UNC football head coach Mack Brown joined Aaron Keck this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
The Tar Heels are coming off the first of two bye weeks this season, and will welcome Notre Dame to Kenan Stadium this Saturday. The game has been a sellout for weeks and will be broadcast on national television at 3:30 p.m. It seems America wants to see if Brown’s 3-0 team is a contender or a pretender.
Here are a few of Brown’s answers on various topics:
On his team’s schedule during the bye week: You don’t hit as much. You try to get them healthy. And it still gives you an extra three days to work on Notre Dame. You practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then you give the guys off Friday and Saturday just for mental rest and physical rest. We’re lucky that we’ve got three games and a bye week, now we’ve got four more games and a bye week. So we’ve got two breaks during the season that will be really needed.
On if there have been any surprises for him this season: The biggest surprise is they’re learning how to win on the road. It’s funny: when you’re not winning on the road, that’s all you hear about. When you’re winning on the road it goes silent. These kids have silenced the road issues, and they’ve come back and worked really, really hard and we’ve been tested. We’ve had some fun games and great games, but in each case the only thing that really matters in the end is that you win and try to keep improving. And that’s what these guys are doing.
On the Fighting Irish: Notre Dame is Notre Dame. They’re big and they’re strong at both lines of scrimmage. They lost their quarterback two weeks ago, and they have a new, young quarterback that does have some experience coming in, and he got to play last week against Cal and had a great second half. They run the ball, they use play action and they’ve got great tight ends. They’re so big and physical at the line of scrimmage on defense. So I want us to continue to run the ball better, and that’s gonna be a real hard thing to do this weekend.
On his message to the fans: Notre Dame is a special program. It’s a national brand. Your team is fighting really hard. With Carolina being 3-0 for the first time in a long time, let’s make a difference. We’ve been really good at home. We’ve won a lot of games at home. And we’ve been in the fourth quarter with a chance to win with Notre Dame the last two years, and we’ve just got to finish stronger in the fourth quarter. And the fans can be the difference.
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 Inside Carolina/Johnny Johnson
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