with its 28 varsity teams and over 800 studentathletes. “There are only five schools in the whole country that have as broadbased a program as we have,” said Rick Steinbacher, UNC’s senior associate athletic director for capital projects and facilities. “Obviously, with a budget of over $100 million, we have significant resources. But when you divide the number of sports programs and the number of student-athletes we support by the amount of resources that we have compared to our peers on a strictly dollars-sense, we’re actually near the bottom of the Power 65 schools. “The level of success that we’ve been able to maintain over many, many years, given the fact that on a per program or per studentathlete basis the resources that we provide dollars-wise, we’re near

BORN & BRED

the very bottom of all the Power 65 schools, is pretty remarkable. And that further illustrates the importance of maximizing revenue out of the two sports that generate revenue.” Of course, that’s easier to accomplish when both teams are winning and there’s excitement surrounding each program, which is surely the case now, entering the first season of Mack Brown’s second stint in Chapel Hill. As of July, Steinbacher said Carolina “had a very high renewal rate for season tickets.” It had also been “very successful” in getting new ticket holders. Season tickets sold out in late July. And there are more than enough reasons to believe UNC might maintain that momentum. “We just have a real opportunity to continue to increase the revenue that we generate out of football,” Steinbacher said. “There are lots of ways we have done that and will continue to do that, whether it’s new premium seating options in the football stadium – and that was the major reason why we built the Blue Zone – or to enhance concession offerings or to increase tailgating opportunities. We’ve got to do anything and everything we can to help football be successful so we can continue to generate significantly more revenue from that program so we can continue to fund all of our sports.” Even when the football program isn’t successful, Carolina can benefit from the exploits of the other schools in the ACC through the conference’s revenue distribution. For example, the Tar Heels went 3-9 in 2017. But with Clemson reaching the College Football Playoff

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BE THE ONE

and nine other full members making a bowl game (not including Notre Dame, which does not play ACC football), UNC received $28.5 million in shared revenue during the 2017-18 fiscal year. That, however, doesn’t mean Carolina doesn’t want to be a part of the winning, which also opens up other opportunities. “We’re not directly affected from a negative standpoint with conference distribution because as long as schools are doing well, we benefit from that,” said Martina Ballen, Carolina’s senior associate athletic director for business and the department’s chief financial officer. “But from concessions, you know, we have certain contracts in place for concessions. But if we are exceeding thresholds, there can be more of a sharing opportunity. So we can potentially see more there. With Learfield/IMG College, we have a guarantee arrangement there. But if it reaches certain thresholds, then there’s revenue sharing opportunities and the more there is that Learfield can do, the more we can share. “A lot of that could come from football and the opportunities to grow sponsorships. All of that is tied to success. If you have a successful program, people and companies want to be a part of it, and we all benefit from that.” “We” also includes The Rams Club. Ballen said The Rams Club “has a better success rate” with premium seating when the team is successful. That can also lead to more people, such as alumni or former players, giving back to the athletic department as they learn more about what’s needed to sustain the team’s winning ways. New ticket holders might also go on to join The Rams Club. According to Steinbacher, the data that UNC’s gathered “clearly shows that when both programs, football and men’s basketball, are performing well, it has a positive impact on membership.” John Montgomery, the executive director of the Rams Club, agreed. “Any time when there’s excitement and optimism, that’s a great opportunity for us to go have a positive conversation about Carolina Athletics,” Montgomery said. “When you have that buzz that we do right now around football and people are interested in season tickets, if you’re interested in season tickets, the best thing to do is join The Rams Club because of seating priority, parking benefits and things like that. So really, the season tickets and membership to The Rams Club go hand in hand. They complement one another. “So it’s a really good opportunity for us to grow our membership base and sell season tickets at the same time and drive more revenue for the program.” Montgomery said Brown and the rest of his coaching staff also

