On recruiting trail, Brown deals with programs that pay players to come and competitors who tell recruits he’s going to quit

CHAPEL HILL — Between schools cheating in the NIL game and the competition telling recruits that Coach Mack Brown is going to retire, the veteran coach battles plenty that he can’t control on the recruiting trail. Brown says that he’s in the best shape in 20 years and wouldn’t be recruiting Class of 2026 players if he expected to stop coaching any time soon. But the talk from rival coaches isn’t likely to stop for the Hall of Fame coach who will turn 72 before the Sept. 2 opener against South Carolina in Charlotte.

Video: Watch Mack Brown’s talk about upcoming season, NIL, realignment and other topics

Watch UNC coach Mack Brown’s press conference as he talks about the upcoming season, NIL, realignment and other topics.

Two recent head coaching hires mean one-third of UNC’s head coaches are alums

Hubert Davis has made a point to hire a coaching staff of Carolina alums, figuring there are many advantages, particularly on the recruiting trail. Who better to convince an athlete to play and study at UNC than a coach who did just that? With recent hirings, more head coaches on campus will have that advantage.

Former UNC, NFL DB Boston teams with wife in TV series restoring homes damaged by storms

Tre Boston continues to advance his television career since the former UNC defensive back retired from the NFL. After serving as a co-host for the ACC Network’s “ACC PM” last football season, he and his wife Cierra are the new hosts for a series on The Weather Channel called “FAST: Home Rescue,” which begins its second season on June 18 at 10 p.m.

ACC sets kickoff times for UNC’s first three football games

The ACC announced game times for Carolina’s first three football games, starting with the Sept. 2 opener in Charlotte against South Carolina, which will start at 7:30 and air on ABC.

Colts pick Downs in third round; highest for UNC wide receiver in 13 years

Wide receiver Josh Downs will continue his football career with the Indianapolis Colts, who took him Friday with the 16th pick of the third round and the 79th overall selection at the NFL Draft in Kansas City, becoming the 10th Carolina player drafted in the last three years. That’s the highest a UNC wide receiver has gone since Greg Little was the 27th second-round pick and 57th overall selection of the Cleveland Browns in 2010. Downs was the ninth ACC player selected.

Wrestler O’Connor, diver Vazquez take top honors at Rammys; Maye pass Top Play

Two individual national champions — wrestler Austin O’Connor and diver Aranza Vazquez — earned Athlete of the Year honors at the Rammy Awards on Monday night at Memorial Hall. The awards program recognizes excellence in Carolina athletics over the previous year. Women’s basketball center Malu Tshitenge of women’s basketball and football defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker were the hosts for the event, which was back at Memorial Hall for the first time since 2019.

One AI chatbot experiment’s response to prompts about UNC sports are amusing, confusing and often inaccurate

The possibilities with artificial intelligence are fascinating, but the chatbots, such as Google’s Bard, still have a long way to go regarding accuracy. After watching this story on Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes,” I was curious about what sorts of stories Bard would produce from prompts related to Carolina sports. Some were interesting, many were amusing, and accuracy left much to be desired.