UNC head coach Mack Brown was joined by several of his players at the Annual ACC Kickoff in Charlotte on Thursday. Brown and the Tar Heels discussed several topics, including ACC expansion and the team’s quarterback competition heading into Week 1.
Check out highlights from the Tar Heels below!
QB Conner Harrell
Image via Associated Press/Nell Redmond
On the quarterback competition with Max Johnson: Me and Max are the only people in the world going through this situation with these coaches and with this team, and it obviously brings you closer. We’re together all the time, working together, trying to figure out how to make the team better. And that brings you closer. So I think the end goal is, we want to win a championship. And that creates a bond.
On if he is a vocal leader or if he leads by example: I think both. I think I’ve done a better job of becoming vocal this year. I’ve been trying to make that a focal point in my leadership: talking more, because guys respond when you’re talking to them, when you’re speaking to them. There’s a lot of effects I can have on younger guys, on freshmen, if I have a conversation with them, have dinner with them.
QB Max Johnson
Image via Associated Press/LM Otero
On his experience in the transfer portal: The transfer portal is a big part of college football. Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray, you’ve seen so many big-time guys transfer from school to school. And I think being at Carolina with Coach Brown and all these great players around me, I’m so excited for the opportunity. So blessed to be able to be here. It’s a tough time being in the portal. You’re getting phone calls every single day. And for me it was just finding the best fit for me. And building that relationship with these guys and Coach Brown was so important for me.
On what drew him to UNC: I think watching the guys coming here such as Sam Howell and Drake Maye and the success they had here and the type of offense that is run here. Coach [Chip] Lindsey’s done a great job of working to everybody’s strengths, and I’ve fit in really well here. I’ve met some great guys, great friends, and for me this is the place where I wanted to be coming out of the portal. Of course I got other phone calls, but this was my first choice and this is where I want to be and I’m looking forward to this year.
DE Kaimon Rucker
Image via Eli Melet
On new defensive coordinator Geoff Collins: Day one when he hit the room, he set a standard for us. I feel like in the past we haven’t really set a standard as a defense. We never established a bar that we need to jump over, that we need to go over. The bar that he set on day one is that we want to be the best defense in college football. And from that day forward, that has been the mantra of our defense the entire time. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter workouts, summer workouts, conditioning or heading into fall camp, that’s just something that we need to hang our hat on because that’s something that we need to firmly believe in.
On his relationship with Mack Brown: He took a shot on me. Nobody else did but him. He trusted me early on before I even trusted myself. He trusted me. And so just to learn from him, to grow up with him, really just to learn from him each and every day, the Xs and Os of football, but also life in general. It’s not a four-year decision, it’s a 40-year decision. That’s something that you don’t get in every single football program. So for Coach Brown to still be here, still pushing it, still going hard as if he was back in his first year coaching, man, it’s truly an honor and a privilege. And Coach Brown, personally, I appreciate you for trusting me and allow me to stay this long and me being a part of this journey with you. I love you and I appreciate you for that.
Head coach Mack Brown
Image via Associated Press/Erik Verduzco
On ACC expansion: It makes it exciting for our players to go to a Cal or a Stanford or a Dallas that maybe they haven’t been to before. It makes it fun for fans, but at the same time, you have to think about: what does it change in recruiting, what does it change for your academic schedule, and how much more difficult is it for the parents to get to see their sons play?
On his team’s accomplishments since returning to Chapel Hill: We are the best in academics with the APR [Academic Progress Rate] in the ACC this year. We’ve had the best four years in North Carolina history, so I’m proud of that. These guys are tied with Northwestern for the third-best APR in the country. They come to school to get a degree that’s gonna help them even more than the NIL money that they’re gonna get when they get out. We are also second in the ACC with the number of draft choices over the last five years. That means our coaches have done a good job of recruiting. It means we’re developing young people and a lot of those guys are getting opportunities at the second level, and I’m really proud of that. And third, we’re tied with NC State for the second most wins in, in the ACC in ACC games over the last five years. So I’m really, really proud of that. We’ve been to an Orange Bowl, which North Carolina has never done. We’ve won a Coastal championship, which North Carolina had only done once in our history. So a lot of wonderful things that these guys have done.
On improving from last season’s poor finish: Our whole focus since the end of last season is, “Why are we not finishing?” Coach [Bobby] Bowden had a quote that said, “If you keep making the same mistakes, you’re gonna have the same results.” And that’s true. So why not change? We’re gonna play more people. We’ve got to play more people and create more depth. We’ve said it for five years. We haven’t done it. We’ve gotta do it. And Geoff Collins coming in is committed to doing that. And we’ll do it on offense as well. When you’ve got starters that are not as tired at the end of the year, you can have them more involved with special teams. Because we’ve gotta get better on our special teams. We’ve gotta get better on defense. And we’ve had some injuries and guys get tired at the end. Those are all things that we can do better. And they’re simple answers for a very difficult problem. But they’re things that we can do.
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