Mack Brown assesses why coaching is to blame for Virginia loss

Mack Brown wasn’t shying away from the blame after North Carolina suffered an absolutely shocking loss on Saturday at the hands of the Virginia Cavaliers.

The Tar Heels were 6-0, and finally had finally entered the conversation as a national contender. However, that all went up in smoke following their 31-27 home loss to the Cavaliers, which Brown put on the North Carolina coaching staff, not their players.

“Always,” Brown responded, asked about putting the loss on the coaching staff. “Because that’s our job. It’s our responsibility to make sure — these our 20-year-olds, and their lives are like this. We’re supposed to do the things that we need to do to get them excited. To give them the edge. Put them in the right positions.

“We obviously didn’t do any of that tonight.”

Of course, the season isn’t a total loss, and North Carolina has a great chance to rebound, but the Tar Heels had the College Football Playoff on their mind, with a chance to achieve immortality. Seeing it flame out, especially in the way it did, stings more than ever.

Regardless, Mack Brown will get the Tar Heels back on the horse and ready for the rest of the season, even if North Carolina’s trajectory has changed.

Paul Finebaum: North Carolina’s loss to Virginia is the embodiment of Mack Brown

Meanwhile, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum thought this might have been coming down the pipe for UNC, even if nobody else saw it.

Finebaum spoke about North Carolina’s 31-27 home loss to the Cavaliers on ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday. He reminded him that he had still remained cautious about the Tar Heels to this point because, at some point or another, this is the trip up that always comes with teams that are led by Mack Brown.

“I was on the air the other day with Jeff Saturday,” explained Finebaum. “We were doing our top-four and he said, ‘Hey! What about North Carolina?’. And I said, ‘What about North Carolina?’”

“That is North Carolina. Sadly, it has been the embodiment of Mack Brown at North Carolina,” Finebaum said. “He has done a phenomenal job but he just always has that game. That’s really too bad because that program probably deserved better.”

Mack Brown, over his 15 seasons with the Tar Heels, now has 11 losses as a ranked team against an unranked opponent. Of those 11 losses, seven have come since his return to the job in 2019. The potential has been there, as well as the demoralizing losses.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.