UNC football coach Mack Brown joined Ron Stutts this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire. Read his entire interview below:
Mack, great to have you with us this morning. Congratulations on another big rivalry win by blowing out Duke. A totally dominating performance — 56 to 24 — and it could have been a whole lot worse.
We’re really proud of the guys. We were balanced on the offense and got out to an early start. We played better on defense — five for five touchdowns in the red zone and for for four on fourth downs and forced a couple of turnovers and had two stops on fourth down on the defense. So really, really good day overall.
From the very first snap of this game, you really looked like you were prepared to loosen up their run defense. And certainly you did that. Was this as sharp offensively as your team has been all season long?
I think so, Ron, we were pretty flawless. We had the one turnover there late in the third quarter. But other than that, the guys scored about every time they got the ball. And when we do that, we’re hard to stop. We were able to open it up early, throw the ball first and then run second. The two backs did an outstanding job and the offensive line played by far their best game. They have two tremendous pass rushers at Duke and, and we only gave up one sack. So really, really proud of the guys overall.
As everybody knows by now, Mack, Sam Howell can do just about anything you ask him to do and his teammates must love him. Was it your intent to have him spread the ball around to so many different receivers in this game?
Well, you always liked to, we’ve got a lot of skill, Ron and Phil Longo has a tough job because you throw it to Dyami Brown 11 times last week and then against Virginia. Dazz Newsome, didn’t catch many balls against Virginia, and then he comes back and has five against you. So, and you’ve got to get it in those running back’s hands and we didn’t get it to our tight end Garrett Walston as much because he was a big part of the blocking scheme and protection this week to try to protect against those two really good ends.
Certainly you mentioned the defense earlier after having an opportunity to watch the tape, who were your best defenders against Duke?
Well, the best defender was Jeremiah Gemmel. He was all over the place, but Chaz Surratt played every bit as well as he did last year. He said he was glad it didn’t come down to the last play of the game that he had to make this year. It’s more fun. And then Chris Collins, who has a played a lot for us as an outside linebacker, had two sacks. We had five sacks overall, and I thought our corners did an outstanding job of holding up outside because we played quite a bit of man coverage. They didn’t have the big throws downfield.
Coach, I know a lot of us, a lot of Tar Heels fans who were watching that Clemson game on Saturday night. And it’s a shame that they couldn’t help us by finishing off Notre Dame, but the Irish still have to go to Boston College this week and then come here. So do you feel like your hopes are still alive for the ACC Championship game?
Ron, they are. If we beat Wake Forest, that’s the thing. It seems like after a loss, we bounce back, but after a big win over Virginia Tech, we didn’t play as well the next week at Florida state and then a big win over NC State, we didn’t play as well the next week against Virginia. So we’ve got to mature and after a great win at Duke, we’ve got to come back and build on that win. And instead of standing around thinking we’re there and we’re playing well, and then not play well against Wake. They’ve won four straight games. They beaten Virginia and Virginia Tech in those four. They’re leading the country in fewest number of turnovers to turnover ratio. They’ve had one turnover all year and they forced 15 and they’re second lowest in number of penalties in the league. So we we’ve got our hands full this weekend.
A lot of us haven’t been paying a whole lot of attention to Wake Forest, and I know that you will really be laser focused on them this week. As you mentioned, they’ve won four straight. How good are they? And how are they different from last year with a new quarterback and without Chazz’s brother at wide receiver?
Well, Dave Clawson has done an outstanding job. And like you said, Ron, not many people talk about them. They’re kind of under the radar and then you look up and they have no penalties, and then you look up and they have no turnovers and they’re forcing turnovers. And they’ve got nine starters back on defense from a team that was more physical than we were last year. I thought they hustled us. They hit us and they coached us last year. It’s basically the same guys. They’ve got Sam Hartman at quarterback and he has not thrown an interception all year. And they’re gonna run the ball. They’re gonna try to keep the ball. They’re not risk takers, but they’re very sound and they’re very well coached. So it should be a great challenge for us on Saturday.
We talked a lot about beating all your in-state rivals. That’s important for pride, certainly, and perhaps winning the state championship, how much does it help in recruiting and in other ways?
It really helps in a lot of ways. The one thing you learn about rival games is that your fans like to win them because as David Cutcliffe said last week, it’s the grocery store game. Because after the game, all the buddies go to the grocery store, they go to church or they go to their jobs and they’re texting each other during an after the game. It’s bragging rights for at least a year when you beat your rival. And so weird that we’ve got three of our four rivals here in a row, and that’s never happened before. And Wake Forest beat all three of us last year. So this is a big game for us on Saturday.
If you had to pick one key to victory in the game against Wake Forest what would it be?
I would say protecting the ball and eliminating penalties, because those are the two things that they do so well. And we’ve got to do a better job in both those areas this weekend.
Well, coming up on Saturday at 12 noon, another early game, there will be 3,500 fans in the stands. Good luck against the Deacons on Saturday. And I’ll be joining a lot of other folks and standing in front of my TV, screaming at it and, and listening to [Jones Angell] on the radio and hope everything turns out well, you guys keep it rolling.
Thank you, Ron. I’m so proud of these guys and the coaches to fight through COVID like they have and it’s a miracle that we are playing and the guys are really trying hard to keep healthy so we can continue to play and they’re getting better. And they are a lot of fun to watch. And I hope North Carolina fans are enjoying watching them as much as we are.
Featured image via Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
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