recognize that. “He’s interested in helping us grow our membership, he’s interested in helping us fundraise and helping us be successful,” Montgomery said. “And that’s really important to our success. I think that’s another thing that will help us all be successful because he’s committed to that and his staff is committed to that. That’s something that we appreciate, our Rams Club staff appreciates it. And I think our membership sees that and they really appreciate it.” This latest opportunity to grow football revenue comes after Carolina posted new highs for men’s basketball ticket revenue and attendance during the 2018-19 season, according to Steinbacher. It also coincides with the August launch of the ESPN-backed ACC Network, which is expected to produce additional revenue for each ACC school. “The ACC Network will have a huge impact,” Steinbacher said. “It’s a little bit different in that with the ACC Network, we get one-fifteenth of that, whereas with our football and men’s basketball ticket sales we get 100 percent of that. But it is a very, very significant amount of revenue. So we’re very hopeful and excited about it and we need the ACC Network to be very successful to help grow our revenue sources for all of our sports programs. “You’ve probably seen all of the videos our coaches have put out, all of the campaigns that we’re going to keep putting out. We will continue to encourage Carolina fans to make sure their TV provider carries the ACC Network and if they don’t, demand that they do, because the more households that network is in, the more revenue the ACC gets, which means the more revenue we get. That’s a very important part of our revenue in the future.” Ballen said UNC enters each season with the goal of selling as many season tickets as possible and that some tickets for individual games are typically left over. Should the Tar Heels get off to a hot start, though, then those tickets might not be available for long. That’s especially the case when the team’s wins are against strong opponents. With its first five games coming against South Carolina, Miami, Wake Forest, Appalachian State and defending ACC and national champion Clemson, Carolina will certainly have opportunities to prove itself early this season. It’ll also have a chance to help maximize not only its revenue, but that of the entire athletic department. “We feel it when football is not doing well,” Ballen said. “It just impacts us across the board in terms of what we’re able to do for the other sports and what we’re able to do for the football program itself. So having that success is so significant. And, you know, that’s why we’ve got Mack back here.”

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“When you have that buzz that we do right now around football, if you’re interested in season tickets, the best thing to do is join The Rams Club because of seating priority, parking benefits and things like that. So really, the season tickets and membership to The Rams Club go hand in hand.”

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C A R O L I N A E V E R YWE A R Rams Club members like to wear their Carolina Blue, and they’ll wear it all over the US and the world. If you have a photo of you in your Carolina gear in front of notable landmarks in the US and abroad, send them our way to be a part of Carolina EveryWear!

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To have your photo included: -Send your photo digitally to bornandbred@ramsclub.com. -Identify everyone in your photo and the location of the photo. Here are the “Rules”: -At least one person in the photo has to be a Rams Club member -You must be wearing Carolina gear -You must be in front of a notable landmark (sorry, as cool as Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center are, they don’t qualify). SHOW US YOUR COLORS!

1) Matthew, Sam, Shannon & Bennett Leder of Concord, NC, at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France; 2) Marth, Stephen & Larry Ensley of Concord, NC, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; 3) Phyllis Ludford Kuszmar with Edmund, Katherine & Courtney in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; 4) Erikk, Drew & Tiffany Aldridge of Los Angeles, CA, at Park Güell in Barcelona; 5) Kent Kerley & Thom Hutchens of Hickory, NC, in front of Trevi Fountain in Rome Italy; 6) Kristin & Patrick Ranson of Winston-Salem, NC, with Anna & Ashleigh in Kauai, HI; 7) Justin Johnson of Durham, NC, flashing UNC gear on deployment in Iraq.; 8) Jay Thorndike of Hendersonville, NC, at Cliffs of Mohr, Ireland; 9) Brian Pecheles of Greenville, NC, and a Heel-marked pedicab driver in Santa Fe, NM; 10) Fred Eidson, Barbara Haynes, Jane Walsh, Steve Walsh, Ann Yokeley, Steve Yokeley, Marie Simmons & Steve Simmons at the Rock of Gibraltar; 11) Toni & Rufus Langley of Apex, NC, at the Women’s World Cup in Le Parc des Princes Stadium, Paris, France; 12) Sherri Clarke of Charlotte, NC, at Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park; 13) Brian & Sarah Meacham of Chapel Hill at Pebble Beach, CA; 14) Robert Bell III, Alexandrea Bell, Virginia Ellen Bell, Katherine Hart Bell & Robert Bell IV of Hickory, NC, at Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland; 15) Christy & Ashlee Jones of High Point, NC, at the southernmost point buoy in Key West, FL; 16) Michael & Stephanie Smith of Mt. Airy, NC, with Madison & Ailee at Jaguar Temple in Lamanai, Belize

