UNC Football

Cornerback Tony Grimes, who is ranked seventh in 247Sports' composite rankings for the class of 2021, has chosen to attend North Carolina. 

Grimes announced his decision on Tuesday, picking the Tar Heels over Georgia and Ohio State: 

BREAKING: The nation's top cornerback, Tony Grimes, has committed to #UNC Grimes is the highest-ranked pledge #UNC has scored in 14 years: https://t.co/5vrMcK20R3 @dhglover @757EliteDB @drebly_32 @CoachBateman @billy_high @CoachMackBrown pic.twitter.com/55rSlfyvFg

— Don Callahan (@DonCallahanIC) June 30, 2020

Grimes plays for Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The 6'0", 180-pound corner is the top-rated defensive back on the list and only one of three cornerbacks to receive 5-star ratings.

Brian Dohn of 247Sports provided a scouting report on Grimes and compared him to Chicago Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller:

"Wide shoulders and good length. Frame of safety with cornerback skills. Instinctual player with high skill level. Physical and smooth. Tracks ball well and has great timing. Opens hips and runs with ease. Long strider who can cover on long crossing routes and deep throws.

"Strong upper body helps re-route receivers with jams. Comfortable in backpedal and explodes forward out of it. Good tackler and asset in run defense. High IQ on and off field. Leadership qualities. Must get stronger in lower body. Ready to play at elite program when he steps on campus. First-round NFL draft pick potential."

ESPN also thinks highly of Grimes, with the outlet ranking him sixth on its class of 2021 list.

Grimes garnered much interest, including offers from LSU, Clemson and Alabama. 

North Carolina eventually won the race for Grimes, and the corner should have an opportunity for immediate playing time as a freshman.

Players like Grimes can boost a program to new heights. Passing games are harder to stop every year, to the point where LSU steamrolled its competition last year behind a mind-boggling 60 touchdown passes from quarterback Joe Burrow.

It's imperative that programs amass as much defensive back talent as possible to at least slow down scoring, and that's where Grimes comes in.

Schools need defensive backs like Grimes to help stop schools who seem to produce NFL-caliber quarterbacks and wide receivers en masse.

On that note, Grimes has the potential to be a shutdown corner.

North Carolina football jumped to second in the 247Sports class of 2021 team rankings on Friday after 4-star linebacker Raneiria "RaRa" Dillworth committed to the Tar Heels, per Don Callahan of 247Sports. 

That commitment gave UNC 11 total 4-star recruits for its 2021 class. The mark is tied for the most in the nation with Ohio State, which tops the current overall rankings.

The Dillworth signing also allowed UNC to leapfrog perennial ACC powerhouse Clemson, which has one 5-star and nine 4-star recruits thus far. The Tigers fell to third in the rankings.

North Carolina has been doing work recruiting local stars, with 10 of the 11 4-star recruits residing in the Tar Heel state.

Pro-style quarterback Drake Maye is the highest-ranked future class of 2021 Tar Heel thanks to his No. 22 national ranking. Defensive end Keeshawn Silver leads all future classmates on his side of the ball at No. 33.

Head coach Mack Brown has done a tremendous job since taking over the team following the 2018 season, which saw UNC finish 2-9 overall (including one victory versus Division I-FCS Western Carolina) and 1-7 in-conference.

The Tar Heels went 7-6 last season with a 4-4 ACC mark and a dominant 55-13 win over Temple in the Military Bowl.

All of their losses were by seven or fewer points. One of the defeats went to six overtimes, and another ended after a singular extra session.

UNC also nearly picked off then-defending national champion Clemson in September, losing 21-20 after a late two-point conversion try did not come through.

The Tar Heels' future is bright, with the school also bringing in the No. 19 class in the nation next season. They have as good of a chance as anyone in the ACC to knock Clemson off the conference throne, where the Tigers have resided for the past five seasons.

Offseason or not, Mack Brown just picked up quite the victory over Nick Saban.

The head coach at North Carolina has convinced four-star quarterback Drake Maye to flip his commitment from Alabama to the Tar Heels. 

