UNC football coach Mack Brown joined Ron Stutts this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire. Read his entire interview below:
Coach Mack Brown is indeed with us this morning. And Coach, let me just say, first of all, I have never been so proud of a Carolina football team when they came up on the short end of a score in Kenan Stadium. Saturday was just fantastic. And I know you’re proud of your guys.
Ron, I really am. It’s been [2008], I think, since un-ranked Oregon State beat USC who was number one at that time. And our guys fought their guts out. We were in position to get it done and just didn’t finish. So give Clemson credit for knowing how to win and getting that done. I think our bunch sees that we’re growing so fast and there’s some really special things ahead and they fought as hard as they could in that ball game.
Absolutely. And let me just echo what Art Chansky has already said this morning. Thanks for bringing fun back to football in Kenan Stadium.
Thank you. I told the guys yesterday that I’ve never been in coaching where we had five games come down to the last drive, the first five games that I’m back in coaching. And it’s been really fun to compete and fight. And obviously we came up a series short on three of those, we were a play short on the one Saturday, and won the other two and in a really exciting fashion.
So these guys are doing everything possible, Ron, to help us get back where we want to be and that’s in the Top 10 and playing for championships and playing for a playoff spot, maybe a national championship here and that’d be fun. And I’ve never seen the crowd better than, than Miami and last Saturday. They were just electric. Clemson had about six false starts, and I give that credit to our fans and to our students; our students have been just unbelievable. They’re so much fun to watch, and it’s packed every week. I just can’t compliment our game day any better for our fans and our students.
Of course the Tar Heels were four-touchdown underdogs going into this game according to all those people who make the predictions of so called experts, but going toe-to-toe with the number one team in America had to prove to every one of those guys on your team that they can play with anybody when they play as hard as they did on Saturday.
Ron, that’s exactly right, and we did that against South Carolina; we did that against Miami; we did that Saturday. I thought we played hard against App State and Wake Forest, but we didn’t play with the same passion and emotion. So that’s our deal this weekend. We need to quit worrying about who we’re playing and we need to be us and we’ve got to play to a certain standard like we did Saturday. And if we do that, we’re going to be okay.
I also have to you that I 100 percent applaud you for going for two. In that situation I feel like, you know, you got to go for the win, you had them on your home turf and you’d got to go for the win in that situation instead of a tie. I know you’ve caught some flack about that from some people, but in my opinion that’s ridiculous.
Well, the one good thing we’re on is I’m at a stage in my life and my career where I really don’t care what anybody thinks. I was going to do what was best for our teams and nobody was on that sideline. Nobody but me knew that we had a number of defensive players out, and we were worn down. There was 1:16 left with one time out. I was worried about us stopping them from getting down for a field goal because they got the best quarterback in the country. But I knew we had momentum.
Our best odds of winning the game was to go for two. It was 100 percent. It wasn’t a question mark my mind; it wasn’t a vote; it wasn’t a discussion. It was a 100 percent. And if I’m going to ask these young guys to be aggressive, then how can I not do what’s best for them instead of covering me and saying let’s take the conservative approach so nobody will get mad at me. Let’s kick the extra point and then maybe we’ll hang on. And I wanted to do what was best for our team, 100 percent and that’s what I did.
Well again, you made the right decision. I’m sure you are 100 percent sure on that, but you know, your team got off to a fast start obviously and led and then tied for the majority of the game until Clemson scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter. And then the remarkable thing is that Sam Howell and the Tar Heel offense came all the way back down field for another scoring drive to get in that position in the first place.
Yeah, I’m so proud of these guys not quitting. And this is really the first game we’ve played all four quarters. We’d been poor in the second quarter, but we actually played well in the second quarter.
We still gave up the touchdown right before the half, which we’ve got to do a better job of doing. But again, Trevor Lawrence made some great plays, not good plays on that drive. But I felt like that this team came to play; they played 60 minutes. They left their heart out there on the field and that’s all we can ask.
The Carolina defense has come a long way, holding Clemson to 331 yards in total offense on the day. I know that you have some really glowing accolades to say about those guys.
I do. We forced one turnover and we forced one fourth-down stop. And that’s the equivalent of two turnovers. But the guys tackled well; they played hard to hold [Travis Etienne] like they did. He may be the best back in the country and they may have the best quarterback in the country. And those two wide receivers or three wide receivers are all about 6-foot-5.
So I thought again that our coaches on both sides did a great job of game planning and scheming. We slowed the game down some. We actually huddled some, which we’ve never done in the previous games, and we just felt like that helped us, helped our defense, they rested better. And gave our offense, gave Sam some time to think about what he was going to do instead of going so fast this week. So we felt like everything worked. We just were a play away from winning the game.
One of the most amazing stories on this Carolina football team, and there are many, is that of Chazz Surratt who was starting at quarterback at the beginning of last season, made the conversion to linebacker and that young man is playing really well.
Yeah. Chazz is getting better each week, like our team, and you would think he should because Ron he’s never played there. He’s never played linebacker. So every play that he sees in practice and in a game makes it better for him.
Jeremiah Gemmel played well. Dominique Ross played well, all those linebacker stepped up, and we’re trying to get all three of them on the field more now. So that’s something that we’re doing with our defensive staff that I’m trying to still figure out with all of our injuries, how we can get the best 11 out there.
Well I know that it’s really difficult for us as Carolina fans to get past this game against Clemson and what a great game you guys played. But now we turn to Georgia Tech and this one is even more important from a conference standpoint. How do you get your team ready for the Yellow Jackets down in Atlanta?
Well that’s where we’ve got to grow up, and we’ve got to be us. We’ve got to work toward the standard of playing and practicing and coaching every week the same. We haven’t won but one time, Ron, since we won in Atlanta on a Thursday night against Georgia tech 28-20 with a George O’Leary coached team. The week before we played Florida State and it was a hard fought game, but we’ve only won one time since then in Atlanta and that was 2015 and we won 38-31.
Atlanta has not been an easy place for us to play. Like us, Georgia Tech has a new coach in Goeff Collins, who did a tremendous job at Temple. They’re not very happy because they came up short the last couple of weeks like we have. So they should be a great game, and we’ve got great following in Atlanta like we had at Wake Forest. We need all of our fans to keep out and keep coming out and screaming for this young team because they need your support.
Well, I know that your focus is more on Carolina than it is on Georgia Tech. Is there any specific thing that you’re gonna work on with your team this week as you head down to Atlanta?
We’ve got to continue to work on being aggressive with our offensive line up front. We actually out-rushed Clemson and usually when you out rush the other team it obviously it simply means your defensive front seven and your offensive line and your running backs did a better job than the other team and when that happens you usually win the game.
The second thing would be, Ron, we need to force more turnovers on defense. We just forced one on Saturday with one fumble from Etienne that led to points. But we’re protecting the ball pretty well, but we are not getting as many turnovers as we need. And lastly we need to improve in the kicking game. It’s just okay. We had really good field position on Saturday, but we’re not scoring well on the special teams. That’s something we’ve got to do.
Well coach, I know you have an incredibly busy week and a very busy day ahead of you. I thank you for taking the time to talk to us this morning.
Thank you, Ron. I always love talking to the people of Chapel Hill.
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