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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina is two weeks away from taking on South Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, and Thursday afternoon, three Tar Heels were available to the media to field questions about themselves, prep for the Gamecocks, and more.
Below are videos of interviews with freshman linebacker Power Echols, senior running back/special teams captain British Brooks, and sophomore wide receiver Josh Downs. Notes and pulled quotes are included:
Power Echols, Fr. LB
*Echols hails from Charlotte, as he attended Vance (now Chambers) High School, so playing in his first bowl game Dec. 30 and it being in his hometown, and inside the stadium that houses the NFL team he grew up rooting for is pretty exciting.
“It's amazing, I'm going to have a lot of family at the game, a lot of people supporting me,” Echols said. “So, I'm just excited to get back home and just do what I do best, just play football, and get the win against the Cocks.”
*The Tar Heels returned to the practice field last Saturday, and typically a team goes through sort of a football bootcamp for a few days when prepping for a bowl game to shake off some rest. In Carolina’s case, the team had been off since the NC State game, and finished finals last Friday.
They have started working some on South Carolina, though.
“I would say right now just getting our fundamentals right, competing in practice, just getting our edge,” Echols said. “I would say it's fifty-fifty South Carolina just getting the gauge on what we're going to see out there what personnel we're going to see, what formations they're going to be in, things like that.”
*And what has Echols seen on film and learned about the Gamecocks’ offense?
“Well, we're going to see definitely a lot of 12 personnel with them being SEC ball, they are going to try to run it at us, so we just definitely going to prepare for that and see that,” he said.
British Brooks, Sr. RB/Special Teams Captain
*British Brooks ran for 89 yards and two touchdowns in UNC’s win over Wofford and then gorged for 124 yards in a loss at NC State, both were his best performances as a running back during his time at UNC. Brooks, a special teams captain, later decided to return for another season, using the NCAA’s rule not counting the 2020 season against players’ eligibility.
So Brooks will be back next year, and he ahs a lot of reasons that fueled his decision, including how he played in those last two games.
“I thought it played a lot,” he said. “It gave me a lot more confidence to just come back and keep playing, and further my education here at North Carolina, the best education in the nation.”
*Brooks looked in the State game like he’d been running all over opponents all season. Where did that confidence come from?
“Just preparations throughout the year,” he said. “They called my number and I just stepped up you, I just played how I am.”
*Brooks is from Gastonia, NC, which is about 25 miles from Charlotte. So he gets to play in a bowl game close to his home.
“It's going to feel like I'm at home,” Brooks said. “My people right down the street, a lot of people gonna pull up. It's gonna be nerve-racking to see a lot of people that I know at the game so just hope for the best.”
Josh Downs, Soph. WR
*Sophomore Josh Downs has had a sensational season, catching 98 passes for 1,273 yards, and eight touchdowns, earning him a spot on the first-team All-ACC squad. Downs didn’t play much last season with Dazz Newsome in front of him, but it wasn’t just him having an opportunity that has led to his record-setting season (receptions and yards), his game as a whole improved dramatically.
“I’ve got 12 games under my belt now, so I’m kind of like more of a veteran and I know what to expect,” he said. “Going into the games last year, I really didn’t really play a lot, so I didn’t know – I knew the speed of the game but not completely, because I wasn’t completely a part of it.
“I know the plays better, I can recognize defenses better, I can do a lot of stuff better, and I’m more in-tune and adapted to the college football game itself.”
*Downs caught at least eight passes in every game but one, but he did not score a touchdown over the last five games nor did he have a 100-yard receiving game over UNC’s last four contests. Was the difference because he was defended differently?
“I definitely had more people following me like with a specific person and having safeties help from my side of the field more, and getting more double teams. A lot of teams we played, like pretty much wherever I lined up, the defense was calling out where I was, if anything. That’s one thing I definitely noticed going deeper into the season.”
*He and offensive coordinator Phil Longo had to adjust to the changes in how teams covered Downs.
“It was more really like Longo adjusting his play calling and figuring out different places he could put me to not let them scheme a perfect defense to stop me, trying to motion me from one side to the other or lining me up some in the backfield.”
