The first year of the Mack Brown era at North Carolina was a huge one. The Tar Heels saw a five-win improvement from a season ago, including a blowout win in the Millitary Bowl over Temple.

A huge development this season for the Tar Heels was the progression of Sam Howell. The true freshman quarterback lit it up this season, completing 61.4 percent of his passes for 3,641 yards to go along with 38 touchdowns to just seven interceptions.

Could the Tar Heels take the next step? Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports believes so, as he has the Heels as on the back end of his way-too-early Top 25 for 2020 at No. 25:

"The only team in the regular-season to challenge Clemson has plenty to look forward to in Year 2 under Mack Brown. Plenty of momentum supplied by Sam Howell's performance in the Military Bowl (three passing touchdowns). The offense should be loaded with both running backs and the top three receivers returning."

The Heels certainly had Clemson on its toes, as they were a two-point conversion from winning a game back in September. The team also returns running backs Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, who both rushed for over 900 yards in 2019. In the receiving department, the Heels return two 1,000 yard receivers in Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome as well as Beau Corrales.

Brown is also off to a hot start on the recruiting trail in his first full cycle as head coach. The Heels have the No. 19 overall class in the 247Sports team rankings, headlined by seven 4-star recruits. They also have the No. 3 class in the ACC, just two spots behind Miami. UNC was able to reel in three of the top five prospects in the state of North Carolina.

“We have become the cool place to be and to do that we had to upgrade the facilities,” Brown said on early National Signing Day. “We’re one of eight teams to sell out every home game. The fans were great. Then you’ve got great young quarterback Sam Howell moving the ball and keeping us in every ball game and gives us hope for the future. All the locals are excited about him and it gives other young guys a chance to follow him because they think it’s ok.”

His first UNC class ranked in 30th overall. UNC’s last top-20 class came in 2011. Back in coaching after a long stint as a television analyst, Brown still has his fastball.

“When all people can say right now is I’m old, well, the age hasn’t changed much this year,” Brown said. “So, now there’s some really prominent programs telling juniors ‘you know he’s not going to be there. He’s old.’ What a great compliment to us. They can’t say we’re losing. they can’t say our facilities are bad. All they have is I’m old. I can’t change that.”