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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media via zoom following practice Tuesday morning to field questions, give an update on where things are with his team, and to hit on a few other items.

Of note, Brown said now that the NCAA is allowing recruiting to open back up on June 1, the issue for the programs is needed clarity on if prospects should be tested before they arrive, perhaps even be vaccinated, and the numbers of prospects that can be inside a building at one time, plus more.

Also, Brown spoke about the spring game that is Saturday, various positions groups, including the defensive line, backup quarterback, the kicking game, depth on the offensive line, and so much more.

Above is Brown’s full interview and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:

*Brown and his wife Sally started moving into a new house last week that is almost on campus. Carolina’s coach said his back aches some from moving so many boxes, but he is excited to be in a new place and that it is actually very close to his office, which will come in handy once prospects can start visiting.

“The thing that is really significant for our recruiting, Sally and I fixed the house up that’s .98 miles from my office, and that means unofficial visits can come to our house,” Brown said. “Because, if it’s more than a mile (from campus), you can’t come to the house. So we think that’ll be a huge help in recruiting.”

*Tuesday morning was UNC’s 12th of the spring, and once again, Brown was pleased with the team’s energy. That has been a constant over the last month.

“I’ve never seen the energy for 12 straight practices (that) I’ve seen with this team,” Brown said.

He asked junior quarterback Sam Howell and senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel to address the team after practice and tell the team what they saw.

“They talked about more confidence than the Orange Bowl,” Brown said. “People are still talking about all the people we’ve lost, they’re talking about that gives (the team) a little bit of a chip on the shoulder of moving forward because they shouldn’t be talking about what we’ve lost, they should be talking about how good this team’s going to be next year.

“But we’ve had 12 really good practices, and I think that’s also a credit to the improved depth.”

*UNC will hold its spring game Saturday at Kenan Stadium, and in addition to the players who won’t play because they have missed the spring, is Brian Anderson, who has participated in every practice. Anderson’s brother is getting married so he will be at the wedding.

“I love ol’ Brian, and ‘ol Brian’s pretty embarrassed over it,” Brown said, laughing. “His brother is getting married; he had no choice. We didn’t know if we were going to have spring practice for COVID and didn’t know the dates were going to be and all that. I think it just got a little off track.”

*Special teams, and in particular the kicking aspect of them, have not been discussed much this spring, so we asked Brown about it, notably placekicker Grayson Atkins and punter Ben Kiernan.

Note: Kickoff specialist Jonathan Kim has not participated this spring because of a lower leg injury, but he will be available for the summer workouts.

“Ben Kiernan has had an outstanding spring and Grayson Atkins has not missed since the first day of spring practice,” Brown said. “So, we feel like with our added depth, the fact that we added Larry Porter, another full-time special teams coach from Auburn to our group, and then we have coach (Jovan) Dewitt here for his second year, that because of that depth, we’ll be playing better and fresher players on special teams and we should be much better.”

*Don Chapman, who started at safety for most of the last two seasons, said following Saturday’s scrimmage he has been working lately at nickel, and he and Jeremiah Gemmel both recently said former nickel Ja’Qurious Conley has been working exclusively at safety. Brown was asked for more clarity about what is going with the nickel spot and with Conley.

“The first thing would be (is) that we’re still cross training,” Brown replied. “We’re not sure COVID’s gone for sure, and even if it is, for whatever reason, we’ve had a significant amount of injuries in our secondary. So, we want to get, number one, the best 11 on the field, and number two, we do not want to get short of corners if three guys get hurt like we’ve been in some cases for the last two years.

“The other part of that is, (defensive coordinator) Jay (Bateman) and I are working really hard to find out what the best position is for each of these guys is. We’ve played okay at safety, (but) we haven’t played great. So, Ja’Qurious Conley is a tremendous athlete and Don Chapman is really savvy, and he’s tough and he’s really responded well to nickel. And Conley’s done a good job at safety over the last week.

“So, more than anything else, we’re not looking at schemes right now as much as we’re looking at personnel. And even in the spring game, we will not have game plans. We’re not going to sit there and (offensive coordinator) Phil (Longo) and Jay aren’t going to work against each other to figure out how they can move the ball or stop it. We are totally looking at people.”

