UNC football head coach Mack Brown joined 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck this week for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
Brown and the Tar Heels are 1-0 for the fifth time in six seasons after a 19-17 win at Minnesota last week. The win didn’t come without a cost, though, as the team learned starting quarterback Max Johnson will miss the rest of the season with a broken leg suffered in the third quarter of the game. Now, back-up Conner Harrell is installed as the new starter for this week’s contest against Charlotte.
Here are a few of Brown’s answers on various topics:
On the win at Minnesota: We’re really excited. You go on the road against a Big Ten team, you get a weather delay and you’re not sure what that means to your team and their mindset. You ask them to play as hard as they can and they did, and you ask them to find a way to win, and they did that as well. There are a lot of disappointed teams after the first weekend of the season. We’re not one of them. We’re excited and looking forward to next week. We go into a hostile environment. They’ve got a new defensive coordinator, so we’re not sure what we’re gonna see. We’ve got a new quarterback, then he gets hurt and we have to change quarterbacks. We were in some trouble at halftime and the guys kept their confidence and kept their head up and just made things work. So we’re really, really proud of this staff and this football team.
On the injury to Max Johnson: Everybody’s pretty much devastated because it’s just a very difficult thing for him. He will be fine physically. He’ll have a full recovery. He and his family and one of our trainers are still in Minneapolis. So we don’t know when he’ll be back, whether it’s this week or next week. We’re going to start trying to get him involved in Zoom meetings, just so that he can get his head straight and get back involved and know how much everybody cares about him here. So everybody just keep him in in their prayers and like I said, he’ll be fine. We’ve just gotta make sure we get him back on track. Very, very disappointing for him because he transfers and he’s starting to play well. He has a great third quarter and this comes up to cost him his year.
On Conner Harrell’s play late in the game: It’s a great message to all young people who are not starting across the country at whatever level. We say, “next man up.” We say, “You’re one play away.” And it’s really true. And a lot of the players don’t understand that and they think, “Oh, I’m not playing. I’m not starting.” Well, you better get ready to go. And Conner, he’s smart. He’s driven and he’ll do a good job for us. We’ve gotta make sure that we help him get on track and everybody’s gotta step up and be a Conner Harrell fan now.
On his message to the fans before Saturday’s game: The kids fought their guts out at Minnesota and found a way to win. And we’ve got our first home game back in Kenan this weekend. We’ll have a lot of recruits in for this weekend and we need it packed and we need our fanbase to really help us. We’ve got a lot of home games this year and you guys need to make a difference. Let’s show these guys how much we care. Let’s come out there and support Connor and Jacolby Criswell is as they take over the quarterback spot and let’s make sure that we have a home field advantage this weekend.
Listen below for the full conversation with Mack Brown, and tune in to hear the segment live on Monday mornings each game week!
Featured image via Associated Press/Abbie Parr
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