Paul Finebaum dismisses age argument against Mack Brown, points to Nick Saban
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Mack Brown is back in college football. The former Texas coach who won a BCS championship with the Longhorns has returned to North Carolina for a second tenure as the head coach of the Tar Heels.
CFB Twitter mostly mocked the hire. Paul Finebaum, on the other hand, offered a ringing endorsement of UNC’s decision.
“I thought this was a phenomenal hire for a number of reasons,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines.’ “It was outside the box. People say, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ Mack Brown’s 67 years old. He’s already been there before. In my mind, it really showed some creativity. (The school is) getting someone who’s very comfortable with the fan base. He was there a number of years ago.
“He has great relationships with high school coaches. And he also has experience. Mack Brown is 67, but so is Nick Saban and he’s only the best coach maybe of all time. What I think Mack is going to do is bring in younger assistants, especially at the coordinator positions, and be somewhat of a CEO. That’s what he was at Texas and I think he’ll do a really interesting job here. I believe he will improve this program which has suffered so much off the field with NCAA issues and (former coach) Larry Fedora constantly putting his foot in his mouth.”
The full “OTL” segment with clips from Brown’s press conference can be viewed below:
“I thought this was a phenomenal hire.” @finebaum on UNC hiring Mack Brown as its next head football coach pic.twitter.com/2dYqVBXhyN
— Outside The Lines (@OTLonESPN) November 27, 2018
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