"I'd like to thank Coach Saban and the entire staff for the opportunity to play at the University of Alabama, but after sitting down with my family I have decided to de-commit from Alabama," Maye wrote on Twitter. "With that being said, I'm looking forward to playing for Coach Brown at the University of North Carolina. He, along with Coach Longo and Coach Bly have been tremendous throughout my recruiting process and I couldn't be more excited to become a Tar Heel."

The family factor seems a bit understated. Maye's older brother, Luke, was a four-year player for Roy Williams and the Tar Heels basketball team, where he earned First-Team All-ACC honors in 2018 and helped North Carolina capture the National Championship in 2017. 

That Maye grew up a short drive from Chapel Hill didn't hurt UNC's cause either. 

Aside from the Tide and Tar Heels, Maye was sought by Clemson, Georgia and Louisville as well. He's the No. 3 prospect in the state of North Carolina, the No. 6 pro-style quarterback in the nation and the No. 56 overall recruit in the class of 2021 as scouted by 247sports.com. 

At 6'4", 203 pounds, Maye has been compared to Sam Bradford and projects to develop into an NFL Draft pick.

Maye's father, Mark, played quarterback for UNC from 1984-87, where he passed for 3,459 total yards, 20 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. 

Highly-touted defensive end Desmond Evans is going to play college football at North Carolina after announcing his commitment on Friday.

Evans revealed his decision during a pep rally at Lee County High School:

Desmond Evans picks UNC pic.twitter.com/AMn5WRmmGi

— Barnt (@barntwn) October 18, 2019

Hailing from North Carolina, Evans is one of the best players in the 2020 recruiting class. He's rated as a 5-star prospect, the third-ranked defensive end and the No. 32 overall player, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

Evans has been lauded for his football skill dating back to his freshman year in high school. Adam Friedman of Rivals.com was gushing while describing the Sanford native in a 2016 article from Langston Wertz Jr. of the Charlotte Observer:

"This guy. His film is pretty freakin' special. You don't see guys come off the ball like he does and he has a natural aggression and quick-twitch nose for the ball. I don't want to blow him up too much, but I'm excited to see what he can do. He's got a frame that you can't teach and coordination to go with it."

Fast forward three years and Evans has filled out his body and stands at 6'6, 240 pounds. He plays a premium position and has consistently been a disruptive force in the backfield with 25 tackles for loss as a junior and 26 combined sacks in 2017-18. 

The Tar Heels will happily add Evans' unique skill set to their defensive line as they chase a conference title in 2020 and beyond. His addition is a huge boon to head coach Mack Brown's incoming class and a foundation piece to build around for the next few years. 

Brown is making a strong impression in the early stages of his tenure at North Carolina. The program had a solid recruiting class in 2019 with five four-star prospects among 25 commitments considering Brown wasn't hired until the end of November. 

In his first full recruiting cycle for the Tar Heels, Brown is showing the same prowess that made him so good at Texas. Evans is one of North Carolina's best in-state recruits, so keeping him at home will go a long way toward helping the program compete for ACC Coastal Division titles. 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — This is when the beautiful hell he willingly walked back into becomes real.

And this is when the promise he made his wife—how it wouldn't be so all-consuming this time around—must save him from the road he seems destined to travel.

"I told him it can't be like it was before," Sally Brown says.       

Then North Carolina lost to Appalachian State this past weekend, and everything that felt so right for Mack Brown in his second tenure at UNC instead feels eerily familiar.

He's a coach again, all right, at 68 years young. The body is a '57 Chevy; the engine has hundreds of thousands of miles of life.

Even after what it endured not so long ago.

"It got to the point the last time, at Texas, where every loss was a tragedy and every win was exhaling," Mack says.

He looks at his wonderful wife of 26 years, the woman whose passion for renovating homes inspires him. An architect, Sally says houses will talk to you and tell you what they need.

There was no doubt what Mack needed. The only question was how to get there.

"Can't be like that again," Mack says softly, and then he says it again to no one in stern affirmation. "It just can't."

It can't be how it was two decades ago, when Brown accepted a behemoth of a job at Texas, and Darrell Royal, the legendary Texas coach of years past, told him what he was in for was like having a box of BBs spill onto the floor and the only way to make it right is to get every one back in the box in the exact same spot it started.

