Anonymous opposing coach says Mack Brown's future is hurting North Carolina's recruiting

North Carolina simply isn’t recruiting at an elite level for a power five football program. While no one is expecting to see the Tar Heels parade a bunch of five stars into the program every fall, UNC’s current group for the 2024 class leaves a lot to be desired. They do rank No. 28 in the country on the On3 Industry Team Rankings for ’24 at the moment, but that’s with 20 guys already committed, a fairly high number compared to other top-30 teams. Plus, the Heels have just two recruits of four stars or higher and just a 10% blue chip rate, per On3’s calculations.

It’s an underwhelming class given how exciting the present is for North Carolina football with superstar quarterback and likely top 2024 NFL Draft pick Drake Maye under center and legendary college football coach Mack Brown running the show. As for the future? It’s not looking great, at least on the high school recruiting front.

According to one anonymous college football coach, Brown’s age and the lack of certainty on the future of the program is really driving a stake into the Heels’ recruiting efforts. Guys in the 2024 and 2025 classes probably imagine they won’t even be coached by Brown by the time they’re juniors or seniors since he’ll be halfway to 80 by then.

The anonymous coach, who was interviewed by Athlon Sports, said there’s a lot of questions and little answers about the longterm future of the program’s leader. Here was that comment:

“Maybe the team with the most questions in the entire league. The knock on them in coaching circles is that they’ve become ‘Transfer U.’ No one really knows that the long-term plan with Mack (Brown) is, and we think that’s starting to eat into their high school recruiting.”

Click HERE to purchase the entire Athlon magazine for the 2023 college football season

The coach then went to address the upcoming North Carolina team, noting that there are massive holes on the defensive side of the football for the Tar Heels, especially after they weren’t all that great last year.

“Defensively, they lost basically their entire secondary, and overall they’re missing some real dudes. I think this is a less-talented roster overall, especially on defense, and they weren’t really threatening on that side of the ball last season. (Drake Maye) Maybe is a great talent; maybe they can transition quickly out of the (Phil) Longo stuff and find some receivers. No one really knows what to expect here.”

Clearly, this anonymous and likely ACC coach doesn’t see the Mack Brown glory lasting much longer in Chapel Hill.