Brown’s Tar Heels have no weaknesses; best team UVA has faced

By Jerry Ratcliffe

When Virginia went shopping for a new football coach in 2014, it was my bright idea to try and talk UVA’s athletic bosses to go after Mack Brown.

As an outside observer, I believed Brown was the best college football CEO that I had ever been around. He was a master recruiter, was great with alumni and fundraising, was a terrific motivator, and was smart enough to surround himself with great assistant coaches. It all made sense to me. Mack’s daughter was a member of the UVA faculty, he knew the ACC, his national championship ring from Texas would open a lot of recruiting doors. He could be lured out of the ESPN studio.

I was told that Brown was too old.

Nine years later, a 72-year-old Brown has North Carolina undefeated, ranked in the top 10 for the third time in five years.

Virginia will travel to Chapel Hill and a reenergized Kenan Stadium for a Saturday night game. The Tar Heels are 6-0, UVA is 1-5 and a 23-point underdog to UNC.

North Carolina is the best team Virginia has faced this season, including Tennessee, and there’s plenty of reasons why. Start with a dynamic Tar Heel defense, which starts with Heisman candidate quarterback Drake Maye.

This UNC team doesn’t have an apparent weakness, especially now that Brown has a reliable defense. The only thing that could get in Carolina’s way is Carolina, and Brown is already guarding against overlooking the Cavaliers (listen to our podcast with Tar Heel Illustrated publisher Andrew Jones for a great story about Brown making sure the Heels aren’t looking past UVA, and how Brown helped turn around UNC’s defense).

“I believe it is the best team that we’ve seen so far,” UVA coach Tony Elliott said when I asked his opinion on Tuesday. “They’re playing very complementary football. Defensively, I’ll start there, they look different than they did last year. You can see similar players. They have a couple of new guys in spots, but they’re a lot more cohesive. They’re playing with a lot more energy.”

Elliott believes Carolina’s better understanding of what they’re doing — our podcast reveals how defensive coordinator Gene Chizik had an epiphany on philosophy, and how a consultant has helped UNC’s pass rush — has allowed the Heels to generate turnovers, which in turn gives a powerful offense short fields.

“Then you look at that offense, and Drake Maye is as good a quarterback as I have seen,” said Elliott, who coached some eventual NFL starting quarterbacks during his stint at Clemson. “In my opinion, he’s the best in the country. Nothing seems to rattle him. It doesn’t matter what’s going on around him. He’s able to get to his progressions quickly and if it’s not there, he doesn’t put the ball in jeopardy, so if it’s not there, he’s very confident as a runner.”

In fact, Maye is a sneaky-good runner, who can easily pick up a much-needed first down or get the Tar Heels out of a pickle, if that situation arises.

“He’s a big guy, and so it doesn’t look like he’s moving fast, but if you watch him, guys very rarely are able to actually get a hit on him. They’re diving at his legs. He knows where the sticks are, so he knows when he needs to slide. He can make every throw and then they run the football,” Elliott pointed out.

UNC has several quality running backs, led by Omarion Hampton, who shredded Miami’s defense last week. Hampton has managed to stack up some impressive rushing numbers since wide receiver Tez Walker became eligible two games ago. Because defenses have to pay so much attention to Walker, who can line up anywhere on the field, it freezes safeties and helps open running lanes, which in turn helps open up Maye’s play-action passes and bootlegs.

Walker isn’t the only quality receiver (UNC has two future NFL receivers with Nate McCollum).

“Then No. 9 (Walker) comes into the equation, and man, he’s special,” Elliott said. “I think he had three touchdowns in the last game.”

Elliott was correct. Walker had three scores against the Hurricanes in his very first start of the season and his first full game.

“Man, they’re very, very challenging to defend, because, one, they know what they’re doing. Two, they have the personnel that challenges you with different formations,” Elliott said. “And they have a quarterback who can pull it down and not just get you back to the line of scrimmage. I mean, he’s going for 10, 12, 14 yards.

“Credit to Coach Brown and his staff for really having these guys playing at a high level.”

Yes, credit to Mack Brown. Not too old.