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17) David Isaacs of Charlotte, NC, at Ballybunion Golf Club in Ireland; 18) Hudson, Diana, Joan & Gary Howell of Apex, NC, at the Top of the Rock

in New York; 19) Cindy Fullerton of Goldston, NC, & Phillip Thomas of

Pittsboro, NC, at the Portland Head Light in Portland, ME; 20) Mary Jo Parks

of Sanford, NC, at Wilderness Camp in Uganda; 21) Becky Barr & Greg Tuttle of Hillsborough, NC, on Lake Tahoe, CA; 22) Megan & Tyler Triplett, Lisa Mathes, Betty Biggerstaff & Jeff Leonard of Morganton, NC, at the arch in

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; 23) James & Lynn Fell of Pittsboro, NC, on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon; 24) Ann & Bob Ward of Chapel Hill at

the Michael Jordan Building at Nike in Beaverton, OR; 25) Arnold Bracket & Andrew West of Cherryville, NC, at Reichenstein Castle in Germany;

26) Lisa Fey of Atlanta, GA, in Iceland; 27) Edward & Barbara Newnam of Wake Forest, NC, at the Banff National Park Museum in Alberta, Canada; 28)

Jessica Lewis of Memphis, TN, at Westminster Abbey in London, England;

29) Carla & William Turner of Hampstead, NC, with their family at the Dole Plantation in Hawaii; 30) Sherry Stuckey & Cameron Powell of Raleigh, NC, at Delicate Arch, Arches National Park in Moab, UT

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BE THE ONE

REASONS TO

RETURN BY SPEED HALLMAN // PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI & UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

BORN & BRED

The athletic department is focused on making gameday an event that makes fans want to come back

he Daily Tar Heel sought to reassure as it rallied fans to turn out for the big game. “Never before have such elaborate arrangements been made to insure comfort for the spectators,” the newspaper said, citing “plans for a large police force to direct traffic, plenty of parking space and plenty of guides to point it out, and hundreds of ushers to conduct spectators to their seats.” An athletics spokesman assured readers, “No pains are being spared to insure comfort and order. There is no need of anyone staying away for fear of being too crowded.” The year was 1927, the opponent was arch-rival Virginia and the pregame draw was Kenan Stadium’s dedication ceremony. Some things haven’t changed in 92 years. Fans who love cheering the Heels in Kenan still find their way to campus and navigate through the crowd to locate their seats. Today, as before, law enforcement directs them through town and ushers guide them into and around the stadium. But so much has changed – the game, the stadium and technology. This year Carolina welcomes Mack Brown back as head coach, generating excitement and heightened expectations for new ways of doing things. In football, as in life, rapid change is a powerful incentive to find new ways to achieve objectives. If you’re operating a stadium, you need to come up with new ways to fill it. Carolina football staffers know that fans can watch the game from their cozy dens or anywhere in the world, and they work relentlessly to make a ticket to Kenan absolutely irresistible when the Heels are playing. Every home game must be an opportunity not just to watch, but to experience en masse, the excitement of Carolina football. When the Heels moved from the 2,400-seat Emerson Field to the 24,000-seat Kenan Stadium, the change of venue and tenfold increase required the football program to reevaluate everything it did to get fans into the seats, entertain them for three hours and get them back out through the gates.

