Brown On Game Week, Howell's Respect, The RBs & More

CHAPEL HILL – Mack Brown met with the media following Wednesday morning’s practice for the final time before his team takes on South Carolina in the season opener Saturday in Charlotte, and the message was pretty clear: The Tar Heels are a bit anxious and need to play an opponent.

The Tar Heels practiced well Sunday, so-so Tuesday and had another good practice Wednesday morning, Brown said.

“I think the guys are in shape and I know they’re excited about the challenge of playing South Carolina,” Brown said.

Brown has seen an uptick in focus from the Heels now that it’s game week. He’s fairly pleased with how the team has gone about its business.

“This bunch has tried since we’ve been here,” he said. “I expect them to play hard, and the question will be their confidence because they haven’t played together as a team. We’ve tried to get rid of my past, get rid of their past and it’s all about now.”

A Few More Items

*So, it’s expected the players will be anxious, but what about a Hall of Fame coach with 244 victories and a national championship in his back pocket, is he also anxious in a week like this?

“I get excited,” Brown replied. “You work so hard ad so long, we’ve been doing this 10 months now with this team, so there’s got to be some ownership and I want to see us play.

“I tell our coaches daily and told our players after the practice today, ‘We need the best you, and you and your coach own your responsibilities, so you’ve got to do it. And if you don’t do it, it’s on you and your coach.’

*Want another example how true freshman quarterback Sam Howell is respected and has been embraced by his teammates?

“We just had a leadership committee vote and he got a lot of votes,” Brown said. "The team is very, very confidence in him, especially for a young guy.”

So what is the leadership committee?

“Leadership committee is a committee that I go to and ask them certain things when I think the team should have ownership of a decision, just like early morning practices… They voted 21 players and Sam was in the group.”

*Staying on Howell, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Phil Longo said Monday that Howell has the "it" factor, so Brown has been around quite a few It-factor guys in his career, does Howell compare favorably with some of them?

“I think so,” Brown replied. “He’s confident in a quiet way, but he exudes that confidence to the team and he’s a risk taker. You’d like him to be smart Saturday because you go back to his home town, you play a team that he grew up watching and he’s been here six months.

"Phil’s going to have to do a good job with him early in the game to help make sure that he’s comfortable, sees what South Carolina’s doing before we go crazy and turn him loose.”

*There’s been some discussion among fans regarding the pecking order at running back, especially with sophomore Javonte Williams listed first on the depth chart and senior Antonio Williams listed third and slated to return kickoffs along with junior Michael Carter.

There’s a reason players were listed as they were in the depth chart, Brown just doesn’t play games, but if there’s a position group where that order may not mean much of anything it would be running back.

“We will be able to rotate those backs on Saturday, and all three of them can be best player we’ve got as starters,” Brown said. “That’s still our best unit because of those three.”

*As for Williams returning kicks, ball security is one of the reasons he’s back there. But he’s also quite capable and got some high praise from his head coach Wednesday morning.

“We feel like every time somebody touches the ball they should have a chance to score, and those guys handle the ball all the time, they’ve got really good hands, they can catch passes out of the backfield, they’re tough, and I would think that Antonio Williams has probably improved as much since we’ve been here as any player on our team.”

Brown noted how much quicker and faster Williams is since losing body fat and that he’s been playing at a very high level.

*A typical game week under Brown is:

On Sundays, they will “clean up” the game from the day before and then get a quick scouting report on the next opponent. The staff will go in-depth Sunday night and throughout Monday preparing the game plan before the team begins next-opponent preparation Tuesday by putting in the plan. Wednesday’s are for taking things out that didn’t look right and the staff isn’t comfortable with.

On Thursdays, they “polish everything up” and later at night they have a pre-game meeting, as Brown has learned over the years players listen more on Thursday nights than they do Friday or the morning of games. That’s when discuss what they have to do in order to notch a victory and then they check the stats from those areas Sunday.

“If we check those boxes we’ve won the game, and if we (don’t) it’s obvious that we didn’t win the game,” he said.

Fridays are for the walk-through and either travel or the team going to the local hotel where they stay the night before home games.

*Friday night, the Tar Heels will watch a half of the Utah State-Wake Forest game to get a feel for the things that happen in openers, which includes myriad blunders on both sides of the ball in just about every game played.