The North Carolina Tar Heels became the talk of the college football world in an unfortunate way on Saturday, losing to James Madison 70-50 after allowing 53 first-half points within the friendly confines of Chapel Hill.
UNC head coach Mack Brown made headlines after the loss with reports of a strange postgame speech to his players, asking them if he should step aside due to the mistake-filled performance. While it doesn’t sound like the Tar Heels leader is actually on the brink of retirement, the instability and embarrassment ended up with UNC atop the USA TODAY Sports Misery Index.
As Dan Wolken wrote, the Tar Heels have a 41-28 record under the legendary coach so far. That’s despite having two NFL quarterbacks, Sam Howell and first-round pick Drake Maye, for a half-decade. UNC finished outside of the top 100 in the FBS in scoring defense in 2021 and 2022 before a “bounce-back season” in 2023 saw the Tar Heels allow 27.3 points per game, the 75th-best mark in the country.
“This isn’t sustainable,” Wolken wrote. “Has it been a disaster in the big picture? No, not at North Carolina, which has always been one of college football’s biggest underachievers. But has Mack’s second stint in Chapel Hill been a success? It would be disingenuous to say yes.”
The Tar Heels come to Durham next Saturday for the first conference game of the season, and Duke seems like it will have a good chance to beat UNC for the first time since 2018.