AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — When Dabo Swinney became the head coach at Clemson back in 2009, he reached out to several established football coaches. He wanted to bend their ear a little and learn the different ways they run their programs.

However, only one coach got back to Swinney.

“A lot of the older guys took up for me and helped me when I was a younger head coach,” North Carolina head coach Mack Brown told The Clemson Insider at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida as part of the ACC Spring Meetings.

Brown, who returned to North Carolina last December as head coach, at the time was at Texas, where he had just led the Longhorns back to the national championship game. They won the national championship in 2005.

So, the veteran coach returned Swinney’s call and set up a date to meet with him.

“I always really admired and was good friends with Coach (Gene) Stallings and Dabo was Coach Stallings’ guy,” Brown said. “With Woodrow McCorvey, who handles all of his day-to-day operations, and Coach Stallings, two of my best friends, really loving Dabo and talking about how good of a person he is, I thought it was a great complement for him to want to come out and talk to us.

“That is something I look back on with a smile.”

Swinney does as well. The two coaches became great friends, which they still are today.

Watch Brown’s interview on TCITV as he talks about their friendship and more from the ACC Spring Meetings.