UNC football head coach Mack Brown joined Aaron Keck this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
The Tar Heels will travel to South Bend, IN, to face No. 11 Notre Dame in a nationally-televised, primetime matchup. Coming off its bye week, UNC has had an extra week to prepare for the Fighting Irish, but Brown said the extended break is more about his own team getting right than any opponent.
Here are a few of Brown’s answers on various topics:
On how the bye week went: It went really well. We were able to get some of our older players some rest, and let them work hard to continue to grow in their conditioning. Mostly we were able to work on Notre Dame, obviously, but we worked a lot with the younger players. And our staff has recruited so well the last two years, there’s so many talented young guys that still haven’t had an impact yet that will continue to learn what to do, and will get to play. It’s a shame that we haven’t won games by enough points that you get to put a lot of the young guys in that maybe aren’t ready to win a game yet, but they need to be ready to play. So, great future ahead. Recruiting’s going really well. Should be rested, and have a fun but really challenging trip to South Bend this weekend.
On if the bye week is an advantage in preparing for an opponent: You really don’t feel like it’s a great advantage. The biggest advantage is you get some rest, and maybe a guy who had a minor injury can get well enough to play the next week. Because you work on Notre Dame’s game plan all year. We played them last year, we play them early next year. So you know what you’re going to do. Working with your team gives you a couple extra days to just work on the schemes that they have, but by-and-large, I think it’s more important to get well and get rested.
On the Fighting Irish: They’re really well-coached. They’re smart, they’re an older team. They’ve got 12 seniors or graduate students starting. They’re just who they are. They’re gonna be physical. They’re huge. They’re at home. They’ve won just about all the home games forever. They’ve got a streak of 37 straight wins against unranked opponents, which is the longest active streak in college football right now. [Head coach] Brian Kelly just broke Knute Rockne’s record for most wins in Notre Dame history. So it’ll be a real challenge for us. We’re gonna have to be a physical team. And last year, in the second half especially, their defense was much more physical than our offense.
On his message to the fans: I love our fans and what they’re doing. The crowds have been loud, and the students have been unbelievable. And you have made a difference at home. And really, we had a great crowd at Virginia Tech and at Georgia Tech. We sold all of our tickets at Virginia Tech, and I think we bought more than our allotment down in Atlanta. So, we appreciate so much you folks that are traveling with us. We appreciate our fans at home, and nothing better than those students. They’re fun. They’ve been unbelievable. The team’s trying hard, we’re getting better. Like we said, we’ve got a fun five weeks ahead of us to kind of see where we are after midseason, but excited about that challenge.
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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Mack The Fraud is gonna get taken to the woodshed by Brian Kelly. And everyone in Carolina knows it.