It appears that when Pitt travels to North Carolina in a couple of weeks, UNC head coach Mack Brown will still be leading the Tar Heels.
After reports surfaced that Brown was potentially stepping down following a 70-50 loss to JMU on Saturday, Brown told Chris Lowe of ESPN that he is not retiring and will be back to work on Sunday. Brown reportedly told the Tar Heels that he blamed himself for the loss and would step aside if things weren’t able to be fixed.
There’s clearly some trouble brewing in North Carolina. The Tar Heels stepped into the national spotlight Saturday after being lit up by JMU.
UNC is on its third quarterback of the season, after season-opening starter Max Johnson went down with a season-ending injury in the opener and backup Conner Harrell was replaced by Jacolby Criswell before the JMU game. But the quarterback woes are now very much in the background. The UNC defense was blasted by the Dukes’ offense.
It doesn’t bode well for Brown’s future with the program, especially with the way he’s handled the situation so far.
Brown, 73, is in his sixth season with the Tar Heels. He’s 41-28 with the Heels, his second tenure with the program. He also coached the program from 1988-97, turning the program into a perennial top 25 team.
Brown left for Texas in 1998 and spent 16 seasons at the helm of the Longhorns’ program. He guided Texas to a national championship in 2005. But it’s been nearly 20 years since that title now.
Pitt has an opportunity to go into Chapel Hill, N.C. and win for the first time in program history, currently sitting at 0-7, and set the tone for conference play with a major win. Pitt is riding high, entering the bye week, at 4-0 — the first 4-0 start since 2000.
Pitt seemingly matches up well with UNC, coming off a 70-point performance of its own against Youngstown State. The Panthers average 48.5 points per game through four games.
PITT has always had a tough time with Carolina… under Larry Fedora I think the only conference win the Heels had that season was against PITT! Don’t rest on your win vs the penguins and get focused…2 weeks to prepare for both teams….. What is Duzz’s record after a bye- week.. anyone?
North Carolina had one of the worst teams in decades and still be Pitt only one of two games they won all that year it’ll be a miracle of Pitt wins in Chapel Hill
Recent history with Youngstown State wasn’t great either…didn’t seem to matter yesterday.
Not a problem. Completely different approach. We are going down to Chapel Hill to burn Carolina to the ground.
Don’t forget that the Carolina Boys in stripes are usually a factor there.
NC loves to throw easy passes to their RBs and TEs, and we are terrible at covering TEs and RBs. I really hope Narduzzi sees this and can make adjustments, along with catching punts before they bounce 20 more yards.
H2P!!!
Especially on 3rd and 4th downs ,very frustrating at times
Duzz will want to shake Geoff Collins’ hand if we drop 70 on his Defense.
An old guy blowing off steam with an emotional response after a disappointing loss. After so many years coaching Brown wouldn’t just up and leave at the beginning of a season unless the University fired him.
Theat have lost to JMU but they still put 50 points on the board. Pitt may want to take a page from the Steelers playbook and have referees at some of their practices the next couple of weeks.