When you talk about winning the press conference, few have done it better than Mack Brown.

His first public appearance after being re-hired by North Carolina in December 2018 was more like a pep rally or the celebration of a conquering hero rather than the introduction of a Medicare-eligible coach returning to a job he left two decades earlier.

The only things missing were the cheerleaders and marching band.

Brown obliged the adoration by turning up his already-high octane personality, regaling the gathering of media, school officials and former players – along with those watching on social media – with nostalgic stories from the past and promises to fix the Tar Heels’ program the way he did in building a top-10 program during his first tenure in Chapel Hill from 1988 through ’97.

He also made sure to flash the national championship ring he won at Texas during his time away. It was a tacit message of his intention to bring the same level of success to UNC.

And everyone bought it with the ferocity of a compulsive shopper with an Amazon card.

The intensity only grew after Brown took a team coming off back-to-back 9-loss seasons to a 7-6 record and a Military Bowl victory in his first year, then he followed that with a trip to the Orange Bowl in Year 2.

But the early momentum has quickly fizzled.

Instead of making the next step into national prominence, the Tar Heels took a giant leap backward in 2021 by finishing with a losing record despite starting the season with a top-10 ranking and selection as the favorite to win the ACC’s Coastal Division.

In his defense, Brown tried to warn us that his team was “criminally overrated” – as he now describes it – even with the presence of a generational quarterback in Sam Howell. Heading into the new season, he has vowed that “we’re not into the hype this year.”

That’s only partially true, though. Because while UNC’s expectations on the field have been scaled back considerably, the energy on the recruiting trail still is running at a high voltage.

He has landed 4 5-star prospects and 28 4-stars over the past three cycles. Even with last season’s disappointment, his most recent class ranked No. 2 in the ACC behind only Clemson and No. 8 nationally by 247Sports.

That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given his gift of gab, the visibility he gained during his time as an ESPN analyst and the sparkly bling he wears on his finger. It has been said that Brown is such a polished salesman that he could talk an Eskimo into buying ice cubes.

But at some point, even the best of the salesmen are required to follow through on the promises and deliver the goods.

So far, Brown has not.

While he has succeeded in cleaning up the mess left by former coach Larry Fedora and significantly improved the program during his first three seasons, his tenure thus can only be classified as a letdown.

At the age of 70, with the clock ticking faster than ever, he is running out of time to live up to the expectations he helped raise higher than the Carolina pines that surround Kenan Stadium and avoid the fate suffered by so many other successful coaches who tried to defy the warning of UNC graduate Thomas Wolfe that “you can’t go home again.”

Johnny Majors won a national title by going 12-0 at Pittsburgh before leaving for Tennessee. Sixteen years later, after being pushed into retirement by the Vols, he made a triumphant return to Pitt – only to win 12 games over the next 4 years.

John Robinson also claimed a natty at Southern Cal in 1978 before heading to the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, only to finish at or barely above .500 in the final two seasons of his encore with the Trojans a decade later.

It’s a phenomenon not limited to the college games, as Joe Gibbs and Jon Gruden both painfully learned.

In an effort to buck the trend, Brown has made several changes heading into the new season, the most significant of which is the hiring of his old Texas assistant Gene Chizik as defensive coordinator.

Chizik helped Brown win his title with the Longhorns and was responsible for transforming UNC’s defense into a Coastal Division champion in 2015 during his first tour of duty with the Tar Heels.

No matter how big of an impact he makes, the success or failure of this year’s team likely will hinge on a much less reliable variable. An untested quarterback.

It’s not unlike the situation Brown faced with Howell in his first season back at UNC. This time, he has two chances to catch lightning in a bottle in redshirt freshman Drake Maye and sophomore Jacolby Criswell.

“We’ve started with Sam when he didn’t have any experience the year before,” Brown said, “so we’re really, really excited about our offense.”

Generating excitement is something Brown has done well since returning to Chapel Hill. Now he has to figure out how to build on it with results rather than smoke, mirrors and the flash of an old championship ring.

The clock is ticking.