North Carolina stretching value of nostalgia bringing back Mack Brown

North Carolina moved quickly to replace Larry Fedora, so much so they are betting greatly on nostalgia with Mack Brown.

Maybe you can go home again after all.

After going 3-9 in 2017, Larry Fedora was on the hot seat going into this season at North Carolina. A 2-9 campaign this year sealed his fate, and he was fired on Sunday. A report almost immediately surfaced attaching Mack Brown to the Tar Heels, and on Monday morning Inside Carolina and The News and Observer both reported an official announcement is coming on Tuesday.

Outside of an 11-win season under Fedora in 2015, the proverbial glory days of North Carolina football came under Brown in his first stint as head coach. Over those 10 seasons (1988-1997), the Tar Heels went 69-46-1 (.595 winning percentage) with three 10-win seasons. After back-to-back 1-10 campaigns to start his tenure, Brown led the Tar Heels to eight straight winning seasons with a 67-26-1 record (.713 winning percentage). In each of his final two seasons, North Carolina finished top-10 in the country.

Brown, of course, went on to have a successful run at Texas, with a 158-48 record (.767 winning percentage), one national title and another national title game appearance. But the end of his tenure was decidedly mediocre, with a 30-21 record over his last four seasons (2010-2013).

Brown has worked as an analyst for ESPN since resigning at Texas, so he has stayed close to the game. But in May of 2017, he suggested a return to coaching if the situation was right.

Brown is 67 years old, and he’ll be 68 by the time the 2019 season kicks off. So it would have to be a unique situation for him to coach again. Going back to North Carolina, and getting the program back on track, would probably have been on that list of situations and now Brown is indeed headed back.

If Brown gets his coordinator hires right, the immediate skepticism around his return to the Tar Heels could go well on the field. From the school’s perspective, the name brand Brown brings with him has automatic value with increased buzz and heightened interest in the football program.

But there didn’t have to be a rush to replace Fedora, with Brown’s return set to be made official with around a 48-hour turnaround from firing to hiring. And if there was some unnecessary urgency, it should have at least come with knowledge Appalachian State’s Scott Satterfield wasn’t interested in replacing Fedora.