*Jacolby Criswell did not have a spring last year because nobody in the program did, so all he had was the fall, and that was with restrictions and not a usual summer to get ready. So, this is his first spring. In addition, early enrollee Drake Maye now has 12 practices under his belt. So, what has Brown seen in growth from both players, and if something happened to Sam Howell, how much would Criswell be trusted with the full offense if he was thrust into a game right now?

“Jacolby didn’t have a spring last spring, so this has been very important for him for his first spring,” Brown said. “And the interesting thing when you study these early enrollees, they didn’t have a (fall) season. They didn’t have a spring or a season. And it’s so unusual, normally are coming off a spring practice and a fall season and an offseason program, and these guys had nothing…

“Jacolby is playing better right now since he’s been here. He’s had some good practices, he’s very talented, but it hasn’t transitioned to the field as well. I thought the last two scrimmages, he’s handled the drives well, he’s handled the offense well, and I do think he’s getting closer to being ready to play.

“Drake, right now, is very much like Sam was his first spring here. We’ve told Drake not to worry about it, ‘You’re very talented, you’re very smart, learn the offense, learn how to practice, but don’t be fighting for a job right now.’

“Sam pressed a little bit in that first spring and it’s happened to Drake some, so we want him to be relaxed, and then we will be able to let those two guys compete all summer and let them compete for the backup job in the fall.

“To answer whether you feel like somebody can come in and take Sam’s place right now, I’m not ready to go there yet. I’m hoping Sam gets to stay in until we need him to come out.”

*Depth along the defensive line has been one of the most discussed topics throughout spring practice, there are so many players in the mix for spots in the rotation, so where do things stand across the board with this group?

“I think one of the biggest changes and improvements that we needed to make was the strength and depth of our defensive line against the Notre Dames and Texas A&Ms. Not only did they wear us out, but we thought that they physically beat us down. And that was really important.

“So, Ray Vohasek has had an outstanding spring, and he’s a guy that is a little undersized, so unlike him playing 60-70 plays, he probably needs to play 40-45 plays, and he’s really quick and talented when he does that.

“Probably the guy that’s improved the most in that interior is Kevin Hester. He sprained his ankle a little bit four or five days ago, he’s fought through it, he’s still practicing (and) I think he’ll play on Saturday. He’s 6-5, 305-310 pounds and is really moving well.

“And Myles Murphy dominated the practice this morning. He was all over the place. I don’t think I’ve seen a guy dominate a practice like that. When you call out names (in practice), I just kept saying ‘88’ and ’88’ and ’88.’

“Clyde Pinder is rushing the passer really well. He’s undersized, so we’ve got to figure out how much he can play against the run game because we’ve got to do a better job of stopping the run on first down than we did last year. And we feel like those big bodies can do that.

“Tomari (Fox) is out, he’s not out there this spring and hopefully he’ll be back. Kritsian Varner has done a good job, but he would be, probably right now, a situational player. And you’re three that would be in there the most would be Vohasek, (Kevin) Hester, and Murphy.

“Bingley-Jones is coming off of his injury, so he’s doing well. He’s gotten a little bigger than we would like for him to be, so right now he’d be an interior guy, he can’t play outside. So Hester and KJ right now would be the interior guy (and) you would put Clyde Pinder in there in passing situations more than not because we’ve got to come out of this with our six-to-eight best pass rushers.

“We’ve got to have the big bodies for the run, but this game has changed second-and-long and third-and-long to a point you’ve got to have all pass rushers in. They’ve (offenses) got the flares, the screens, the draws, they’ve got quarterback draw. They’ve got to rush the passer. SO the game has changed, and I think you’ll see us using more different packages than we’ve ever seen because we have more players…

“And then you’ve got Keeshawn Silver, who’s at 309 pounds, he’s gotten a little big and he’s had a sore ankle, so he’s fought through some of that. But (I’m) really impressed, too, with the pass rushing ability of Jahvaree Ritzie as a young guy. He has shown up a lot, so I think we’ll see him in pass rushing situations quite a bit.”