UNC football coach Mack Brown joined Ron Stutts this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire. Read his entire interview below:
First of all, good morning, coach. Happy to have you with us.
Thank you, Ron. Thanks for having me on.
An amazing display of offensive fireworks in Kenan Stadium on Saturday. We’ve all seen all those weapons for Carolina and they came into full focus on Saturday against Virginia Tech. It really was a fun game to watch.
It was, Ron. It was the first time that our offense was relaxed and looked like they really enjoyed playing, had a lot of fun and just ran up and down the field. They controlled the entire ball game, and that’s obviously who we want to be. We could run the ball. We had great play action. We had a couple of drops that we can clean up and we had the one sack. But other than that, it was a fantastic day. And [Sam Howell] ran the offense throughout the day. Like we expect him to, because he’s a great.
Those big numbers that the offense put up were certainly a good balance of on the ground and in the air. And you have to be especially proud of that aspect.
Sure was, Ron, you always trying to figure out who you are and get an identity. And we’re still very young in this program. We wanted to do a better job in the red zone area. We were five for five on touchdowns, except the one we took a knee at the end of the game where we could have scored. And then I looked up at halftime, we had 186 yards rushing the 186 yards passing. That’s about as balanced as you can be.
Yep. That’s exactly right. And you have such a strong one to punch in the backfield. We’ve talked a lot about Sam Howell and the passing game and those outstanding receivers that you have, but talk a little bit about Javonte Williams and Michael Carter and what both those guys bring to the table every single week.
Yeah, I think they’re the best combination of running backs in the country. I mean, both of them are really good. They’re talented, they’re tough. They’re team guys. They’re selfless. Attitude really helps us because they don’t care who’s in there, who gets the touchdowns, they always give credit to the other guys. So the offensive line block well, Garrett Walston blocked well at tight end and our receivers all blocked well and they were excited about the running game. That’s the first time I’ve seen everybody do everything they needed to just to win the game. And no one was worried about themselves.
You know, Carolina came out strong at the very beginning of the game and control the whole game basically. But I have to say in the third quarter, I got a little nervous when some things started to go wrong in the third quarter and really a very talented Virginia Tech team made some good plays.
Yeah, they’ve got one of the best offenses in the country. You look at the back, he was leading the nation in rushing. They had the number three rushing team in the country behind Army and Air Force. So they’re really talented. And then [Hendon Hooker] came in at quarterback. It’s a well designed offense. And I thought we did a good job on defense, even with three starters out until we got after the onside kick late in the third quarter, we’re getting worn down a little bit, the onside kick, we didn’t handle it well, they get it. So our defense has to go right back on the field and I thought we got tired, had some guys get cramps. And so we’ve got to do a better job, Ron, I’m substituting young guys in and just trusting them because we still don’t have enough depth and experienced depth on defense like we need to, and we do on offense. We can play older players at every position. But that’s just not our case on defense yet.
Any other individuals you’d like to single out for their performance on Saturday on offense or defense?
Well, I thought the offensive line played as well as any offensive line I’ve ever been around. They dominated the line of scrimmage and they just controlled the game. Tyler McMichael, the transfer from Clemson, who hasn’t played very much at corner. This is only his third game for us, cause he was a special teams player by and large at Clemson and sat out last year. He did a great job with our defense and um, our, our punter and kicker those two guys. In fact, those three guys, we were a hundred percent on extra points, Ben Kiernan our punter averaged over 45 yards per punt. And Jonathan Kim, our kicker on kickoffs has kicked every ball out of the end zone, except the one where we had an unsportsmanlike penalty, which is uncalled for. He made the tackle on [Khalil Herbert] on that one to hold him back to the 37.
Mack, I know you don’t like to talk about polls very much and you certainly don’t lean on them very heavily, but Carolina is now ranked number five in the country. First time at the top five, since you were the head coach at Carolina during your last year here and ironically, the upcoming opponent is Florida State.
Yes, it’s fun. It’s good for our program. It’s good for recruiting. It’s fun for our fans to talk about. And I’ve always said Ron, that the polls really do not matter to me until the college football playoff polls come out. That’s what your goal is. That’s what you’re trying to get to. So we’ve got to manage expectations and all this does other than us having fun. It hypes Florida State up and let’s them talk about beating a top five team. So our guys have to manage expectations cause we haven’t lived in this neighborhood in a long time and we’re not used to this hype and we can either take it and use it to continue to push, to improve or wait and sit around and be arrogant and get complacent and get beat. So we we’ve got to handle it in the positive way.
Welcome back to the neighborhood coach. And on Florida State, of course it’s a program that has had some problems this season, they’re going through a transition. What can you tell us about the Seminoles?
That they’re very talented. They’re the most talented team we played to this point. They’ve played Miami and Notre Dame both on the road. So they had a really, really difficult schedule. And I don’t think people are giving them credit. They just changed the quarterback. Jordan Travis is the new quarterback because he’s a talented young guy, he can run it and throw it. They’re the biggest team will play all year. And I saw some flashes of them getting back on track and doing the things that they want to do against Notre Dame this weekend. So we’ll have our hands full and it’s down there that they will have a group of fans in their stadium. Their state just said they could sell out if they wanted to. So I’m not sure what we’ll run into when we get there. But I did enjoy fans being in our stadium on Saturday, the fans were great and the students were unbelievable. It felt nearly like a regular game, but this will be a fun challenge for us. And we’ve got this game this week.
Well, coach, we appreciate your spending time with us this morning and have a great week and practice and Go Heels.
Thank you, Ron. Everybody stay safe out there and pull hard on Saturday.
Featured imaga via ACC Media
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