Columns & Blogs

ACC Now podcast: UNC’s Mack Brown, Josh Downs on QBs, NIL, college sports landscape

UNC football coach Mack Brown and wide receiver Josh Downs join the N&O’s Luke DeCock and C.L. Brown to discuss name, image and likeness (NIL), the transfer portal and how Brown’s tenure at Texas helped fuel the college football arms race the ACC is now losing.

Downs, coming off an impressive sophomore season, also talked about quarterbacks Drake Maye and Jacolby Criswell, who are competing for the starting job following the end of the Tar Heels’ Sam Howell era.

You can also listen to this episode of the ACC Now podcast, and others, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Audible, TuneIn and Stitcher.

North Carolina wide receiver Josh Downs answers a question at the NCAA college football Atlantic Coast Conference Media Days in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
North Carolina wide receiver Josh Downs answers a question at the NCAA college football Atlantic Coast Conference Media Days in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond) Nell Redmond AP

This story was originally published July 26, 2022 at 5:10 AM with the headline "ACC Now podcast: UNC’s Mack Brown, Josh Downs on QBs, NIL, college sports landscape."

Luke DeCock
The News & Observer
Luke DeCock is a former journalist for the News & Observer.
C.L. Brown
The News & Observer
C.L. Brown covers the University of North Carolina for The News & Observer. Brown brings more than two decades of reporting experience including stints as the beat writer on Indiana University and the University of Louisville. After a long stay at the Louisville Courier-Journal, where he earned an APSE award, he’s had stops at ESPN.com, The Athletic and even tried his hand at running his own website, clbrownhoops.com.
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