Mack Brown responds to criticism from Paul Finebaum

We wouldn’t call Mack Brown versus Paul Finebaum a rivalry yet, but it may be getting to that point.

Over the weekend, North Carolina‘s College Football Playoff dreams went up in smoke, as the Tar Heels suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday at the Virginia Cavaliers. Afterwards, Finebaum had some choice words for Brown, and the entire North Carolina squad.

Joining The Matt Barrie Show on Sunday, Finebaum reminded his ESPN colleague 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 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. He has done a phenomenal job but he just always has that game. That’s really too bad because that program probably deserved better.”

After hearing what Finebaum had to say from a reporter, Brown turned it around on the SEC Network analyst, and put it all in persecutive.

“I think it’s been great that I’ve had that many ranked teams,” responded Brown. “That’s pretty cool. Paul’s giving me a compliment. I don’t worry about all that stuff. I try, every week, to win every game that we’ve got. And I’ve lost a bunch of them. I’ve won 280 and lost what, 140 or something? So I mean, when people say, ‘This is the worst loss ever,’ I don’t know. I’ve got a bunch of them. I’ve got a long list of bad losses.

“So if we want to get into the bad losses. You coach 35 years, you’re probably going to have some bad losses, or I’d have more wins that Knute Rockne, or whoever’s up there.”

While Brown isn’t letting Finebaum dunk on him, the loss to the Cavaliers does sting. After reaching 6-0, North Carolina had finally entered the conversation as a national contender. They had been a part of the ACC picture from the beginning, and remain in that position, but talks about playoff hopes had started to pick up around Chapel Hill.

Time will tell how Mack Brown and North Carolina respond over the rest of the season, but it’s going to be tough to shake the disappointment from last weekend for awhile.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.