UNC football head coach Mack Brown joined 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
Brown and the Tar Heels improved to 3-0 with a 45-10 win against North Carolina Central on Saturday, but the blowout was not without intrigue for Carolina fans. Conner Harrell and Jacolby Criswell split time at quarterback, with Criswell outperforming Harrell and leading five touchdown drives. Brown has indicated UNC will rotate the two quarterbacks for next weekend’s game against James Madison.
Here are a few of Brown’s answers on various topics:
On the quarterback rotation: Both quarterbacks have different skillsets, very much like Max Johnson and Conner Harrell going into the season. Jacolby’s more like Max and Conner’s more of a dual threat. He can run, he can run the option, he can do different things. So we’ll continue to play both of them going forward. We need both of them. Conner made some good plays the other night. Jacolby threw the ball really well. So we’ve gotta continue to help Jacolby with his running part of the game more. And we’ve gotta continue to help Conner with his drop-back passing because he can really throw well on the run. We’ve gotta get both of them ready to go.
On Omarion Hampton: He is great. He’s a very good student. He’s your perfect person as far as discipline and doing everything right. He eats right, he acts right. He loves his players. He’s voted to the leadership committee. And here’s a guy that had another 210-yard rushing game with three touchdowns and 181 yards after contact. And I think he’s leading the country in yards after contact. He can catch, he’s very unselfish. He wants to play every snap. He doesn’t ever want to come out. And he is not only one of the best running backs in North Carolina history, but he’s also one of the best running backs in the country.
On the play of the defense against North Carolina Central: They had an unbelievable goal line stand: six plays starting at the one-yard line. And that’s two weeks in a row that they’ve been tough in goal-line [situations]. In the past we’ve had trouble with that, and they forced field goals in both instances. In the second half, they gave up 48 yards total. They gave up an average of 2.2 yards per carry. They held them to 10 points. We were able to play a lot of players on defense. We ended up playing 32 players on defense and 28 players on offense, and two on special teams. So we’re able to start working on that depth that we’ve talked about, that we think will really help us at the end of the year, too. So our defense is playing really, really well. We aren’t getting as many turnovers as we’d like. We left three turnovers on the field last weekend and this weekend. The last two games there have been turnovers there that we have not gotten. And to get where we want to go, we’re gonna have to start forcing more turnovers,
On his message to the fans ahead of the James Madison game this weekend: We’ve got a full house this weekend. We’ve got a noon game. Let’s have our best crowd ever. James Madison is 2-0, they’re 19-4 the last couple of years. They’ve got a new coach in Bob Chesney. He’s done a tremendous job. James Madison’s one of those programs, [where] they’re pumped about their football. They bought all their tickets immediately. They’ll have a great crowd and let’s welcome them. Let’s treat them great. But let’s also have a great game on Saturday and get this team to 4-0 as we start getting prepared for the ACC schedule.
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 UNC Athletic Communications/Andy Mead
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