Tag: UNC

Mack Brown weighs in on Notre Dame addition to ACC for 2020

Mack Brown isn’t worried about Notre Dame joining the ACC full-time but he’s very excited about their addition to the conference for 2020.

News came out last week that Notre Dame was joining the ACC for the 2020 football season, making it the first year the Fighting Irish would not play as an independent.

Notre Dame fans are mixed about the move but appear to understand the importance of doing it for the 2020 season at least as we live in such unique circumstances.

One of the four ACC opponents that Notre Dame had added to their schedule was North Carolina, where Mack Brown is set to begin his second year back at the school.

Brown was on ESPN Radio’s Packer and Durham Show this morning and discussed Notre Dame and the ACC’s temporary football marriage.

“It’s very unique but I think it’s great for them this year and it’s great for us,” Brown said. “Because they needed some extra help in scheduling, and anytime you add Notre Dame to your league it’s a great brand, they do it right, they play by the rules, they’re a great team.  Brian Kelly does a tremendous job he’s a friend of mine, so this is a win-win. They will also bring some TV money it sounds like into the league, all of us are needing that right now. So I think it will be exciting, our guys are excited about playing Notre Dame.” – Mack Brown on ESPN Radio

I couldn’t have been more wrong about the impact Mack Brown would have in his second stint with North Carolina.  I didn’t think he had much left in the tank when the hiring was announced roughly a year and a half ago, but turning the Tar Heels into a bowl team in year one and immediately improving recruiting efforts has made them quite the up and coming program.

It’s not as difficult as a trip to USC or playing Wisconsin in Lambeau Field would be but North Carolina presents a formidable foe for Notre Dame this fall and are very possibly the second toughest team on their schedule behind Clemson.

Auburn-UNC game to be played with stipulation

The Tigers and Tar Heels are set to meet on Sept. 12 in Atlanta.

One of the biggest non-conference games of the early 2020 college football season will be played but with a stipulation.

Auburn and North Carolina will meet on Sept. 12 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta but with fewer fans.

“Gary Stokan just told us they have 25 percent, 30 percent and 50 percent capacity scenarios in play,” Sandra Golden of Atlanta’s 680 The Fan tweeted.

The Chick-Fil-A Kickoff consists of three different games including FSU vs. West Virginia on Sept. 5, Georgia vs. Virginia on Sept. 7 and then the Tigers against the Tar Heels on Sept. 12.

“We’re planning on playing all three Chick Fil-A Kickoff Games Sept. 5, 7 and 12,” Stokan told the Democrat on Monday. “We’ve heard from the commissioners in the Big 12, the SEC and the ACC that they’ll make some statements at the end of July. Not sure whether that’ll be if they’re going to play a kind of schedule or if they’re going to start in September so we just have to wait and see.

“In the meantime, we’re talking to all six schools in the three games, talking to the (conference commissioners’ offices), talking to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and just planning how three games are going to happen. That’s the plan right now.”

UNC postpones workouts due to high number of positive COVID-19 tests

Auburn is scheduled to take on the Tar Heels on September 12 in Atlanta.

North Carolina, Auburn’s opponent in Atlanta in Week 2 of the 2020 college football season, has postponed workouts for the football team due to a high number of positive COVID-19 tests, the school announced on Wednesday.

From CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee:

“UNC announced the positive cases Wednesday after previously saying it would not release numbers from its COVID-19 testing. The school’s announcement did not specify how many of the positive COVID-19 tests came from within the football program, but it revealed the Orange County Health Department identified a “cluster,” which is defined as five or more related cases.”

Several other FBS programs, including Clemson, have had to pause workouts  due to the same reason.

The Tigers and Tar Heels are scheduled to battle in Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 12.

The Last Dance: Five Notre Dame Connections to Michael Jordan

Have you enjoyed “The Last Dance” on ESPN? Michael Jordan never played against Notre Dame but he did have more than a couple connections.

If you’re like most of sports fans in the United States you probably spent a good amount of your last five Sunday nights taking in ESPN’s documentary, “The Last Dance”.  For a kid growing up in the nineties it was a great walk down memory lane and incredibly informative for stories about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty.

What connections to Notre Dame did the documentary have?  Let’s look back at just a few:

Michael Jordan’s Former Teammate Turns Notre Dame Coach:

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

Ian Book Gets Very High Ranking on Top 25 Quarterback List

Notre Dame got good news when Ian Book decided to return for another season, but did they get another year of a top-five college quarterback

There is no question that the importance of having a very good, if not great quarterback in college football has only grown in recent years.  Look at the likes of Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa and DeShaun Watson who have won the last four national championships.