It can't be how it was when Brown won double-digit games in nine straight seasons, won conference championships and a national championship and played for another national title, and sonofagun if it wasn't enough.

It can't be how it was when after 16 years in the meat grinder, winning at least nine games 13 times, having two eight-win seasons and one—for the love of all things pigskin, one—losing season, it all ended when Brown's close friend chose to save his own ass over Brown's.

"The day before I resigned [at Texas], Bill Powers begged me to stay another season," Brown says of the late Texas president. "We took vacations together. We traveled together as families. We were close friends. I agreed to stay one more year, and the next morning, the new athletic director [Steve Patterson] came into my office and said, 'I need you to resign today.' Apparently Bill had changed his mind, or someone had helped him change his mind. And that was that.

"Never spoke to him again."

Five years later, this carnival of the absurd is what Mack Brown willingly—and really, eagerly—signed up for again. A business built on the ideal that only one team wins at the end of the season, and everyone else is waiting to be fired. A business that eventually sucks the life from your soul, its tentacles providing just enough give to allow you the thought of leaving, though its fuel will never stop coursing through the veins.

Just when you think you're finding a groove at your new gig, getting back-to-back upset wins over South Carolina and Miami to begin the season, along comes a gut-punch loss to Wake Forest (including a horrible officiating call to end the game) and then a shocking home loss to Appalachian State.

And before you can even begin to figure out how in the world it went from that to this, you get to host defending national champion Clemson on Saturday.

"You learn, and you move to the next week," Brown says.

He's back in coaching mode. Win or lose, you forget it and move on.

Just don't let it eat you alive like the last job.

---

Sally likes to tell the story of all those summer trips to North Carolina over the years, when she and Mack would hop in the car on vacation and drive from Austin to their home in North Carolina.

When they'd stop for fuel, she'd refuse to let Mack get out of the car and pay because, invariably, he'd stop to chat up someone. And when Mack stops to chat, it's like the years of growing up in east Tennessee flow out of him uncontrollably.

"He's friends with everyone," Sally says with a laugh, and there's a whole lot of truth to that joyful jab.

There's a reason Mack earned the nickname "Coach February" early on at Texas, and it had nothing to do with how the team was performing on the field (the Longhorns won nine games in each of his first three seasons, but at Texas that's not enough to earn any affection).

The nickname came from how he performed after the season—the way he'd relate to mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers, and to those high school stars they're protecting. And boy, can he recruit.

"Let me tell you something, if Mack Brown was in that house before you, forget it, you lose," says former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, who earned a reputation as the game's best recruiter during the golden age of FSU football. "Everything else in football might have changed, but recruiting hasn't. Mack will still recruit better than anyone."

Recruiting elite players (Brown's 2020 class is ranked No. 19 by 247Sports' composite) leads to increased expectations, and in the case of the Texas job, unrealistic expectations.

By his fourth year in Austin, Brown began his run of nine straight double-digit-win seasons. The Longhorns started winning big, and the more they won, the stronger the monster grew. And the stronger the monster grew, the more Brown would stalk the sidelines with the look of a man who just swallowed a bag of knives.

"You're right," Brown admits, "I did look like that."

That's what this game does to coaches and why the grind at this level is more demanding than any other football job.

In the NFL, the game is truly a business. It's coaching and managing a salary cap and X's and O's and finding mismatches. It's an accounting sheet in which the numbers simply have to add up. In college football, it's recruiting and getting kids to go to class and massaging 100 different personalities who may or may not be fighting with their significant other or worried about their mom's gas bill that's overdue or dealing with the reality that, for the first time since Pop Warner, they're no longer BMOC.

Why in the world would anyone want to be part of this again?

"I worry about him as a brother because I just want him to be happy and healthy," says Watson Brown, Mack's older brother by two years who also spent more than four decades coaching college football. "Nothing else matters to me."

Watson stops here because this is important; this is his little brother. They were as inseparable growing up in Cookeville, Tennessee—playing high school ball for their granddad Jelly Brown—as they are now.

Mack interviewed for the Oklahoma job after the 1994 season, and he likely would've gotten it had he not pulled out. The reason he walked away: Watson was the offensive coordinator at OU, and Mack believed Watson had a chance to get the job.

