CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media for his weekly press conference Monday morning as the Tar Heels continues preparing to play No. 2 Notre Dame on Friday afternoon at Kenan Stadium.
UNC is coming off a bye week and finishing final exams, so the practice schedule has been different than usual, but the Heels are close to being finished with exams and are diving into prep for the Fighting Irish.
UNC is 6-2 and ranked No. 25 in the nation while Notre Dame is 8-0.
Above is Brown’s full press conference and below are notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*Sophomore cornerback Kyler McMichael is back from an injury and will play Friday, plus senior WR Beau Corrales, sophomore corner Storm Duck, and junior center Brian Anderson – all starters when healthy – are practicing this week and will be game-time decisions. And Brown emphasized he means they are truly game-time decisions.
“One thing for me being on your side of this for five years and being over here, and the media always wonder, ‘Why don’t they just tell us who’s healthy? Man, don’t say it’s a game time decision, don’t say we’re going to watch them during the week,’” Brown said. “It’s really true.
“Number one, you watch a guy like Storm during the week and then he hasn’t played in so long, will he be ready to play if he can practice all week and how much can you use him? So, all those things are a factor as you get in there.”
*Brown expressed how unfortunate it is that Friday’s game won’t have the kind of atmosphere it would have had the pandemic never hit. UNC sold out every game a year ago and surely would have done so this season, with Friday’s being one of the more electric atmospheres ever at Kenan.
"We would have had huge crowds this year,” Brown said. “And there have been a lot of disappointments for a lot of us in our lives with the pandemic, but one for sure is we would have sold out for Syracuse. And then what a crowd we would have had for Virginia Tech and for NC State and for Wake Forest. And then this weekend, this Friday, would have been maybe the best crowd in our school history.
“So, that's a shame that our fans haven't been able to enjoy the games in person and our players, especially the seniors, haven't been able to enjoy the atmosphere in Kenan."
*Notre Dame has been to Kenan two other times since 2008, which is the only time Carolina has beaten the Irish. UNC also lost to Dame in 2017. This game is different because of where UNC is as it continues to climb back toward relevance and that the Irish are legitimate national championship contenders. UNC wants to be fully relevant, and this game gives it a chance to get closer to that reality.
"This weekend we've got Notre Dame, number two in the country,” Brown said. “National game, we want to be relevant again. We're ranked and Notre Dame's number two in the country, national TV game. We've got a great slot with Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler and Maria Taylor coming in, so it is a relevant game.
“And (Irish Coach) Brian Kelly and I coached in an all-star game in 2003 out in Hawaii when he was actually the head coach at Grand Valley State, and he was the coach of the year. And we've been really good friends ever since, I'm so proud for him.
“This may be his best team because they're very balanced, they do everything pretty well. Just checking a few things for them as they're number one in the league in total defense. So, at a year where we're seeing a lot of people miss defense and we didn't have spring practice so that hurt us and the offenses are ahead of the defense. Well, Notre Dame didn't get that memo because they're giving up 85 yards rushing a game. So, they're so good on defense."
*Not only is Friday a huge national game, but UNC heads to Miami in two weeks to close out the regular season in what will also be a game of major relevance in the ACC and otherwise. Brown says he will learn where his program is at this stage in its development.
"It should be a fun game. It should be a great game,” Brown said. “I know our guys are really looking forward to it. Notre Dame is national. It gives us a chance to see where we fit and to see if we can start being in some conversations. We got the national game with Notre Dame, we got the more local in-state game with Western Carolina, and then we got another national game with Miami so we got two of the next three weeks to kind of see where we are."
*The practice schedule has been a bit screwy since UNC’s win over Wake Forest on Nov. 14. Brown lays it out right here:
"Last week, we are in the midst of finals, so we practiced Monday,” Brown said. “We practiced Tuesday. We took off Wednesday for finals. We practiced Thursday. We took off Friday and Saturday for finals. We practiced yesterday afternoon and then today every player on our team I think has got finals and then we will go back and try to practice tomorrow.
“So, this week will be a little bit more like the routine of the Duke week where the NCAA took the practice day away on Tuesday. With a Friday game, finals are taking this practice day away so it will be more like that routine that we normally would have had. Then Thursday will be our normal Friday before a ballgame and so the guys will not have Thanksgiving.
“They will just have a Friday night Thursday night meal for a Friday game is which is normally like a Friday night meal. Then they will be able to have their Thanksgiving on Saturday."
*With the finals mostly being over and students now gone from campus, perhaps one positive is that the players won’t be inundated with pats on the back from students who would swell the hype for a game that doesn’t really need any added spunk as it nears.
"Yeah, if we could get them off social media that would really help, but they're not gonna get off social media, so they're gonna know how big the game is,” Brown said. “They're gonna be told all week how big the game is and that's okay. It is big, so they need to understand that. That's one thing that we put up with at Texas, everybody wanted to beat Texas. Everybody wants to beat Notre Dame.
“It's funny, Texas, when you'd play Texas Tech, they'd say, 'This is the game of the year.' Texas players would say, 'No, but it's the next game for us.' And for Notre Dame, everybody gets excited about playing Notre Dame, so that's one of the things that they have to do because they're an established national program and we're not there yet. That's where we want to be."
*True freshman Myles Murphy has seen his playing time increase in recent weeks despite having a giant wrap on his right hand, which has obviously affected his tackling. That won’t be an issue anymore since it was recently removed.
"One positive thing that happened yesterday is that Myles Murphy's cast was taken off, so he does have use of some hands now,” Brown said. “So, when you're saying, 'Myles, wrap up' and he's got a club, it's kind of hard for him to look at you and say, 'Come on, man, I can't wrap up. I don't have a hand.' So, that should help."
*Notre Dame’s offense averages 37.6 points and 462 total yards per game, which ranks it among the nation’s best, and QB Ian Book is 20-3 as a starter and can pretty much make every running or throwing play. UNC’s offense is ranked No. 4 in the nation and the Tar Heels are averaging 51 points over their last four games, but are taking on the No. 9 defense in the nation. So, what concerns Brown more, dealing with Book or his offense trying to move the ball against by far the best defense it will face this season?
"Yes,” Brown replied, laughing and obviously having fun noting everything about the Irish is a concern. “I'm concerned about both. Defensively, they're by far the best team we've played. Offensively, they can pound you up front, they can throw it, Ian (Book) can run with it. They're leading the league in time of possession.
“So, not only do they pound you and we have not been great against the run. So, they're gonna line up and just run it right at us and it's a huge challenge for our guys. And again, in the two games that we've lost, we didn't run the ball very well. It's the only two games this year that we have not beat the other team in rushing yards. Only had 92, 93 I think against Virginia.
“So, they're obviously going to look at those two games and try to make us throw it and then you've got to run it well enough to protect. Because you've got (Kyle) Hamilton, you've got (Daelin) Hayes. You've got Jeremiah (Owusu-Koramoah), number six, who's a great linebacker that I can't pronounce his name yet. I just know he's really good. But, they're very well coached. Their coach, Coach Clark (Lea), came from the Wake Forest staff, so I'm sure they visited a lot during the week and during the year with them. So, it'll be a real challenge for us."
*Jacob Turner & Deana King contrinuted to this report.
