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 there is no question, everybody has talked about how it was so important for Carolina to get off to a good start against App State. And certainly you couldn’t ask for a better beginning for the Tar Heels this past Saturday.
Yes, Ron, they practiced really well throughout the week. I was so proud of the effort that our guys gave. We got the kickoff return and one touchdown to get started. And what we’re not doing well is responding to each other at key moments during the ball game.
Right after we score the touchdown, our defense needs us to have a huge stop and then Appalachian drives it down and gets a field goal. And then we have the turnover there in the second quarter and some in the third quarter. Even though we got a quick first kickoff return and one play touchdown starts after that, we didn’t play as well in the first quarter, in the second quarter. And got ourselves in a deep hole again.
And then we’re “Mr. Fourth Quarter” now. We’ve talked about that enough. We’re outscoring everybody in the fourth quarter, but we’re digging ourselves too big a hole to come back the last two weeks.
You know, football is such a game of momentum. You know it better than anyone. You had it. Lost it. Got it back for a while. I thought it was a real character-builder though. Even though the Tar Heels were pinned at their own two yard line, you were able to drive 98 yards downfield for a touchdown, which to me, this proves there is no quit in this team.
I’m really, really proud of them. People thought we would probably be 0-4 at this stage, if anything better than that going to be 1-3 or 2-2. And they just thought we’d probably win the opposite two than the two that we won. But every game has come down to the last drive, the fourth quarter and the guys are fighting their guts out, and they’re trying really hard and they were really disappointed the last two weekends. But they’ve had four physical games, Ron, physical games and, and I’m proud of the way they keep fighting until we just start over each week.
Coach, I want to remind everybody that this Carolina football team won a grand total of five games in the last two seasons. And this whole rebuilding phase is not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take awhile. After the two wins to start the season, I think all the fans are giddy and started having wild and crazy expectations. Everybody has to just tamp it down a little bit and to be realistic. And, of course, you know you’re doing all you can do, but it’s just going to take a while.
It is, and it’s normally depth and when you have four physical games, like we’ve had, and we’ll have another physical game this weekend against the number one team in the country, defending national champs. You get some guys banged up, you get some guys hurt and then you’ve got guys in and that helps you long term because it will develop them. Short term, it makes it more difficult and some guys are having to play too much Right now.
I know that you don’t use injuries as an excuse, but all as we all know, injuries are such a big part of the game. It seems like they’ve really started to pile up for Carolina. And that posed another issue and that is depth. I know the depth on this team is not what you want to be and that’s showing up sometimes. We have three outstanding tailbacks but it’s the offensive line.
Yes. I think the offensive line on Saturday had only freshmen and sophomores. And as I look back through the ball games, one of the keys to all four of those really good teams that we played is they have older offensive lines. I looked at Clemson, I think they’ve got a graduate, one young man and three seniors. Appalachian had an older offensive line and Wake Forest was all graduates or five-year guys. So our offensive line continues to grow. They’re working really hard, but they’re so young with a new system that we make some mistakes.
I’ve got to say that I, I felt a little bit like a New Orleans Saints fan on Saturday after that, what I think was an obvious no call in the end zone. I know you don’t really want to comment on that, but I just wanted to get that out there. That was frustrating.
Thank you Ron. That one of the frustrating things for coaches is that there is a no comment rule on officiating, and that’s probably the way it should be because we have always had that. No, I can’t comment.
Once again, it was a game that went down to the wire. Stadium was absolutely electric on Saturday, the atmosphere was terrific. And I truly feel it’s a new day for Carolina football. In spite of these last two losses and another complete sell out for Saturday’s game against Clemson, the number one team in the country. And I know we didn’t run the ball like we wanted to against App State, which put a lot of pressure on Sam Howell. But what will you be focusing on this week in order to get ready for Clemson?
Well, Ron, even with the comment on running the ball, we ran the ball really well at times. We’re just not doing anything consistently. Well, we’re an inconsistent football team. I looked at all the stats last night. We’re about even, like the games are through the first four games. We’re not forcing turnovers. We’ve got four interceptions, but we don’t have a fumble recovery. So those are things that we’ve just gotta do better as we go.
Clemson’s got the best team in the country; they’re defending national champs; they’re number one in the country; they have the best coaches in the country; they have the best players in the country; they’re recruiting the best in the country. So if you’re going to win the ACC championship, you’re going to have to beat Clemson to get out of this league.
If you’re going to get to a playoff status, you have to beat Clemson. If you’re going to win a national championship, you have to beat Clemson because they are the best team in the country. So, good for our fans and, and good for us that we’re a huge underdog, but at the same time this will show our players and our coaches and our fans what we need to get to.
You know, you mentioned turnovers earlier and the turnover differential was not good for Carolina. Without those turnovers, this would have been a different game all together. How do you avoid turnovers? I mean, I, I know it’s not something that you can really control but, but what in the world do you tell your guys about that?
Well, we controlled them the first three weeks, and we’d done such a great job with them. What we were doing was pressing our defense to force more as we just haven’t forced enough, but you just go back through and look at each one of them. And on the first one that the really good defensive end [Demetrius Taylor] hits us from behind and picks up the ball and runs it back to a touchdown.
That’s so unusual that a guy can knock a ball loose and pick it up and run it back for a touchdown. Our backside tackle didn’t hinge back and take him like he should’ve. So people will blame Sam, but, but it wasn’t his fault. It was a protection bust. The second one, same player gets the interception. We didn’t cut him. He stayed on his feet and it was a screen and Sam couldn’t get the ball over his head. And then the third one, we just had a poor throw. So two of those three lead to at least 14 points, and that’s 14 we couldn’t afford to give up.
I know Saturday was disappointing for you, but is there anybody on this team who had a really good performance on Saturday that you want to talk about that most of us maybe don’t know about?
Oh, I would think probably Javonte Williams. He has played so well. He and Beau Corrales probably offensively were the two guys that that stepped out the most. And there’s a few guys on defense, so Jason Strowbridge has been hurt, but Aaron Crawford’s playing really hard and Tomon Fox is playing every play as hard as he can play. And Dominique Ross is getting better. He missed the first game, but since then he just keeps improving. And you start looking at Myles Dorn, Trey Morrison, we have a lot of guys on defense that are really fighting hard.
I know that that is one thing that has quickly characterized this team in the first four games, they seem to play as hard as they can. And as I mentioned earlier, there is absolutely no quit in this team. I know you’re happy about that. And I’ll ask you the same question I’ve asked you every week. What can the fans do on Saturday to help you against Clemson?
Ron, the same thing they’ve been doing. The Wake Forest game had a crowd like the old days. It was great to see so much Carolina blue there. Down in Charlotte we had a great turnout, and it was hot as can be and they hung in there. Saturday was really, really hot and the fans hung in there until the end when we weren’t playing well all the time.
And people talk about Carolina fans and not coming early and not staying late. Well you’re doing both, and we need that to continue to just hang in there with us. This team will be good. I think before this year is over because they’ve already shown moments where we can be really, really good. And very seldom do you get the best team in the country in your stadium. So let’s show Clemson great hospitality. That’s the way they show us when we’d go down there and let’s also show them how important football is at Carolina and when they come up here they’ll understand that.