"We talked many times before he took the [UNC] job," Watson says. "He's a great coach, and he's going to do it right. He goes in with a plan, he sees what's there, sees where it has to go and he doesn't deviate. He sticks to it through good and bad. That's his best trait.

"They're getting his best shot, believe me."

---

He tried to stay connected through analyst work on television, and that didn't work. He tried traveling for a full year—anywhere Sally wanted to go, because she put up with his job all these years—and that didn't take, either.

He wanted back in the game, but Sally insisted any return would only happen at one of two jobs: back at North Carolina, where he coached from 1988 to 1997, or at Hawaii.

"The Hawaii job wasn't open," Mack deadpans.

More than 20 years ago, Sally designed a state of the art football-only facility at North Carolina. Every room, every square foot, had a purpose.

The cost was $50 million, and to get an idea of just how enormous that undertaking was back in the mid-1990s, understand that Clemson built a wildly hyped (see: bowling alley, player slide, etc.) football facility in 2017 for $55 million.

On the day he was supposed to move into his new office at North Carolina in 1997, Brown accepted the job offer from Texas and never got a chance to use it. More than two decades later, he sits in the office that overlooks the beautiful stadium shrouded in pine trees and marvels at an old adage.

"The more things change," Mack says, and his voice tails off.

The more it's like you've never left.

Their friends are still around. So are their doctors and those great little restaurants they loved. Rick Steinbacher was a linebacker on Mack's team, and now he's an associate athletic director at UNC.

Dre Bly, one of Brown's All-Americans from those years, now coaches cornerbacks for the Tar Heels. Tommy Thigpen, a team captain of years gone by, coaches linebackers.

"When I heard Mack was coming back, the first thing that went through my mind is, this is going to work," Bly says. "We will get elite players here. Make no mistake about that. We will win."

It took Brown all of two weeks to get 4-star quarterback Sam Howell, 247Sports' No. 1 recruit in the state of North Carolina and a player who could be Brown's most important recruit for years to come. Not only does getting Howell give UNC the chance to win now, but it also shows the rest of the players in the state that Brown is building something again.

Most of the coaches who spent all that time with Brown long ago are still around or connected to those state programs in some way. None were shocked when Brown, days after he was named coach on Nov. 26, 2018, hopped in a car and drove two-and-a-half hours south on I-85 to Monroe, North Carolina, where Howell had developed into one of the nation's top dual-threat quarterbacks.

"Mack's going to shake things up," a coach at one of the state's top high schools tells Bleacher Report. "Hell, I'm excited about it, and I have no dog in the hunt."

Howell had been committed to Florida State for eight months. Not long after spending time with Brown, he switched his commitment to North Carolina. A week before the end of summer camp, Brown named Howell his starting quarterback. And Howell is already showing why he was such a highly regarded recruit, with nine passing touchdowns, 1,024 yards and a 64.1 completion percentage.

"Coach Brown brings it in this building every single day. Everything about him screams positivity," Howell says. "There's never an off day for him."

---

Brown is driving a powder-blue golf cart across the bucolic campus, waving and smiling at everyone. Students, faculty, groundskeepers.

Everybody knows Mack, everybody loves Mack.

It's a long way from the daily grind in Austin, a city Mack and Sally adore and had a harder time leaving than you might think. Mack had other job offers but never really considered any of them until UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham called and asked him to come home.

For weeks after he arrived in Chapel Hill, his new team tried to get him to dance. You know, something to break up the long, monotonous days of camp in the hot and humid North Carolina summer. When everyone is dragging through the fourth week of camp, there has to be some release. So the players jumped in cold tubs and danced and laughed and bonded.

Mack had no problem getting in those cold tubs, but dancing? If Sally can't get him on the dance floor, he sure wasn't going to randomly bust a few moves.

So he dangled a carrot: beat South Carolina in the season opener, and I'll dance.

Walking through position meeting rooms during game week, Brown eased into a corner of the defensive backs room. The DBs, the last level of run defense.

"I'm concerned that South Carolina is going to line up and run it right at us," Brown softly admitted while the group went through preparations.

