On Sidelines, Links Run Deep

The moment Boston College announced its hire of Jeff Hafley is still a monumental moment in time for the history of the program. The way it came out, in front of a national audience on ESPN's College GameDay, launched the Eagles back into the national college football conscience and rocked the establishment with a New England-sized thunderclap.

That exact point in time generated a wave of energy that is still surging after BC's first two games. A 2-0 record helps, but the feeling of an explosion is a brass ring, hanging in midair, waiting for for the Eagles to potentially grab it this weekend when No. 11 North Carolina visits Chestnut Hill with its legendary head coach, Mack Brown.

"As a younger head coach, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Brown and what he's done," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said of the matchup. "(He is) a guy I looked up to when he was at Texas and then certainly, I watched him when he was doing (television commentary). It's an honor for me to have the opportunity to go and coach against him."

Names don't really get any bigger than the one built by Brown's 40-plus years in college football. His first Division I-A coaching job established success right out of the gates at Tulane, and he turned the Green Wave into a bowl team in 1987 in his third season. At the time, it was the team's first bowl game in seven years, and it represented the last time Tulane appeared in a postseason game until 1998 - more than a decade later.

It put Brown on the national map, and North Carolina seized the opportunity to revitalize its program behind him. The Tar Heels had just fired Dick Crum, the only coach to win an ACC Championship at Carolina, and wanted the young, charismatic coach to breathe new life into its record. It took a couple of years - Brown endured one-win seasons in both 1988 and 1989 - but UNC's subsequent launch into the conference stratosphere lasted through the next decade. In 1997, he nearly won the league and produced a Top Five ranking, still its last season finishing that high and the last time the team finished inside the polls until 2015.

Nothing, though, would ever compare to what Brown accomplished at Texas after the Longhorns hired him away in 1998. He turned a four-win program into a Cotton Bowl champion and produced three division championships in the Big 12 South with two appearances in the conference championship game. He steadily built the program back to its national contender status, and in 2005, he led the team to a Rose Bowl victory over Michigan.

It set the tone for a 2006 return to Pasadena for a second straight Rose Bowl and an appearance in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game. The No. 2 team in the nation, the undefeated Longhorns defeated Southern California, considered the best team of its generation, in a game widely considered among the best games ever played. Texas set a number of records in that game, but the climactic image of Vince Young's sprint into the end zone produced the eternal memory for college football lore.

"He's got to be one of the best college coaches of all time," Hafley said. "The cool part is, he's such a good ambassador for football. Seeing what he has brought to college football and how much he cares about the game and loves the game, and wants to protect the game, I just have so much respect for him. He's done an incredible job everywhere he's been."

Brown's career reached another BCS National Championship Game, but he resigned following a string of disappointing seasons. It looked like the end of his career as he transitioned into a broadcast role with ESPN, a position that brought him to Boston College in 2015 for the Eagles' game against Florida State, but he never lost his passion for coaching. That's why and how UNC convinced him to return to the sidelines after a five-year hiatus.

Once again, he engineered an immediate turnaround for the two-win Tar Heels, and UNC clinched its first bowl victory in six years last year when it defeated Temple in the Military Bowl. That energy spilled into this season when UNC rocketed through the national polls after beating Syracuse in its first game. The level of respect it commanded was obvious, and the Tar Heels remained at No. 11 this week despite a two-week layoff and the reintroduction of both the Big Ten and the Pac-12.

"The game has evolved," Hafley said. "Everything is spread out now, the ball is in the air, and offense and defense are totally different. But you see a well-coached team and guys who play really hard, and you see a very disciplined football team. I'm sure that is how it's always been for him and will continue to be. I'm sure the players and coaches all have a ton of respect for him, just like we do."

That legend is now going to prowl the sidelines against the one coach viewed as a potential heir to the program-building throne. Boston College hired Jeff Hafley under that premise, that its program needed new energy after a string of six-win and seven-win seasons. Like Brown, Hafley made his intentions clear with a very real, charismatic emotion, and he created the connection with his players in a very obvious way during the team's first two victories.

"I haven't met him in person," Brown said in his weekly press conference, "so I'm looking forward to the challenge this week. He has (BC) playing hard. They really got after Duke and didn't play as well against Texas State. But for a new coach and new staff to hang in there, and the team believes and wins the game, that's the worst thing that could've happened to us. It gives them confidence coming into this week."

It's the overarching storyline between the two sidelines, which are linked to each other despite the teams' lack of games against one another. UNC's defensive coordinator, Jay Bateman, was the last head coach at Siena College and coached Hafley for his senior season. He also started Hafley on the coaching road by bringing him into spring camp before the latter left for Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

"He was mentored by Greg Schiano," Brown said, "and Greg's one of the better coaches in the country, definitely defensive coaches. He played for Jay Bateman at Siena when Jay was a 26-year old head coach. They're very close and have been good friends for a long time."

Separately, Bateman's co-defensive coordinator, Tommy Thigpen, played for Brown at UNC before playing in the NFL and the World League of American Football. He would later win a national championship as a position coach for Auburn in 2010.

The Tar Heels' offensive coordinator, Phil Long, is a student of Mike Leach's air raid assault, but worked his way into the FBS by first coaching in Division III. Special teams coordinator Jovan Dewitt, meanwhile, coached the last two seasons at Nebraska and received an up-close view of Hafley's Ohio State defense in a 48-7 loss last season.

"I know Coach Bateman and Coach Thigpen on defense as their coordinators," Hafley said, "and they do a really good job. They have a great scheme, and Coach Bateman was my head coach for my senior year in college. I coached the wide receivers for him in the spring, (and) I almost stayed there to coach but chose to go to WPI. He did an unbelievable job at Army. I've kept in touch with him, and I have a ton of respect for him.

"Coach Longo on offense, same deal," he continued. "If you look at his resume, what's cool about him is that he's climbed his way up in the coaching business. He coached Division III football, he really knows football, and he's succeeded everywhere he's been. On special teams, Coach Dewitt, they do a really good job. I know he was at Nebraska."

Boston College and No. 11 North Carolina will kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. The game can be seen on national television on ABC with radio broadcast available on the BC Learfield IMG Radio Network, locally in Boston on WEEI 93.7 FM.

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