Former Texas Coach Mack Brown Literally Takes Longhorn Football Tradition to Use at UNC
By Michael Luciano
After making his name as a head coach in Chapel Hill before becoming a legend at Texas, 67-year-old Mack Brown is back at North Carolina after five years away from coaching, as he tries to bring the team back out of the depths that the end of the Larry Fedora era sunk them too.
One of Brown's first orders of business is to light up the bell tower in Carolina light blue following every Tar Heels win.
We're excited to officially announce a new tradition starting this season.
— Carolina Football (@TarHeelFootball) August 26, 2019
After each football win, we're going to light the Bell Tower blue.
We hope everyone will come out to the Bell Tower after both home and road victories to celebrate.#CarolinaFootball ? #BeTheOne pic.twitter.com/KHXzeN9BZP
Triggered Longhorns fans will note that this is the exact same tradition Brown instituted in Austin, as Texas is known for lighting up one of their buildings in their trademark burnt orange following a win.
Will never look as good as burnt orange pic.twitter.com/uZiFvZ7aZl
— B (@texas_2120) August 26, 2019
Brown is certainly pulling heavily from his Longhorns tenure, as he brought in offensive coordinator Phil Longo from Ole Miss to run an "Air Raid" style of offense that isn't dissimilar to the style that won Brown a national championship with Vince Young and got him to another with Colt McCoy.
From misery to happiness: Why UNC’s Mack Brown became a football coach again at 67.
— ACC Now (@accnow) August 24, 2019
➡️ https://t.co/RzODdFYP2a#tarheels pic.twitter.com/kK6Lw9Onnr
Brown might have been out of the game for a while, but if anyone can be trusted to turn around UNC, it's someone who has done it before. It hasn't taken long for him to put his stamp on the program.