There’s no shortage of plaudits rolling off Mack Brown’s tongue these days when it comes to discussing his football team.

The North Carolina coach likes plenty about his club, and for good reason. The Tar Heels return mostly intact on offense and are talented with many options on defense, though questions linger regarding the interior line.

The kicking game is another area that must be addressed, as well as red zone offense – the Tar Heels need to score more touchdowns than they did a year ago when getting so close to the goal line – and short yardage defense.

But the positives? They are aplenty on the 2020 Heels.

“I think we can be really good at wide receiver,” Brown said during a zoom session with the media Friday. “And I won't use the word ‘great’ because that's to be determined, but we're really good. We're really good at quarterback. We don't have a lot of experience because of Jace (Ruder) and Jacolby (Criswell) at backup quarterback, so we need experience there.”

The Tar Heels return 92.2 percent of their offense from a unit that finished last season ranked No. 12 in the nation. It includes thousand-yard wide receivers Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown, who were regularly thrown terrific pass after terrific pass by quarterback Sam Howell (3,641 yards passing, 38 TDs, seven INTs), who enters this season as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate.

But there’s more.

“Running back, we're really good,” Brown said. “We've got to find a third one, but we've got two really good running backs. Offensive line, we're talking about (Friday), I think all five of them(starters), they've been with (offensive line coach) Stacy (Searels) a year, they've been with (offensive coordinator) Phil (Longo) and this offense. They're really good.

“So we think they can get better, but we got to find five more and that's really, really important as we're going forward.”

Michael Carter ran for more than 1,000 yards and Javonte Williams just missed out on hitting the mark. The line in front of them returns four starters and five players that started quite a bit last fall. In all, the players started 48 total times.

Brown heaped high praise on his loaded secondary, too.

“Defensively, I really like what I see in the secondary,” he said. “Boy, from last year where we had injuries and no depth and really struggled and it kept Coach (Jay) Bateman from calling a lot of the defenses we wanted to, we look really good in the secondary, and then you add (reclassified true freshman) Tony Grimes to that…

“So I think the secondary can be really special. And then how many do you play? Do some become nickels and you play one less linebacker?”

The Heels are set with their starting inside linebackers, as leading tacklers Chazz Surratt and Jeremiah Gemmel are back. Depth there, though, is a point of emphasis because Bateman doesn't want Surratt and Gemmel playing 80 snaps per game again.

“What you've got to do is make sure that Khadry Jackson and Eugene Asante, get ready to go. They need to play more because I'd love to play two deep across the board,” Brown said.

Ah depth, that’s the primary area of concern for Brown. Tight end has senior Garrett Walston but nobody proven behind him.

“Kamari Morales is young then you've got the two freshmen that just got here and don't have any experience so that's a question mark for us,” Brown said.

As much as Brown and the staff are confident in their first five up front on offense, they need at least three other players to step up and be trusted. Eight is usually the magic number for an offensive line, so there’s work to be done, though with some guys that have played before.

“We got to find five more and that's really, really important as we're going forward,” the Hall of Fame coach said.

Along the defensive front, in which Brown included the hybrid outside linebacker position when discussing this part of his team, needs some work. Tomon Fox is the most experienced player on the team and will be a rock, but the other hybrid spot is more open. Then, the guys in the trenches are not that experienced, but the staff sees potential there.

“And then up front where you lose a guy like (Jason) Strowbridge, you've still got Fox,” Brown said. “Hopper looks really good if we can keep him healthy. Chris Collins red-shirted and he's looking good. You've got all the young ones that can mix in there and see how they do. We won't know about them until we really get in pads. They can run, they look pretty.

“And then inside, you've got a lot of different combinations. Tomari Fox played well. Ray Vohasek played really, really well at the end of the year. Jahlil Taylor did some outstanding things. We like Kristian Varner, you've got Xach Gill. So you've got enough guys in there that we think we have a chance to be good, we just have to live up to it.”

Then there’s the kicking game.

“You've got Noah Ruggles from last year is your kicker, but you've also got Grayson Atkins coming in. he's an All-American from Furman,” the Carolina coach said. “Ben Kiernan should be much better as a punter because he showed signs of brilliance at times last year. And you've got both your snappers back.

“And we've got to do a better job in punt block and return. We did okay in punt, but we didn't get anything out of our punt block and return team. Kickoff return was good, kickoff coverage was fine, but that punt block team has got to be big for us and it wasn't last year. And when you've got a returner like a Dazz Newsome, you need to be able to give him a chance.”

There you have it in Brown’s words.

The Tar Heels went 7-6 last season, losing its games by a combined 24 points, and they won their last three games by a total score of 152-30. So much about this program appears headed in the right direction, and that includes what this team can do versus a manageable 10-game ACC schedule this fall.

Brown won’t ever make a prediction, but it’s quite clear he’s expecting a successful season.