CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday morning for his weekly press conference to discuss more about UNC’s win over Western Carolina and to look ahead at this Saturday’s big matchup at No. 9 Miami.
UNC (7-3, 6-3 ACC) is ranked No. 17 in the CFP poll and the Hurricanes are 8-1 (7-1).
Above is Brown’s full press conference and below are notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*The Tar Heels scored just seven points in the second half of their 49-9 win over the Catamounts this past Saturday at Kenan Stadium. Many of the starters didn’t play at all after halftime, yet Brown wasn’t all that pleased with how the reserves played on offense.
"The second half, I was a little disappointed in the second offense that they didn't score but one touchdown the second half,” Brown said. “We had the turnovers, with the quarterback hit and strip and run back for a touchdown and the interception, but I felt like that there were some individual players on offense that played well. But, as a group, they didn't play as well as we would like for them to.
“(Someone) asked after the game, 'Why didn't we run the same offense that we did?' There's just a lot of decisions that have to be made by quarterbacks and sometimes it doesn't look the same because Sam's been out there a whole lot. But, we tried to run exactly the same offense and when we got in there."
*88 Tar Heels played versus Western Carolina. The defensive MVP was true freshman Kaimon Rucker, the offensive MVP was senior Michael Carter, and the special teams MVP was Dazz Newsome.
*The Hurricanes are No. 27 in the nation in total offense, No.32 in passing offense, No. 23 in scoring offense, No. 43 in total defense, No. 29 in scoring defense, and No. 19 in turnover margin, having forced 16 turnovers while coughing up the ball just nine times. Brown says the Canes have gotten better since losing at Clemson on Oct. 10.
"Manny Diaz has done a tremendous job with some key staff changes that have really worked well for Miami,” Brown said. “They also have recruited well when you look at their roster and he's done a brilliant job with transfers. I mean, they've got some of the best transfers in the country that have come in and made a huge impact for them. And we really haven't been able to do that at the same level they have.
So, their kicker, their punter, are two of the best in the country and they're both transfers. And the two defensive ends, maybe the best combination of defensive ends in the country. And (Quincy) Roche, we tried to recruit. So, they're just really, really good. They're big, they're physical. It's the best front four that we've played on defense. And then you talk about (D'Eriq) King, their quarterback, again, one of the best in the country. Over 10,000 yards in his career in total offense.
“But, D'Eriq is a tremendous player and seems like just an outstanding leader as well as that. Mike Harley is one of the best receivers we faced. He's tall, he can fly, he's really good in space with the ball. They've got to have the best tight ends.
"So, they're a much better team this year than they were last year. And you start looking at Roche, we knew how good he was because we saw him in our game with Temple. But Jaelan Phillips is 6-5, 266, and those guys have combined for 28 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks, just by themselves. And then they're so good on third down, they blitz 57 percent of the time, but they're only giving up a conversion rate of 37 percent."
*UNC must deal with Miami QB D’Eriq King this weekend, what makes facing running QBs who can also throw the ball so challenging?
"Everybody has trouble with a running quarterback because he's the extra guy. Even when Sam runs, he's usually out there by himself,” Brown said. “We just don't want to run him as much as some other people do. And you can spy a guy like this, the problem is with Ian Book, you put a spy on him and the spy can't tackle him. I mean, it's usually not just the running quarterback. Virginia and Florida State hurt us using their quarterback as an extra runner.
“These guys hurt us, Ian and D'Eriq, because they spread out so much and they're so athletic you can't get them on the ground and that's the problem. So, we went into the Notre Dame game saying, 'Let's keep him in the pocket. He's a shorter player, don't let him get out of the pocket and be a scrambler. You can't do it. I mean, that's the problem. You're there, but you can't tackle him and you missed the tackle time and time again.
“And then I saw highlights this weekend where Syracuse missed the tackle time and time again and that's what you see with Miami. D'Eriq just makes play after play out of the pocket."
*The Tar Heels have been the exclusive game on ABC a few times this season, and will be on once again for Saturday’s 3:30 pm kick. Saturday’s game is one of just three nationally pitting ranked teams versus each other, with No. 7 Cincinnati at No. 24 Tulsa and No. 22 Washington at No. 23 Oregon the other games. UNC-Miami just may be the biggest game in the nation this weekend.
"Also proud of these guys that they've got another ABC primetime game at 3:30,” Brown said. “I mean, people are looking at this program and recognizing that we're making progress. We played, as I said, a good ball game on defense versus Notre Dame, we played a good half versus Notre Dame on offense. We still haven't put our best, complete game together."
*Going back to late in the third quarter versus Wake Forest, UNC’s defense has been much better. From that point on through the Notre Dame game, the Tar Heels allowed touchdowns on just five of 17 opponents’ possessions, and then include the win over Western Carolina, in which its lone touchdown was a fumble return for a touchdown, the UNC defense has allowed just five TDs over the last 28 opponents’ drives. What has been its most notable improvement of late?
"I don't think there's any question that what I've seen is the run defense in the front seven,” Brown said. “We're playing better technique, we're playing with better leverage, we're stopping more runs. We stripped three balls on Saturday, we only got on one, we've got to get on them now. We're not used to stripping them, so when they're on the ground, we've got to get the ball.
“So, it's kind of like they said, if there's a whole lot of people around it, it's like the city ball, there's a lot of people there, you better jump on it. If it's the country ball and you're out there by yourself, pick it up and run it back. But, we've gotta quit bending over and trying to pick them up, we've got to fall on them, and we had those opportunities this week. And I also think the fact that we forced ourselves to playing a lot more people. We're fresher, we're not as tired during the game and therefore we don't have as many lapses.
“We're playing better second quarters and that's helped us some too. But, if you can't run the ball consistently and you can't stop the run in college football, that hasn't changed. If you can't do those two things, you're probably not going to win consistently and we're stopping the run much better now."
*With a win coupled with a Clemson narrow win over Notre Dame in the ACC championship game in two weeks, it’s likely the Tar Heels would earn a spot in the Orange Bowl. The program hasn’t played in a major bowl game in 71 years. Does Brown discuss this with his team?
"What we try to do is, every Sunday, we address national issues with the players,” Brown said. “Every day, we address COVID to show them who's canceled and why Brigham Young is going to Coastal on a Thursday to show them how lucky they are and that it's their responsibility to stay clean so they get to play because that's not happening in a lot of different places. We do the same thing with bowl games.
“We've told them that, here are the list of ACC bowl games when one cancels out. We've told them the Pinstripe Bowl will not be played this year, the Sun Bowl will not be played this year. 'Coach, do you think they're going to have enough bowls for us to go to?' Yes, so plan on having bowl season. The bowls that we would go to will most likely be from these dates, so start thinking about. That's why we changed our routine to, after the Miami game, if a player lives near Miami and his parents are there and it's a lot less less expensive for him to drive home with them, we're gonna let him drive home with his parents and think that'd be safe.
“So, we try to address all of that stuff on Sunday and then get it out of the way and go play. And no question that the more games you win, the better opportunity, better options that are available for you with bowls. But, the way I understand it, the ACC and the bowl will decide where each of us go at the right time."
*Jacob Turner contributed to this report.
