Who Is Mack Brown Beating For Recruits ... and How Often?

Part two of a deep dive into UNC's recruiting roll

Earlier this week, we broke down the roll that Mack Brown and UNC have been on. The Tar Heels 2021 signees had an average of 18 other Power Five offers, and Brown’s win-loss record against other Power Five schools was increased significantly over last year.

In this installment, we look into who Brown and the Tar Heels are beating for recruits.

Building a wall

Since the start of his first stint at UNC, Brown has talked about keeping the state’s best prospects at home. He’s done that with a vengeance over the last two years.

Brown has a dominant recruiting record against some of the teams that are best known for coming into North Carolina to poach top prospects. A total of 17 recruits in 2021 chose between offers from UNC and Virginia Tech. Fifteen of them signed with the Tar Heels. Last year, Brown went 12-0 against the Hokies.

Brown went 15-5 against Tennessee for recruits, 13-0 against South Carolina.

Carnage within the walls

With the borders secured, Brown was then able to dominate the other schools within the state. He swept Duke on the recruiting trail, signing all 13 recruits that chose between offers from the Tar Heels and Blue Devils. He also went 11-0 against Wake Forest and 16-4 against NC State. The 40-4 record against the other ACC schools withing the borders is an improvement over last year’s already-dominant 33-6 mark.

Brown also went 10-0 against App State, 15-1 against East Carolina, 11-0 against Charlotte and added wins over Campbell, NC Central and NC A&T (twice) for a combined 80-5 mark against all other schools in North Carolina. Last year, he was 55-8. 

Brown wasn’t just dominant against North Carolina schools and neighbors, though. He had undefeated records on the recruiting trail against 25 Power Five schools, or more than a third of everyone in the Power Five. By comparison, he had a losing record against just seven programs: Clemson (3-6), Alabama (4-6), Pitt (1-4), Notre Dame (1-3), USC (0-2), Oregon State (0-2) and Boston College (0-2).

Here’s a look at which programs UNC beat for recruits the most in 2021 (sorted by total wins).

And here’s who beat UNC for recruits most often this year (sorted by total losses). Notice that, despite high numbers of losses, UNC still had a winning record against more than half the teams on the list.