UNC football head coach Mack Brown joined Aaron Keck this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
Brown and the Tar Heels are looking to rebound after a shocking 31-27 loss to Virginia in Chapel Hill last weekend. At 6-1, Carolina is still in contention for the ACC Championship Game, but cannot afford to drop this weekend’s game at Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets have won two straight against Carolina, including a similarly-shocking upset in Kenan Stadium last year.
Here are a few of Brown’s answers on various topics:
On the Virginia game: Something that we anticipated [was] not playing with as much energy as we had, very similar to App State. We won the big game at South Carolina and we come and play App State and we didn’t play very well. I thought they had more energy than we did, but we found a way to win that game. Then you’ve got fall break and [Virginia’s] coming off a break and they’re 1-5 and nobody’s really excited about playing Virginia and there’s not much buzz about the game. So you anticipated that we wouldn’t have the same energy, but you’ve still gotta find a way to win win, and that’s what good teams do. We couldn’t do that.
On his coaching performance: I failed our team and our staff and our fans and our administration, because I couldn’t figure out a way to get it done. And that’s my job. I’m responsible for everybody here. And so that’s the biggest disappointment. The good thing is we’re 6-1 and still in the Top 20, which we would’ve been excited about preseason if we hadn’t been in the top 10. So now we’ve gotta go back and go down to Atlanta where it’s not been friendly for North Carolina. We’ve lost 10 of the last 12 games in Atlanta. We’ve gotta go back to work and make sure that we do everything possible to get that energy back and do a better job coaching.
On what he’ll be focusing on this week: Little things. We didn’t stop the run and we didn’t run the ball. Those are the two things you have to do to win football games. I thought the kids tried hard. They kept hanging in there. We could have gotten beat a lot worse, but Armani Chapman intercepted a pass in the end zone and stripped the ball going into the end zone, which gave us a chance to win the game. And normally like with App State, we would take it with 1:22 and drive it down the field and win the game, and we didn’t. So we’ve gotta go back and just look at who we are. We kind of lost our identity on Saturday night and didn’t get the ball to Omarion Hampton as much as we wanted to. And the passing game wasn’t sharp, so if it’s not, you gotta lean on the running game more. We didn’t do that.
On his message to the fans: Everybody that can get [to Atlanta] needs to get there because we need to have a great fan base at the game. We have a tremendous amount of fans in Atlanta anyway. So if you can, find a way to get down there. If you can’t, put your Carolina gear on at 8:00 p.m., turn on the ACC Network and go to work and scream and shout and help us get back on track and be 7-1.
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 Associated Press/Chris Seward
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It’s as old as the game itself, overlooking an opponent that is not having a good season and unable to get the mind right in time to come back from that psychological trap.
What matters the most is the lesson. We’ll see at GT.
It’s as old as the game itself, overlooking an opponent that is not having a good season and unable to get the mind right in time to come back from that psychological trap.
What matters the most is the lesson. We’ll see at GT.
Respect the honesty Coach but those lessons should have been learned ( and remembered ) after the way last season ended.