CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina held its first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday morning, and following Sunday’s next-day walk-through, UNC Coach Mack Brown met with the media to discuss how the team fared the day before.

UNC ran 100 plays in mid-90s temperatures without any players getting injured. Brown said every player who participated in the scrimmage also practiced Sunday morning, which was the team’s 10th of fall camp.

“So that’s a real positive,” he said.

The Tar Heels went 100 plays, as noted, and went strength versus strength. The starters (blues) against starters, the second units (whites) went against each other, and the grays also got into it toward the end. There was plenty to like for Brown and the staff, but also much to improve and shore up.

“I thought the effort was really, really good,” Brown said. “We’ve got some big guys on defense that still have to pick it up and chase the ball better. We got a great look at a lot of different guys, so that’s very helpful.”

Brown watched tape of the scrimmage twice Saturday and then again Sunday morning before practice. As for separation in a few key position groups, that quest continues.

“We still didn’t separate at backup quarterback,” Brown said. More on that below.

Ty Chandler remains the first running back, but true freshman Caleb Hood made a move in the scrimmage and is now the number two running back.

“Caleb’s making progress and doing a good job,” Brown said. “And the other guys are still competing for a spot.”

On the other side of the ball, the staff has numbers to sort through. Depth is pretty much everywhere, including up front where some highly talented young players are pushing for playing time.

“As far as the defense is concerned, it’s more who are the best players and then who can play some plays,” Brown said. “And we’ve got more players now, so we’re having to look at some really talented young freshmen, but will they be ready to play at Virginia Tech? And if they are, how many plays can they play?”

Special teams have been a huge focus throughout fall camp and certainly was Saturday. There is a danger in going full speed on special teams in practice, but Brown says that is the only way they will really know what they have, who can play on certain units, and what to fix. They went live in all phases of special teams.

“We were very, very aggressive with special teams yesterday,” Brown said. “A lot of time with punts and kicks and kickoffs, and we did a lot more than we’ve done in the past, partially because we’ve got more players. And we know we’ve got some ground to make up to where we’re as good on offense to where we were last year.

“Hopefully, we’ll be better on defense, and we’ve got to be better in the kicking game.”

Brown has said multiple times going back to the spring that improving all aspects of special teams was a primary point of emphasis for fall camp. Getting better field position and even some points from special teams can help make up for an offense that isn’t as potent as last year or takes time to find a similar groove.

Here are some more notes and quotes from Brown regarding the scrimmage:

*Schemes aren’t a big deal in the first scrimmage of fall camp. It is more an opportunity for the players to build separation in depth chart battles and for the staff to get a better feel for player groupings, including on special teams.

Brown says they can focus more on shoring up schemes later in fall camp, but they first needed to figure out what players are separating from the others.

“There was no game plan, that’s why there’s good plays and bad plays,” Carolina’s coach said. “Something will look bad, and we’ll say, ‘Yeah, we haven’t worked on that yet. Don’t worry about that, we’ll pick that up.’ Or they slipped one on us, ‘We’ll scheme that differently.

“But what you want right now is total depth chart. I’ve got it sitting here again, I’ve watched it twice last night and I watched it again this morning. And when you’re talking about 120 players you’ve got to be careful that the first time you watched it you’re tired and just got out of the heat and you’re mad at everybody.

“And then the second time you watch it you see something different, and then you talk to your coaches and have a staff meeting, and they say, ‘So and so, Cedric Gray played really well.’ So, I will go back and watch him more.

“So, it was totally about depth chart, and it was totally about we’ve got to start separating guys on how many plays – who are the guys that are going to make a difference in the game and who are the guys that can rest them.”

*The wide receiver group is coming along as expected, but one freshman to make an impact Saturday and who has looked good throughout camp is tight end Bryson Nesbit, whom Brown singled out.

“We’re really, really pleased with what we’ve seen from him,” Brown said. “He can run, he can catch, he’s doing a great job with his blocking, because he was a detached tight end a lot in high school. So, we’re excited about his progress and feel like he’s doing well.”

Brown did note some receivers took a step forward and some took a step back Saturday.

*Back to quarterback, Brown was hoping for separation between Drake Maye and Jacolby Criswell.

“Both of the are really good,” he said. “So, we’re glad they’re there, but I’m sure I didn’t even talk about it a lot in the staff meeting yesterday because I could see it, there wasn’t separation. There were good plays and there were plays that you’d wish you had back. So they’ve still got to separate, and we’ve got some time to do that.”

*Brown said they “pretty much know” who that first defense is going to be because they’re all back. “But, who’s the next guy? And we’ve got a lot of bodies, we’ve got a lot of guys. And will a freshman be ready to play 15 plays at Virginia Tech? Will he be able to play 25?

“Do we play more linebackers than we’ve played; we haven’t played but two linebackers for two years. So do we play more now?”

*Brown noted there was a tough conversation with the cornerbacks this morning based on what happened during the scrimmage.

“We’ve been giving up too many deep balls,” Brown said. “And then the quarterbacks haven’t hit enough of the deep balls. But there’s been too many people open.

“We’re talking hard to our corners this morning about, ‘We have got to win the deep ball at corner to be able to be a great team. And we’re not doing that all the time right now.”