I guess this is goodbye, again.
Mack Brown officially turned into a lame duck this week, as UNC chose to end his second tenure in Chapel Hill rather than expose the football program to another year of turbulence.
This is a disappointingly logical move on Bubba Cunningham’s part. One more season of six- or seven- win ball with Brown’s fate hanging over recruiting would have been handy. Oh well. As it is, the Heels have avoided the complicated matter of a farewell tour and the potential impediments to the coaching search process that might entail.
Brown will still coach the game on Saturday, which is an odd move but just as well: better to have that team in an underwhelmed win-one-for-grandpa mode instead of a potentially inspired win-one-for-the-beloved-linebackers-coach (or whoever) mode. Mack has this opportunity to offer us one last gift, and I’d sure love to take it.
There’ll be an extra layer of emotion to that sideline on Saturday and NC State will need to prepare accordingly. If I were in Mack’s situation, I’d call like five flea flickers in a row just for the hell of it. I’d expect them to be loose and play like it, whatever form that ends up taking.