There is also no question in regards to the significance of Ian Book choosing to return to Notre Dame for his final year of eligibility in 2020 as the Irish return a two-year starter to lead them at quarterback as they hope to return to a second College Football Playoff appearance in three seasons.

Bill Bender of The Sporting News released his top 25 college quarterback rankings ahead of the 2020 season today and Book checks in with a very generous ranking of fifth overall.

Bender says of Book:

Book opted to return for his senior season, and he will add to his total of 57 career touchdowns with the Irish. Book is 20-3 as a starter, a record that is underappreciated given the pressure of playing that position at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly.

Only Trevor Lawrence (Clemson), Justin Fields (Ohio State), Sam Howell (North Carolina) and Sam Ehlinger (Texas) rank above Book while last year’s freshman sensation at USC, Kedon Solvis, checks in sixth.

I like Book and Notre Dame is fortunate to have him back for a fifth season.  That said, I’m not sold on him being the fifth-best quarterback in college football right now.  The young man competes each week which is the best compliment you can give a player but still has a good amount of issues with pre-snap reads (see Michigan game), being too quick to tuck and run and overall arm strength, although I do think that particular trait gets over-analyzed too often.

If Book can improve even slightly in all three of those I think you’re looking at someone who is close to that top five, but I wouldn’t have him there just yet.

And if he does perform as a top five quarterback this season, chances are great that you’re looking at an 11-plus win team this regular season.

If he doesn’t?

You’re still looking at a team that could likely muster up nine or 10 regular season wins but one that still has an obvious gap at the quarterback position between themselves and the truly elite programs.

Roy Williams claims Michael Jordan ran a 4.38 40-yard dash

Michael Jordan was probably faster than your NFL team’s first round pick

Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes we’ve ever seen pick up a ball of any kind. But we all knew that.

That’s not what makes MJ a legend, though. It’s the mythology that does all that. Some of the stories are real, some of them aren’t. But there are so many that you’re just eventually left like…”they can’t ALL be fake, right?”

That’s where this latest story from North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams falls. On The Herd on Monday, Williams claimed Jordan ran a 4.38 40-yard dash once during a team practice when Williams was an assistant coach under Dean Smith in 1982.

Williams said three coaches were tracking Jordan’s time with stopwatches. One got 4.39 and two got 4.38. He tells the rest in the 5:00 mark of the video.

“So I waited, I said ‘Michael, we missed your start. We made a mistake here. I need you to run it again.’ He said ‘Oh, too fast for you, huh?’ He goes back to the line, runs it again, and all of us got below 4.4 as a sophomore.”

Fam. Roy Williams is trying to tell us Jordan would’ve been faster than all but four of the athletes at the NFL combine this year. Think about that. It’s almost like the only thing he wasn’t good at was baseball. Oh, and running the Wizards. But that doesn’t count. No one has ever been good at that.

Now, there’s a big caveat here. They tracked Jordan with stopwatches and there’s a huge margin of error with those. That has to be accounted for here.

But, honestly, it is not surprising to hear this at all. Larry Bird didn’t call this man God for nothing. The legend of Jordan just keeps growing.

Georgia football recruiting: Bulldogs make top-eight for nation’s top CB

Georgia football made the cut for 5-star CB Tony Grimes on Wednesday night.

On Wednesday night, Georgia received a commitment from 4-star offensive tackle Micah Morris in the class of 2021.

But the good news did not stop there. Shortly after, the Bulldogs made the cut for 5-star cornerback Tony Grimes, who celebrated his 18th birthday by releasing his top-eight schools on Twitter.

Grimes’ top-eight is as follows:

Georgia, Clemson, Texas A&M, Virginia, Ohio State, Penn State, UNC and Tennessee.

Grimes, out Virginia Beach, ranks as the nation’s No. 1 cornerback in the 2021 class. He is also America’s No. 7 overall player and the top player in the state of Virginia.

The 6-foot, 180-pound cornerback plans on announcing his final decision on December 1st.

Grimes spoke with 247Sports about Georgia:

“(Defensive backs) coach (Charlton) Warren, with that visit I took down there, he shot me some game and I love what he has planned for his players to get better. I sat in a meeting with coach (Kirby) Smart, and coach Smart is running a good program. They play big-time ball. They’re SEC.”

Georgia originally offered Grimes on May 16, 2019.

