Texas Football: Mack Brown one away from tying Lou Holtz in wins all-time

Former Texas football head coach Mack Brown is close to moving up the career wins list among Division 1 college football head coaches.

All it took was one win last year for the former Texas football renowned head coach Mack Brown to move firmly into the top 10 among the winningest coaches in recorded college football history. In his first win as the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, which came early in the 2019 regular season, Brown officially moved past former Virginia Tech Hokies head coach Frank Beamer in 10th place on the all-time wins list among college football head coaches.

After Brown retired from his 16 year run as Texas head coach (which ended after the 2013 season), he sat with 238 career wins. But he was hired by the Tar Heels to replace former Texas offensive analyst and UNC head coach Larry Fedora as their next HC, prior to the start of the 2019 season. Brown went 7-6 (4-4 ACC) in his first year as the Tar Heels head coach.

That was good enough to move him firmly into the top 10, beyond Beamer, on the college football head coach all-time wins list. Since landing with UNC as their head coach last year, Brown has registered a record of 10-3. He is 3-0 (3-0 ACC) to start the 2020 season, bringing star sophomore quarterback Sam Howell and the Tar Heels up to No. 5 in the latest AP Poll.

Brown now has 248 wins in his career as a Division I college football head coach. His career record over the course of a whopping 31 years as a Division I college football head coach sits at 248-123-1 (with the lone tie coming during his first run as UNC’s head coach). That’s good for a winning percentage of .668. Those 248 wins brings him within one of tying the long-time Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Lou Holtz.

Holtz registered 249 wins during his 33 years as a college football head coach. He started out his Division I head coaching run with the William & Mary Tribe in the late 1960’s. Then, Holtz spent much of his coaching career with the Arkansas Razorbacks, South Carolina Gamecocks, and Notre Dame. And he also had shorter runs with the NC State Wolfpack and Minnesota Golden Gophers.

The career record of Holtz as a Division 1 head coach is 249-132-7 (.651 winning percentage). His most successful stints were with Notre Dame and Arkansas, one season for which he won a National Championship.

Furthermore, Brown’s coaching career started with the Tulane Green Wave back during the 1985 season. He spent three years at Tulane before taking the head coaching job with the Tar Heels in the late 1980’s. In his first go-around with UNC, Brown was their head coach for a decade. He’s been there for two years since making his return to the coaching ranks.

The record for Brown at Texas individually was 158-48 (.767 winning percentage). He won one National Championship with the Longhorns (in that legendary 2006 Rose Bowl). And he holds a career postseason record of 14-8.

Brown could realistically move into the top eight before it’s all said and done for him as a head coach. Ahead of him in the next two spots in the top 10 beyond Holtz right now are the Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban (251 wins) and the legendary former Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Tom Osborne (255 wins). It is possible that Brown moves past Osborne within the next year, but it will be more difficult to catch up with Saban.

It’s tough for Longhorns football fans to see the success that Brown is sustaining since returning to Chapel Hill to coach the Tar Heels. While it’s really nice to see him doing well, the Longhorns aren’t in such a great spot this fall.

Brown is in a much better spot with the UNC football program too right now than current Texas head coach Tom Herman in a roller coaster ride of the 2020 college football season. Texas sits with a record of 2-2 (1-2 Big 12). Herman’s record at Texas since joining the program four years ago sits at 27-17 (.614 winning percentage).

Next up for the Longhorns out of the bye week is an Oct. 24 home contest with the Baylor Bears. That is if the novel coronavirus case outbreak that Baylor is currently undergoing clears up in the next eight or 10 days. And next up for Brown and the Tar Heels is a trip to Tallahassee to take on the Florida State Seminoles on the road on Oct. 17.