Nearly a century later that Saturday afternoon diversion has morphed into a three- or four-day experience. Fans are encouraged to arrive on Friday and stay through Sunday, and activities on campus and in town make it possible to fill nearly every minute. Some arrive on Thursday for the all-day Friday meetings of campus boards and committees, piggybacked onto game weekends to generate maximum attendance. The change from driving in on Saturday, watching the game, eating at the Rat and driving home occurred gradually as the University grew and the world changed around it. The stadium expanded to 61,000 seats, then was dialed back to 50,500 last year as the aluminum bleachers gave way to individual seats for improved comfort. Stadium lighting meant games could kick off in late afternoon or at night. The Kenan Football Center and Blue Zone added services for student-athletes and amenities for fans. The GoHeels app introduced in 2014 helps fans vector around traffic, find parking spaces, catch a Tar Heel Express bus and locate their stadium seats. It also streams Tar Heel Sports Network game-day programming and issues weather alerts. This year the most striking change outside of the stadium is the renewed Bell Tower area. The old boxwoods are gone, opening up a wide lawn and a focal point for fans and visitors approaching the stadium. While the shrubbery walled people out, the lawn welcomes them in, offering an ideal space for hanging out and connecting with friends before and after games. Many of the other changes for 2019 are incremental in the long run but consistent with a coaching transition and the athletic department’s philosophy of continuous improvement. Coach Brown already knows the University, the stadium, the traditions and the fans, thanks to his earlier tenure. Back then, he urged the fans to come early, be loud, stay late. Today his message is directed to players, fans, staff and everyone involved with the program: Be the one. To a player it means be the one who does extra reps in the weight

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“[COACH BROWN] GETS IT THAT WE’VE GOT TO MAKE IT A GREAT EXPERIENCE FOR THE 58-YEAR-OLD ALUM AND WE’VE GOT TO MAKE IT THE COOL PLACE THAT THE 15-YEAR-OLD KID WANTS TO COME TO. HE SAYS, ‘I WANT CAROLINA TO BE THE PLACE WHERE A STUDENT WOULDN’T DARE WANT TO MISS A HOME GAME, WHERE A FAN WOULDN’T WANT TO MISS A HOME GAME, WHERE THEY LOVE COMING OUT TO WATCH THE TEAM PLAY BECAUSE THE TEAM PLAYS HARD, IT PLAYS DISCIPLINED, IT PLAYS TOUGH.’”

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room, be the one who makes the stop on fourth down. To the fan it’s be the one who buys season tickets early, who brings friends, who lifts the Heels and rattles the opposition seven Saturdays a year. Steinbacher said be the one means not waiting for others to act. “You’re not waiting for another player to make a play. You’re not waiting for Carolina football to win in this new era under Coach Brown. You’re not waiting for someone else to invite you. If everybody collectively does that it’s going to be really, really special,” he said. Brown’s return provides opportunities to ratchet up the fan experience. Beale said the coach knows how other schools handle game days thanks to his time in Texas and his stint with ESPN, where he was in a different stadium every Saturday. The coach has seen it all, he knows what works and he has new ideas for game day at Carolina. “He’s very much into being fan friendly,” Steinbacher said. “He gets it that we’ve got to make it a great experience for the 58-year-old alum

and we’ve got to make it the cool place that the 15-year-old kid wants to come to. He says, ‘I want Carolina to be the place where a student wouldn’t dare want to miss a home game, where a fan wouldn’t want to miss a home game, where they love coming out to watch the team play because the team plays hard, it plays disciplined, it plays tough.’” Steinbacher said success on the field creates the stadium magic that fans return for and the energy that teams thrive on. “It’s the iconic moments you can only see in person,” he said. Success off-field means “doing all the little things right. It’s having a stadium staff that’s incredibly friendly and welcoming, making people feel comfortable and safe. When people don’t know where to go or have a problem, you solve it for them quickly and easily. It’s seat comfort and changing up the food offerings. It’s not any one thing that you do incredibly well – it’s a hundredplus things that you do right over and over and over again.” “We’re trying to make Kenan Stadium as fan friendly as possible,” Beale said. “We are always looking to enhance the fan experience

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“WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING TO ENHANCE THE FAN EXPERIENCE BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT KEEPS PEOPLE COMING BACK. IN OUR WORLD, WE CAN’T CONTROL THE OUTCOME OF THE GAME, BUT WE CAN CONTROL HOW COMFORTABLE IT IS AND HOW CLEAN THE BATHROOMS ARE.”