South Carolina ran for 128 yards on 31 carries but never did enough damage in the run game. Two fourth-quarter touchdown drives engineered by Howell in his first game gave Brown his first victory in his second tenure at UNC and forced an uncomfortable moment in the postgame locker room.

He was dancing. All arms and very much a 21st-century version of the robot, but he was dancing, nonetheless.

"He brought life back into the room, back into the program," says UNC safety Myles Dorn. "He brought fun back to the game. Every day he chooses to have fun. It makes all the difference in the world."

It can't be like it was before. Except when it has to be.

"You ask me why I'm in this, and it's not as complicated an answer as you think," Brown says. "I love football, always have."

The golf cart stops mid-drive, and one of the game's best recruiters leans over and sells stone cold truth.

"Football isn't the drug," Brown says. "Seeing a player return to campus 20 years later with his family and he tells you, 'I'd never be where I am today without this university and this team.' That's everything.

"That's why you coach."

Atlantic Coast Conference supervisor of football officials Dennis Hennigan said Saturday that North Carolina should have been awarded one second of additional time at the end of the fourth quarter in the Tar Heels' 24-18 loss to Wake Forest on Friday night.

Hennigan explained the game's replay official should have reviewed the final play, a 13-yard run by UNC running back Michael Carter, and put one second on the clock because he stepped out of bounds before time expired, per Aaron Beard of the Associated Press.

"All disciplinary measures related to the replay officials are being handled internally and the ACC considers this matter closed," Hennigan said.

Sure looks like there should be 1 second left in the Wake Forest/UNC game🤔 pic.twitter.com/c29TW0yhKv

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) September 14, 2019

The review would have given the Tar Heels one play from the Demon Deacons' 42-yard line.

Carter accepted responsibility for not making a more concerted effort to get out of bounds, though UNC head coach Mack Brown noted officials ignored calls from his sideline about the clock error, per Beard.

"Honestly, I kind of slowed down to try to set the blocks up," Carter said. "If I would've just run straight out of bounds, we probably would've had probably like three seconds left. But I thought it was going to be the last play of the game. That was a mental error by me."

Brown added: "I would've liked the chance to Hail Mary."

Wake Forest moved to 3-0 with the victory, following wins over Utah State and Rice. The Demon Deacons should be a heavy favorite against Elon next week and have a realistic chance to remain unbeaten through a mid-November clash with reigning champion Clemson.

UNC, which already scored high-profile wins over South Carolina and Miami, will look to bounce back next weekend against Appalachian State.

Mack Brown is currently in his second stint as head coach at North Carolina, but his first go at the job has paid off in a way that has nothing to do with football. 

Per ESPN.com, a spokesman for the Tar Heels football team announced one of Mack's former players, Dr. Michael Bolognesi, performed knee replacement surgery for the legendary coach. 

Brown issued a statement on Bolognesi repairing his knee Monday:

"First off, how cool is it that one of our former players replaced my knee yesterday. We talk about building young men so they can be productive husbands, fathers and citizens. Carolina produces a lot of special people and I'm happy we were able to play a small part in Mike's development because we counted on him and he, along with the rest of the surgical and anesthetic team, did a tremendous job."

Prior to his 16-year tenure at the University of Texas, Brown spent 10 seasons at North Carolina from 1988-97. 

Bolognesi was a defensive back for the Tar Heels from 1989-93. 

Brown was hired to lead the Tar Heels football team last November after Larry Fedora was fired following back-to-back nine-loss seasons. 

It will be Brown's first head-coaching job since he resigned from Texas following the 2013 season. He was discharged from the hospital on the same day as the operation. 

North Carolina will open the 2019 season at home against South Carolina on August 31. 

Ole Miss offensive coordinator Phil Longo will reportedly fill the same position on head coach Mack Brown's North Carolina staff, according to Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports, who added that Brown is going "Air Raid" with his offensive philosophy. 

As Nick Suss of the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger noted: "Under Longo's leadership, the Rebels averaged 32.8 points per game in 2017 and 33.9 points per game in 2018. Longo's Ole Miss offenses finished second in the SEC in total offense each of the last two seasons, averaging more than 500 yards per game in 2018."

