UNC football coach Mack Brown joined Ron Stutts this morning for “Mondays with Mack,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire. Read his entire interview below:

We always like the opportunity to talk to Coach Mack Brown on Mondays when the Tar Heels have have a game. Boy did they have a game this past Saturday and Coach, first of all, thanks for being with us. I wanted to congratulate you on getting your first road win of the season. It was an amazing game to watch. I don’t know how you felt about it on the sideline.

Around the same. I’m really, really proud of our team. They fought hard and this is a game we would’ve lost last year. Cause the same thing happened at Virginia Tech with the six overtimes, we had opportunities to win it and we just didn’t and the same thing happened at Pittsburgh. Again, we’re on the road, it’s the latter part of the season. We’ve got a chance to win, we’re in overtime and we don’t make the plays that we have to make. And this game, we had opportunities to put the game away, time and time again and just didn’t do it. But we came up with a way to win the game, make the play at the end of the game and that’s fun, but it also shows that we’re making progress and learning how to win.

As you said, a lot of people were thinking, as Boston College was driving toward the touchdown to the end there, that if they score a touchdown, they’re going to go for two and then we could have another tie game and it could end up like Virginia Tech last year. And this year you have just been able to raise the expectations and your players have been able to follow through on that.

Yes, Ron, they want to be a different team. I mean three years ago, two and a half years ago, we won two games and that was very disappointing for them. And then last year they came back and we were up and down and we won some great games and nearly beat [Clemson] and then lose to Wake Forest, lose the [Appalachian State], lose on the road. Those other two games we talked about and won seven games, won the bowl game at the end, but they want to be different. They want us to be one of the better programs in the country and we’re not there yet. I mean, we said this would be a learning year and a growing year. And then next year we have a chance to step up and be really good. But these guys are off to a good start with a real strong challenge this weekend with the Virginia Tech.

You certainly said last week, that in a lot of ways, this game against BC was like another season opener. Since there would have been three full weeks between games and that showed itself in so many ways with penalties, especially. And that’s something happens to both sides on a Saturday, which is it’s really been just a strained season. And I guess those things have got to happen, but I know you can’t be happy about that.

No, Ron, we had 10 penalties. They had 12, it was a real sloppy game from that standpoint. We’d gone back and looked at it. What you do is you try to check and see which penalties you think were legitimate and which shouldn’t have been called. And there’s always some of both. Then today we take the penalties that we didn’t feel like were really penalties and send them to the ACC office. Then they get back with us Tuesday or Wednesday and tell us what they think should have been called and what should not be called. That’s not really griping, that’s so we can show our kids what they’re going to call and why they’re going to call it because these are human beings that are officials and they do a good job and they work hard. But anytime there’s 22 flags in a ballgame, that’s a lot.

Yeah, it was incredible. And your defense has played so well. We talked at length about that last week, but I wanted to talk about your offense. It is so explosive. You look out on the field and there are so many people out there, Michael Carter, for an example, or just capable of making an explosive play and turning the whole thing around.

Yes, everybody that can touch the ball on the offense has a chance to score. And that is exciting. I think right now where we’re trying so hard to be good, that we’re not utilizing a lot of patience. We need to settle down a little bit and we can’t score on every play. We get big play and then we slow down. So we’ve just got to take what they give us and, and go back and understand that last year people played this tight and they didn’t know much about [Sam Howell] and our speed. And because we threw the ball so well down the field, people aren’t going to give us those shots as easily anymore. So we’ve got to be patient, we’ve got to continue to be balanced, but I think we’ve got some good days ahead. Last year, Virginia Tech flipped us pretty good at the line of scrimmage. So this will be a real good test.

Well, getting back to this past Saturday, Phil Jurkovec is a big strong guy and passed for a lot of yardage. As a matter of fact, almost exclusively, the passing game, what did your secondary learn about itself and that game against the Eagles?