BORN & BRED

because that’s what keeps people coming back. In our world, we can’t control the outcome of the game, but we can control how comfortable it is and how clean the bathrooms are.” Athletics takes care of those small details on a grand scale. The department hosts 200 events a year for 28 varsity sports, bringing almost 800,000 people onto UNC’s front porch. Most game dates are known months in advance but a few, like this year’s baseball super regionals, which Steinbacher called “three days of a packed Bosh,” are scheduled on short notice. Several years ago, when AD Bubba Cunningham wanted to make sure the department provided very best possible experience to its guests, he consulted the world leader in showing people a good time: Disney. Steinbacher credits the department’s work with the Disney Institute for improvements in customer service and organizational practices. “They make you evaluate your internal culture and make sure you’re providing great customer service to each other within your organization, and that’s how you do it for people who come and visit you on a game day,” he said. Surveys tell the department that most ticket holders are alumni, but the alums and non-alumni alike say they come back because they want to be in Chapel Hill and they want to share that special experience with friends and family. “It’s not always because the football team’s great, it is the affinity and affection they have for Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina,” Beale said. “So we’ve got a willing customer. We’ve just got to give them more and more reasons to come back.”

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YOU PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITY

FOR THE BEST STUDENT-ATHLETES TO ATTEND THE BEST UNIVERSITY, TO COMPETE IN THE BEST FACILITIES, AND TO PLAY FOR THE BEST COACHES AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF COMPETITION IN ALL 28 OF OUR VARSITY SPORTS.

THE RAMS CLUB FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE RAMS CLUB, VISIT RAMSCLUB.COM 32

B O R N & BP.O. R E DBOX 2446

| CHAPEL HILL, NC 27515 | (919) 843-2000 | RAMSCLUB.COM |

@THERAMSCLUB

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP THIS SEASON! Rams Club members can enjoy two great membership benefits pre-game and in-game – the Rams Club Patio and Tar Heel Experiences!

RAMS CLUB PATIO

As a Rams Club member, you have access to the Rams Club Patio – a pre-game entertainment area located just off the Bell Tower amphitheater at the Genome Science Building. At the patio, members can enjoy complimentary refreshments and giveaways before each home game.

TAR HEEL EXPERIENCES

Tar Heel Experiences is an exclusive membership benefit designed to enhance game day like never before! Through our mobile platform, all Rams Club members are offered the opportunity to redeem Tar Heel Tokens for exclusive game day experiences.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS, VISIT RAMSCLUB.COM @THERAMSCLUB ramsclub.com 33

BE THE ONE

THE

MORE THINGS CHANGE BY ADAM LUCAS

PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI & UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Mack Brown hopes to use some of the same principles that worked in his first stint at Carolina, but expect plenty of updates

BORN & BRED

veryone involved hopes Mack Brown’s second tenure as North Carolina’s head coach has very similar results to his first stint, when he propelled the Tar Heels to the national top ten and the cusp of competing for a national title. But in the blitz of nostalgia and enjoyable throwbacks to some of the best Carolina football teams that have ever played at Kenan Stadium, it’s also worth remembering one other key factor: this isn’t the same Mack Brown. We shouldn’t expect it to be. After all, 1996 and 1997 are over 20 years ago. Are you the same as you were twenty years ago? Probably not—and neither is Mack Brown. He still possesses many of the same characteristics that helped him dominate the state of North Carolina. But he also has 16 seasons of experience at Texas, followed by five years of experience with ESPN that allowed him access to programs across the country. He didn’t just stop working at Carolina and go sit on a beach somewhere. He’s been in the game of football, and his decisions in the first few months of his Chapel Hill reprise have illustrated his feel not just for college football, but for college football in the year 2019.

