By Brian Murphy, WRAL

North Carolina’s Mack Brown is the oldest head coach in college football. And, he says, opposing coaches have made his age an issue since he returned to the sidelines in Chapel Hill in 2019.

Brown, who turns 73 on Aug. 27, has tried to diffuse the conversation around his age by turning it on other coaches, including former Duke coach Mike Elko.

“Right now, every recruit that comes in, the first thing he wants to know is are you going to quit because every coach recruiting against us says I’m going to quit,” Brown said at this week’s annual ACC Kickoff event in Charlotte. “And six of them have been fired that said that already, so they ought to be worried more about themselves.”

Elko coached at Duke for two seasons, going 16-9 and elevating the Blue Devils’ program. He left for Texas A&M after the season.

“Then coach Elko said, ‘I’ll be at Duke longer than Mack will be at Carolina,'” Brown said. “Well. I called him when he went out to A&M and said, ‘OK, you lied.’ He said, ‘I didn’t think I was going.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I got it. I hear all that.'”

Brown, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, is one of three active coaches who have won a Football Bowl Subdivision national championship. Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney are the others.

He knows the retirement conversation isn’t going away. He recounted a story about asking legendary coaches Bobby Bowden at Florida State and Joe Paterno at Penn State why they kept coaching much later in life. Bowden coached until he was 80. Paterno until he was 84. Neither went out on their own terms.

What Bowden told him: “I have a purpose. The purpose is to help these young people with their lives. He said when I quit coaching, the next significant thing that will happen in my life will be my death.”

It stuck with Brown and influences the way he talks about his present and future.

“I thought that’s pretty strong,” he said. “The way I feel is I love these guys. I don’t like these guys, I love these guys. …

“I feel such a purpose, more than any time in my life, that I can help with their lives. That’s pretty powerful as you start looking at it. That’s why I got back into coaching. I feel even more strongly about that.”

Brown is 38-27 in his five seasons back at UNC. The Tar Heels reached an Orange Bowl and an ACC championship game, but late-season collapses in the last two seasons have soured some. There’s a sense that UNC didn’t fully capitalize on having star quarterbacks Sam Howell and Drake Maye and stellar recruiting classes.

“I don’t care about my legacy because it’s already there,” Brown said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, so that doesn’t matter to me. In fact, I’m in such a great place that it’s not about me, so that’s good. It’s healthy. I wouldn’t stay too long in my mind. I’ll know when it’s best for me to quit more than anybody else. Every time you lose, everybody wants you to quit at my age.

“… But as long as I’m being effective and having fun and love this stuff, I want to keep doing it. Because probably the next time I quit will be the last time I coach.”

More coverage from ACC Kickoff:

After breakout season, UNC star Hampton wants to show off his all-around game

‘We don’t want to be good’: For NC State, eyeing 12-team playoff, good no longer enough

‘As long as it takes’: ACC commissioner commits to fight ‘harmful’ legal battles with Clemson, Florida State

Duke’s Manny Diaz wears cleats to practice. Why he’s been doing it for nearly 20 years.

New ACC member SMU ‘bonkers’ about long-awaited return to power conference

Source: wralsportsfan.com