CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media following practice Wednesday morning to field questions about his team’s preparation this week for Saturday’s game versus Georgia State and much more.
Among the other things Brown hit on: Saturday being 9-11 and a first responder the program is honoring; the response in practice this week after losing the opener at Virginia Tech last Friday; Lawrence Taylor coming back to UNC this weekend; replay rules; his coaching style; more on NIL; and so much more.
Brown spoke with the media for 31 minutes. Above is the video of his entire interview and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what Carolina’s coach had to say:
*Brown said the Tar Heels have had ‘three really good practices” this week as they apply what was learned from the loss at Virginia Tech while preparing for Georgia State’s visit this weekend.
“The guys are not happy with last week, obviously, and they’ve come back to work,” he said. “You never know with a team, and a lot of young ones on this team, how they’re going to respond.”
*The Tar Heels had limited fans, approximately 3,300, at the final few home games of last season due to COVID restrictions, but Kenan Stadium will be full Saturday. The game is sold out and the players are excited to get back in front of their own fans for the first time in nearly two years.
“It should be fun,” Brown said. “It’s the first time some of these guys – two (recruiting) cases have seen a full house. So, Kenan will be full and rocking on Saturday night, and that’ll be fun.”
*Saturday is the 20-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when two planes hit the twin towers in New York City, another hit the Pentagon across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., and another crashed in central Pennsylvania. The 9/11 terror attacks changed this nation and how people travel, especially when flying. UNC is planning to do some things to remember that day, the lives lost and affected, and to honor first responders.
“It’s a wonderful time to appreciate and say, ‘thank you’ to first responders and honor them,” Brown said.
UNC will specifically honor Director of Orange County (NC) Emergency Services Kirby Saunders on Saturday. Saunders has served 22 years in the field, including most of his career on disaster response teams, including most recently “a two-week stint in Hawaii following the Kilauea volcano eruption in 2018,” as written by Chapelboro.com.
“(He) actually went to New York and fell in love with being a first responder at 9/11,” Brown said. “So, he will be honored on Saturday night.”
*On Aug. 31, 2019, Tennessee football learned something about Georgia State, which played its first game as a program in 2013. The Panthers left Neyland Stadium that day with a 38-30 upset of the Volunteers, who were led in rushing that day by a junior named Ty Chandler with 48 yards and a touchdown.
Chandler is now UNC’s starting tailback, so if there is any concern the Tar Heels might take Georgia State lightly this weekend, Chandler gave the players reason to avoid that following Wednesday’s practice.
“Ty Chandler addressed the team with that nugget today after practice,” Brown said. “He said that they are definitely capable, so we need to be ready to play.”
*Army runs the triple option with some wrinkles, so how much value is there for UNC’s staff when looking at last weekend’s film of Georgia State’s defense in its 43-10 loss to the Black Knights?
“That’s a really good question,” Brown replied. We look at the personnel in that game, but we go back to their last three games from last year. They were really good at the end of last year, and it’s the same people. I think they’ve got about 15 seniors starting, and a lot of their super seniors came back, I think.
“So, we’re looking at who they were last year. They were good, and when you’re good you keep doing what you were doing. They’re very sound, they’ve got good players, their secondary is good. Their linebackers are a little but more inexperienced, but their front is sound. They played two-deep the other day.
“So (GSU Coach) Shawn’s (Elliott) done a good job. He’s got good players. Cornelius Brown, the big quarterback, last year ran up and down the field. He didn’t have his best game the other day, so I’m sure he’ll be, like us offensively, they’re trying to get back on track.”
*Sometimes, when a team is coming off a very difficult game in which they didn’t play well, they tend to maybe push too hard, which can cause them to lose full focus. So where is the balance there this week, and is that something Brown is keeping an eye on?
“Absolutely,” Brown said. “I also talked to them this morning about the expectations and the pressure that we have put on the program probably moving faster than we were ready to move. And we talked about in preseason half of this team is really, really young, or more than half, and then you’ve got some older guys that were probably ready for this, but the younger guys aren’t there yet.
“We should be a team that improves every week, number one. Secondly, I told them today, in a weird way the pressure’s off. We didn’t respond to (being) No. 5 very well last year. We didn’t respond to No. 10 very well last week. We’re still in the Top 25, and that would have been super two years ago. But ‘go back Friday night. We need to go back and enjoy this game, enjoy who we are.
“We’re going to be a great program. We’re still killing it in recruiting. Things are so positive moving forward, but ‘go play. Go enjoy yourself, and let’s stir this crowd up and show the crowd what we’ve got coming.”
