CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Wednesday afternoon in advance of spring practice that begins Sunday, March 5.

Brown offered some program updates before fielding questions during the 45-minute presser.

Below are his press conference broken into two parts, as well as some notes from what he said. More of his presser will be covered in greater detail with additional content items.

*The following Tar Heels will not participate in spring practice because of injuries:

Gio Biggers upper body

Armani Chatman lower

Trevyon Green upper

Will Hardy upper

JJ Jones lower body

Limited this spring:

British Brooks lower

Sebastian Cheeks upper

Des Evans upper

Tomari Fox lower

Caleb Hood upper

Ed Montolus upper

*The recruiting dead period ended Tuesday, so it’s open again, and Brown is excited to host a great deal of prospects over the next six weeks.

“We’ve got a lot of guys coming in…. I’m pumped,” he said.

*Two facility upgrade projects are in full swing, with the players’ lounge almost finished, and the new training room slated for completion in May.

“Our training room is too small, we’ve nearly triple the size of it, Brown said.

On top of the training room will be a fire pit, grill, and basketball court, among other things.

*A new weight room will also be built, and it will actually be incorporated into the locker room. The locker room is too small, Brown says, though there is no time table with this. He says the current weight room walls will be knocked down so the current locker room and weight room will be incorporated. The current weight room is 8,000 square feet, the new one will be 19,000 square feet.

Obviously, the arms race in college football continues, and Brown says they need to catch up.

“I think this will make us more competitive,” he said. “We got behind.”

*No decision has been made yet if UNC will have a conventional spring game on April 15. The staff will meet Thursday, and that is one of the things that might get decided then, becuase having one would affect the layout of the other 14 spring practices.

*Brown hit on some areas of his team we will go into more depth later, but he did highlight improvements on special teams, but also said some of the spring missions are to improve red zone offense, limiting sacks and TFLs, and get a better push up front defensively.

*Brown also announced that former Tar Heel Clyde Christensen will come on board as a volunteer assistant. He has an extensive resume that includes 16 years in college and the last 26 years in the NFL, most recently as the QB coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was the QB coach and offensive coordinator with the Indianapolis Colts, so Christensen has directly coached Tom Brady, Andrew Luck, and Peyton Manning. He has also won two Super Bowls.

“(He’s) one of the best quarterbacks coaches and offensive coordinators in the country,” Brown said. “He will come in as a volunteer analyst for us. He’ll be here on Saturday and help us recruit, and he will be out there on the field helping us with on Sunday. We’re so excited about Clyde.”

He played quarterback at UNC in 1978 and 1979.

*Lonnie Galloway will be the passing game coordinator, and with Lilly gone, Kitchens will also now be the run game coordinator.

More on Kitchens, Brown said, “he brings a wealth of experience at the highest level… and I’m really, really excited.”

*Brown also said they will bring in someone on the defensive side of the ball similar to Christensen, likely during spring practice. To paraphrase, he said they need: more sacks, need to force more turnovers. More press, more man-to-man, and more bump coverage coming.

*D.J. Jones told the staff he wants to help the team and asked to try safety, so he will play there in the spring and still work some at RB, but he wants to get on the field and win, so he is going to work at safety.

*The running back battles will be among the most interesting this spring. There is no leader right now, it’s all up for grabs. Brown would like to see exactly what Omarion Hampton and George Pettaway can do.

A battle for the left tackle job will get a lot of attention this spring. Brown said Spencer Rolland, who didn’t have a spring practice last year, is much bigger than he was in the fall and is primed to have a really good spring.

More depth is needed at linebacker. Deuce Caldwell is healthy and will compete there, but Brown is disappointed Cheeks won’t be able to have any contact. He thinks Cheeks can be really good, but without him, they will be looking at others during the spring.

“We’ve got to get a bigger room there,” Brown said.

*Carolina’s coach got a great deal of attention last month for his comments about the ACC schedule not being fair to his team. So he was asked to clarify his comments today:

In a nutshell, after opening with three tough games versus South Carolina (in Charlotte), App State and Minnesota, the ACC is sending his club to Pittsburgh in what will be a physical game, UNC gets a home game during fall break (versus Virginia), so the students won’t be in town, and Brown doesn’t think it’s right his team has to play at Clemson a week before having to visit its primary rival (NC State).

He said “player safety” is part of his concern with the physical first month.