Grimes also got a birthday shoutout from none other than THE Champ Bailey, a Georgia Bulldog legend.

 

Report: UNC expected to hire longtime Georgia football assistant coach

UNC is expected to hire a former Georgia football assistant coach.

Per a report from Bruce Feldman of the Athletic, the North Carolina Tar Heels are expected to hire former Georgia tight end coach John Lilly to the same position in Chapel Hill.

Lilly, who spent eight seasons in Athens as the Dawgs’ tight ends coach and offensive special teams’ coordinator, left UGA in 2015.

In 2016, Lilly was the tight ends coach for the Los Angeles Rams. After taking 2017 off, Lilly joined Jeremy Pruitt’s staff in Knoxville as Tennessee’s Executive Assistant to Head Coach.

Most recently, Lilly spent the 2019 football season as the tight ends coach for the Cleveland Browns and was not retained when the franchise fired Freddie Kitchens.

Lilly will take over at UNC for Tim Brewster, who left to become the tight ends coach at Florida.

Assistant coaches live a bit of a nomadic life, and for Lilly to have eight years in the Classic City was a treat for DawgNation.

During his time with the Bulldogs, Lilly was part of several record-setting seasons: 72 touchdowns in 2012, 484.14 yards per game in 2013 and 41.3 points per game in 2014. All were the best marks in school history. He served as the Bulldogs’ interim offensive coordinator during the 37-14 win over Louisville in the 2014 Belk Bowl and the 24-17 victory over Penn State in the 2016 Tax Slayer Bowl. Both Louisville and Penn State had top 15 nationally-ranked defenses.

He coached star tight ends Arthur Lynch, an All-SEC First Team honoree and fifth-round NFL draft pick; Orson Charles, a fourth-round selection by the Cincinnati Bengals; and Aron White, the Most Outstanding Offensive Player at the 2009 Independence Bowl. He guided Georgia’s punt unit, which included Ray Guy Award winner Drew Butler.

Lilly brings a wealth of knowledge to Carolina and may possibly be a secret weapon for Heels. He is highly respected and has a knack for exploiting a defensive team’s weakness.

Alabama Softball splits in season opener in Tallahassee tournament

No. 1 ranked Alabama went 1-1 to start the 2020 season, day one of the Joanne Graf Classic tournament.

No. 1 ranked Alabama went 1-1 to start the 2020 season, day one of the Joanne Graf Classic tournament. Alabama started the day strong by defeating North Carolina, 5-2, and then lost to tournament host, FSU in a heartbreaking loss, 8-7 in extra innings.

Game 1, Alabama scored in the third inning on an RBI single from juniorn Kaylee Tow. Alabama would go on to score 4 more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Although UNC would score two runs in the 6th inning, it wasn’t enough for the Tarheels as Alabama would go on to win 5-2.

Game 2, the Crimson Tide started strong, but couldn’t keep the lead. Runs in the fourth and fifth innings extended the lead to 7-1, but FSU rallied back. An infield single and a grand slam tied the game at 7-7 to send the game to extras. From there, it was all FSU. The Seminoles in the top of the eighth and with two on and two out in the bottom half, hit a single through the right side completed the comeback for Florida State as they defeated the Tide, 8-7.

Alabama will play another pair of games tomorrow against Florida State.

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Former coach Mack Brown wins bowl game with North Carolina

UNC faced off against the Temple in the Military Bowl. Coached by former UT head coach Mack Brown, they got their first bowl win since 2013.

After 15 seasons as the head coach of the Longhorns, Mack Brown was let go. Taking some time off and working as a studio analyst with ESPN, Brown was out of coaching for five years. He took the North Carolina job at the end of the 2018 season and has turned the program around.

After gaining bowl eligibility and dancing with his team in the locker room, the Tar Heels faced off against the Temple in the Military Bowl. Led by freshman quarterback Sam Howell, UNC demolished the Owls 55-13, getting their first bowl win since 2013.

After two straight seasons of nine losses in 2017 and 2018, Brown has come in and instantly changed the culture at North Carolina. With this being his second stint with the school, they are used to winning with Brown, getting 10 wins three times.

Ending the season at 7-6, the bowl win is the highlight of the Tar Heel season. The second best moment came when they nearly defeated now ACC Champions Clemson, but came up short on a two-point conversion.

UNC will be a dark horse candidate in the ACC next season and they have Mack Brown to thank for that. As Longhorns Wire’s Head Coach of the Decade, watching Brown succeed is always good to see.

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