Feldman added that Ole Miss finished the season seventh in the nation in yards per play (7.12) and second in plays of 30 or more yards (51), trailing only Heisman winner Kyler Murray's Oklahoma Sooners in that category.

Brown is putting together a solid staff, having already installed Army's Jay Bateman and former Tennessee linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen as co-defensive coordinators. 

Longo at OC and Bateman at DC is pretty nice for Mack. https://t.co/HqC2YKZm4p

— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoATH) December 11, 2018

Additionally, Greg Barnes of 247Sports.com reported Tuesday that "former Texas Tech offensive line coach Brandon Jones and former Louisville wide receiver coach Lonnie Galloway will also join UNC's coaching staff at their respective positions."

The Tar Heels have also brought aboard former NFL cornerback Dre Bly to coach the defensive backs, while Tim Brewster—who served under Brown at both North Carolina and Texas and is highly regarded as a recruiter—was also added to the staff. 

Between Bateman, Longo, Brewster, and Bly, Mack Brown is putting together an impressive staff in Chapel Hill. Feels like the Avengers assembling.

— Taylor Vippolis (@tvippolis) December 11, 2018

It will be Brown's second tenure at North Carolina and his first head-coaching gig since 2013, when he resigned from the Texas Longhorns. Mack previously had stints with Tulane (1985-87), North Carolina (1988-97) and Texas (1998-13), going 238-117-1, with 13 bowl wins and the 2005 national championship on his resume.

North Carolina has not wasted any time settling on Mack Brown as its next head football coach, confirming his hire in a release on Tuesday.

"Sally and I love North Carolina, we love this University and we are thrilled to be back," Brown said in the release. "The best part of coaching is the players – building relationships, building confidence, and ultimately seeing them build success on and off the field. We can't to wait to meet our current student-athletes and reconnect with friends, alumni and fellow Tar Heel coaches. We thank UNC's Board of Trustees, Chancellor Folt and Bubba Cunningham for supporting our return to the Carolina family."

On Monday, Greg Barnes of 247Sports first reported Brown agreed to a second tenure in Chapel Hill.

Brown, 67, was North Carolina's coach from 1988-97 before he took the job at Texas. The Heels went 69-46-1 under Brown and made a pair of Gator Bowl appearances in his last two years with the program.

Brown went on to coach at Texas from 1998 to 2013. The Longhorns were 158-48 under Brown and won the 2005 national championship. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this year and is tied with Frank Beamer as the ninth-winningest coach in Division I history.

Brown needs only 20 wins to move into sixth place on the all-time list.

Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman reported Brown is already compiling a wish list of potential assistants. Gene Chizik is being considered for the defensive coordinator post, while recently fired Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury could come on as offensive coordinator.

Chizik has not coached since he was UNC's defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2016. He resigned following the 2016 season to spend more time with his family. 

Kingsbury went 35-40 in six seasons at Texas Tech, building a prolific offense but struggling mightily to find success defensively. 

It's unclear what level of interest Chizik or Kingsbury has in joining Brown. 

Brett McMurphy of Stadium reported Brown would not consider any other head coaching openings if the UNC deal fell through. 

The Mack Brown-to-North Carolina rumors are heating up to the point he's reportedly already beginning to consider a staff.

Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman reported Brown could attempt to hire Gene Chizik as his defensive coordinator and Kliff Kingsbury as his offensive coordinator. Texas Tech fired Kingsbury as its head coach Sunday, while Chizik last served as UNC's defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2016.

Kingsbury's tenure at Texas Tech was undone by his inability to develop a defensive presence. While the Red Raiders had a prolific offense throughout his time as coach, the program ranked in the bottom half of college football in each of his six seasons.

Chizik was Auburn's head coach from 2009 to 2012, winning the 2010 national championship but struggling in his other three seasons. He won multiple Coach of the Year honors in 2010. The 56-year-old also spent two years at Iowa State, going 5-19.

Chizik has remained in Auburn with his family and resigned at UNC to be closer to them, so it's unclear what level of interest he has in returning to football. 

Brown, 67, was the head coach at Texas from 1998 to 2013 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this year. The Longhorns went 158-48 during his tenure and won the 2005 national title.

Prior to his stint at Texas, Brown was North Carolina's head coach from 1988 to 1997.