SOME KEY S I M I L A R I TI ES B ETW EEN TH E T W O MAC K B R O W N T E N U R E S AT CAR OLINA : 1) UNDERSTANDING WHAT WORKS Brown’s ESPN access introduced him to eventual Carolina defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. And his seat in the ESPN studio allowed him access every Saturday to assess what was working offensively across the country. It’s easy to forget that the freewheeling, put-up-45-points-onClemson offenses of the last couple of years of the first Brown era bore very little resemblance to the early Brown offenses. Those offenses, which worked best when they were under the direction of Jason Stanicek, were option-heavy. But Brown felt he needed to modernize the attack, which led to the is-this-really-happening 45-0 demolition of Clemson in the 1996 season opener. He’s taken a similar approach to building the 2019 team, installing not necessarily his personal preference for an offense and defense, but what he believes works best in today’s college football. “The Air Raid is the best offense that’s out there right now,” Brown says. “What happened with Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma, what happened with Phil Longo at Ole Miss, is they’ve taken the Air Raid concepts of spreading people out, but they’re running the football. They have two backs or in a lot of cases a tight end. It’s still the old power running game. I love the combination of both. We will still be a prominent power running team that will also throw the ball. In the Air Raid offense, they throw it deep.”

2) A DESIRE TO OWN THE STATE Brown began talking about the state of North Carolina in his introductory press conference and hasn’t stopped since. He and his staff—which includes some of those recruits who chose to play for Carolina in the first Brown iteration, making them the best possible spokesmen for how that choice positively impacted their lives—haven’t yet had a full recruiting cycle, but they’ve made it plenty clear that they want Carolina to be the destination school for in-state prospects. “When we left, we were recruiting as well as anybody in the

country,” Brown said. “We were getting most of the guys we wanted out of the state of North Carolina, some out of Virginia, some out of South Carolina and Georgia. We were really on a roll.” It’s not just recruiting. Remember, Brown is the same coach who talked extensively about winning the state championship. There will not be any question about whether he understands the importance of annual games against Duke and NC State.

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3) FACILITIES Brown was never really able to fully enjoy the Kenan Football Center that was completed in 1997 and would have been the crown jewel of his first tenure. How long ago was that? None of the players he’s recruiting now were born when the building opened. It took Brown less than nine months on the job to make tangible changes to the Carolina football facility blueprint. Those include some improvements in areas that weren’t even considered in 1997—no one had a Gatorade fueling station, for example. But he’s not finished. Making physical improvements is a win-win for a head football coach because it impresses recruits, and it shows current players that they matter. Those are two fundamental goals for every coach, so expect to hear more about facilities in the months and years to come.

BORN & BRED

4) PEOPLE

5) FANATICAL ATTENTION TO DETAIL This probably seems simple, but it’s been extremely noticeable in the last few months. First, of course, is Brown himself. When he is engaged in a conversation, he is completely engaged. He’s not checking his watch. He’s not looking past you to see who else might be walking by. He’s there, present, with the person to whom he’s talking. It’s what makes him so tremendously good in living rooms. But it also extends to the rest of the program, even in ways that many fans will never see. Significant thought was given to the graphics inside the Kenan Football Center and what messages were being portrayed in different areas of the building. Staff meetings begin with a highly detailed plan for the day. But Brown isn’t so bogged down in the details that he misses the macro topics. He quickly identified one problem with the Tar Heels in recent seasons: “We had too many guys hurt.” How many times did you shake your head about this exact subject in recent years? The new head coach immediately identified that problem, then set out to fix it.

Like the rest of the program, final results won’t be known instantaneously. But Brown is using enough pillars that have worked before—while updating them to make sure they’re modern and not musty—that there’s reason to hope again in Chapel Hill.

Coach Brown with Michael Dibbert ‘03, who is now the father of three (ages 4, 6, and 8), is a headmaster in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and lives with his wife and their three children in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

DOUG DIBBERT CHAPEL HILL, N.C. We love Mack Brown. He was always so kind to speak to you and pose for pictures/autographs. Our son’s first game was Mack’s last so he is looking forward to seeing him action this season!