Well, number one, we were shocked that they threw it so many times. We thought they would come in and try to hammer us and keep the ball and be balanced. And they ran it nine times. And most of those were his and they threw it 56 times. It just shocked us. We went into the ball game to play a lot of normal defense with four defensive backs and five man front, trying to stop the run. And obviously we had to ditch that game plan very quickly. So Ron, we have changed game plans during the first quarter, just because it we were shocked that they were doing what they were doing. And then you got to give Jurkovec complete credit. We hit him, we tried to get him down. We couldn’t tackle him. And he threw it to [Hunter Long]. I think he targeted him about 20 times.

So they’ve got a good football team and it’s much better than people think. I didn’t even realize this when I was studying them last week. They’ve been to seventh straight bowl games. That team’s used to winning. And they’re really, really tough at home. They’re physical. They had played poorly the week before us against Texas State. And that’s always a bad sign for us because the coaches can coach them hard after an “ugly win” as people call it and we knew they were gonna, we were going to get their best shot.

Well, of course, and that game was played with zero fans in the stands. And that’s got to be just really strained still when you’re out there and the football game is going on, and there’s nobody in this stands. It’s just really a weird season.

It’s nearly like you’re scrimmaging ACC teams. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, but we’ll have 3,500 [fans] this weekend. And that’ll be a full house compared to what we had in the opener. So we’ll be excited about the few fans that get to come and see the game. And especially the players’ families, that was really bothersome that they couldn’t come to the Syracuse game, and then they didn’t get an opportunity to go to the Boston College game. Cause they had no fans, no families, no nothing. But at least we’ll be able to get some of our fans, some of our students and the family members of our players in this weekend. And that’ll be really a good start toward getting back to some normalcy. Cardboard cutouts don’t make a whole lot of noise. I’ve been trying to stir them up and they just seem to sit there and stare at me.

Coach, you got Virginia Tech coming in this Saturday. Virginia Tech is always tough and they have had a lot of losses due to COVID-19. Against Duke and NC State they pretty much they did pretty well. Coming in here on Saturday, Virginia tech is always a challenge.

Yes, I think I saw the other day where Justin Fuente, their coaches are 10-1 against teams from North Carolina. So he’s done a great job at he’s dominated games in this state. And two years ago, we had a chance to put them away with a touchdown run. They get the ball and drive it the length to the field and score. And then last year we go to six overtimes and had numerous times to win the game and just didn’t do it. So these two teams have been pretty equal over the last couple of years. And this is an important game for us to try to go to 3-0 in the league.

What are you working on this week in order to get better in time?

I really think we’ve got to stop the run. They’ve run for over 300 yards against NC State and Duke in the first two ball games. So they’re really doing a great job of running the ball. And when you do that, you’re beating down the other team. The other team gets tired. You get to keep the ball. So it keeps it away from our offense. And then secondly, offensively, just take what they give us. They’re going to be a blitzing team. They’re going to be all over the place. They sacked us five times last year. So we’ve got to run the ball, but we got to take what’s there. And then thirdly, we were improving in the kicking game. But we’ve got to get a turnover or get a score in the kicking game. And we haven’t been able to do that yet.

Coach, I know that we’ve talked about the penalties and all that kind of thing, but did you learn anything new about your team last week that you didn’t know before you went up there?

Yes, they’re very resilient. They’re very confident right now. They’re smart. They didn’t panic during the ball game. Some of the old demons that we’ve had losing these close games at the end have gone away. So I really feel like they’re at a good place now that they know who they are. I told them it’s great to be ranked eighth and ninth in the country. We were never even in the Top 25 last year, but that’s a lot of hope that we can be good. It’s all just two ball games. So we’ve got to keep earning that, right, if you want to stay in the elites in college football.

Well, coach as always, we appreciate your time.

Thank you, Ron. Thanks for having me on. And everybody stay safe out there.

Featured image via ACC Media

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community. Contribute today – every single dollar matters.

Related Stories
UNC Football vs. Virginia Tech: How To Watch, Cord-Cutting Options and Kickoff Time
Mondays with Mack: A Heartbreaking Six-Overtime Loss
Art’s Angle: Kissing Your Sister
Mondays with Mack: Bye Week Means More Work For UNC Football