UNC football head coach Mack Brown joined Aaron Keck this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
The Tar Heels opened the 2022 season with a 56-24 win over Florida A&M in Kenan Stadium Saturday night. Now, Carolina faces a much tougher test: a visit to Appalachian State, where a sold-out Mountaineer crowd is waiting. It will also be a homecoming for Brown, who coached Appalachian State in 1983.
Here are a few of Brown’s answers on various topics:
On the Florida A&M game: We’re obviously excited to be 1-0. It was such a great Saturday and weekend in general celebrating HBCUs. We were able to video the halftime and see the interaction between the Marching 100 and our band. They both did a tremendous job. Honoring the three super coaches in pregame was special to me, because Coach [Rudy] Hubbard was friends with Coach [Jake] Gaither, who I knew very well at Florida A&M. To honor Coach [Bill] Hayes, who is the Eddie Robinson of our state, and then Rod Broadway who was a great player here, and seven of his teammates that were the first players of color at our school, and then have a great game. The fans were unbelievable. Our student body’s the best in the country. It was just a magical night for everybody.
On Drake Maye’s performance: Very pleased with Drake. Both quarterbacks are really, really good. I feel like Jacolby [Criswell] would’ve done really well if he had stepped in and started. But Drake was accurate. He made some plays with his feet. The offensive line did a good job. We were focused on fewer sacks, and we had none. We were focused on fewer tackles for loss; we had none. And we didn’t have a turnover on offense.
On the Appalachian State game: It’s a perfect challenge for us. They’re one of the best programs in the country. They win nine or ten-plus games every year. They’ve been very, very consistent. They have the sixth-best record at home since 2014 when they became FBS: they’re 42-7 at home. They’ve done a tremendous job. They’ve got a sixth-year quarterback, we’ve got a first-year quarterback. They’ve got a lot of five- and six-year starters back, and we’re banged up. So here we are. We haven’t won road games and they’re winning at home. It’s a great challenge for us.
On his message to the fans: This is a very young team that’s talented. I thought that they played as hard as they could play on Saturday night. We’ve got a lot of things we’ve gotta fix, especially on defense. We’ve got to learn to win road games. Right now, Appalachian State has a more consistent program than we do. And we need to go start winning road games to take another step. And this will be a very difficult challenge, but a great challenge for us to see if we’re ready to take a step.
Listen below for the full conversation between Mack Brown and Aaron Keck, and tune in to hear the segment live on Monday mornings each game week!
Featured image via 247 Sports
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