KENNY AND APRIL GORDON TRINITY, NC

Favorite game day routine: seeing and listening to the terrific drum corp before the game! Also: cheering when the Heels come out of the tunnel at the start of the game! [Pictured: Chris Neher, Ken Neher and Kenneth Neher]

KEN NEHER WINSTON SALEM, N.C. ramsclub.com 37

GAME DAY MEMORIES

Some of the people are, quite literally, the same. Brown is the most obvious example, but as was detailed in the last edition of Born & Bred, he’s also sought advice in some form or fashion from longtime aides Ken Browning and Darrell Moody. What makes Brown so good, though, is his ability to understand how to adapt his personnel to the times. So you might see Browning around the football office. But you also might see director of football recruiting Billy High, who was in elementary school when Brown was fielding his most formidable Carolina teams. The next step with personnel will be a tougher one: keeping them together. One of Brown’s most underrated assets at Carolina was his ability to foster staff continuity. The Tar Heels’ recent coaching staffs have had constant change. It’s a simple reality that if Carolina is as successful as they want to be in 2019, their coaches will be highly sought-after. It’s expensive to keep a major college football staff together.

FIRST PERSON

‘A championship mentality’

When he was hired, I didn’t know that much about or the program better, he wants to hear about it and wants Mack Brown. I knew who he was, of course. I knew he’d to try and make it happen. had big success at Texas, and I knew he had coached Coach Brown brings us a championship mentality, and at North Carolina previously. But as far as running the that’s exactly what this program needed. There are guys program or what he was like personally, I didn’t know that on this team who haven’t even been to a bowl game. He much about him. knows what it takes to get there. He wants to teach us how So it’s been a learning process over these past few to do the little things that will get us into the postseason months. And what I’ve learned is Coach Brown wants the and that will help us win some of the close games we’ve best from everyone and wants to do it lost recently. the right way. He’s told us he is trying to I love that approach. I played with put us in the best position to win right great players when I was a young guy now. at Ohio State, and I saw how they “What people might not One of the first things he told us when operated. Now that I’m a veteran player, understand is how much trust he met with us as a team was that he I’ve tried to model my leadership after was going to make some improvements those improvements create with those guys. I want to do everything I around the Kenan Football Center. That the current team. [Coach Brown] can at the highest possible level that I might seem like a little thing. But over can do it. That’s what we have to do in told us what he was going to do, order to reach that championship level. the summer, we’ve already seen those improvements—our Everyone has to do everything at the and he did it. Those little things locker room is highest possible level they can do it. create the trust that makes us going to be And of course, as a North Carolina believe everything he tells us.” one of the guy, I love how much emphasis Coach best in Brown puts on the state of North the country, and the weight Carolina. We have some of the best high school football room is going to be so players in the country. They have to stay here and play for much better. We know that Carolina. I always tell the in-state recruits that you play those are big assets for with a different amount of pride when you’re playing for recruiting, because all your home state. When you’re representing your state recruits look at facilities. against the rest of the country, it feels like you against But what people everyone else, and you play so much harder. This is where might not understand I’m from, and I can’t let this place down. is how much trust those We have the facilities at Carolina and we have the improvements create coaching staff. We’re going to get the best players, and with the current team. He they’re going to be developed as players and people. We told us what he was going have what we need to be successful for Carolina football. to do, and he did it. Those little things This year, we want to go out and show what we can do. create the trust that makes us believe everything he tells us. Even as someone who has had so much success and is in the Hall of Fame, he’s so easy to relate to. He can talk to you about anything, and he really listens to you. He hears what you have to say, and ANTONIO WILLIAMS he thinks about it. If you Football have ideas about things Illustration by Jason McCorkle that will make the team

BORN & BRED

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CAROLINA INSIDER PODCAST HOSTED BY JONES ANGELL AND ADAM LUCAS

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BORN & BRED