Good read from Greg Barnes on the relationship between Mack Brown and Charlotte's coach Healy...
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – On Sunday, six days before Will Healy’s Charlotte 49ers would meet North Carolina on the football field for the first time, the 35-year-old did what many in his profession consider to be unthinkable during a game week. He called Mack Brown.
“Will is so open,” Brown told reporters following Wednesday’s practice. “He called Sunday and said ‘Hey, let me ask you a couple of questions today.’ I said, ‘Hey, Will, look, man, we're playing this weekend. I don't usually do this.’ And he said, 'Yeah, but I’ve got a couple of things I want to ask you.’”
If there were any question as to the depth of the relationship between the mild-mannered upstart and the Hall of Fame head coach, a phone call during game week is convincing confirmation. Their family ties date back to 1969, when Brown played football at Vanderbilt with Healy’s uncle, Chip. That season occurred 15 years before Healy was born, although that connection proved beneficial at the 2016 Bobby Dodd award banquet.
Healy was coming off a winless season at Austin Peay in his first year as a head coach, while Brown had settled in as an ESPN analyst. They shared a table, and eventually conversation led to the exchanging of phone numbers.
“Out of the blue, he called me four or five years ago and said, ‘Hey, I'm Will Healy. I'd like to start asking you some questions. Is that okay?’” Brown recalled. “And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and we've become really good friends. I can't wait to watch him grow.”
Healy was coming off a winless season at Austin Peay in his first year as a head coach, while Brown had settled in as an ESPN analyst. They shared a table, and eventually conversation led to the exchanging of phone numbers.
“Out of the blue, he called me four or five years ago and said, ‘Hey, I'm Will Healy. I'd like to start asking you some questions. Is that okay?’” Brown recalled. “And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and we've become really good friends. I can't wait to watch him grow.”
“My biggest thing that I always ask him are culture questions,” Healy said on Tuesday. “How did you handle this situation? How did you handle preparation? How did you handle a game week? A lot of COVID questions over the last six months. How are you handling this with your team? How are you communicating with your parents? And he's just got great insight.
“It's like when he speaks, you're like, ‘why didn't I think about that? Why didn’t I know that?’ And he's like, ‘Will, I've been doing this a little bit longer than you have.’ He's so wise and treats his players the right way, treats his coaches the right way. Everything about his program is done first class.”
When Brown returned to the coaching ranks in November 2018, he stressed his desire to mentor young men. That extended beyond the players on his roster. His intent was to pay forward that which had helped him during the early years of his coaching career.
“I had older coaches help me,” Brown said. “That's really important to me. When I was the president of the American Football Coaches Association, and when I was at ESPN, I had coaches call all the time and just ask, ‘how would you do this? Help me with this. Did this ever come up?’ And I love that. It's a huge part of my life right now that I can give back what older coaches gave back to me.”
Healy’s not the first coach, nor will he likely be the last, that Brown has offered his guidance. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had his interim tag removed in December 2008 and several months later he was on a plane to Austin, Tex. to meet with Brown and his Longhorns coaching staff. Texas was coming off a 12-1 season and would open the 2009 campaign as the preseason No. 2 team in the country, so there was plenty of reason for Brown to be paranoid in a changing football landscape that favored secrecy. Instead, the Hall of Fame head coach offered Swinney full access to the ins and outs of his program.
Nine years later, Swinney would share similar insights with Healy upon accepting the Charlotte job. That’s the brotherhood of college coaching, although Brown has shifted more to a father figure role in his late-60s.
“Coach Brown has been exceptional to me,” Healy said. “He's an incredible person. He's an unbelievable football coach. I've leaned on him more in the last six months and I have anybody else, including asking for advice [on Sunday]. So he's unbelievable. He's been through it all. It's a lot of fun for me watching somebody like him enjoy his job as much as he is right now in Chapel Hill.”
