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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday for his weekly press conference to discuss what he saw on film from his team’s win over Wake Forest and to look ahead to Thursday’s game at Pittsburgh.

With the Tar Heels in a short week, this is the only media availability by Brown until after the Pitt game.

Above is the full video of Brown’s 32-minute presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:

*Brown was obviously pleased the win, even though there are plenty of things to pick at from the 58-55 victory. Even when the defense allowed 616 total yards, 35 first downs, and 55 points, a defensive player of the game was still awarded, and it went to Cam Kelly, who had two interceptions, including a key one in the fourth quarter that led to another UNC touchdown in the midst of a 31-3 eruption by the Tar Heels.

“After they forced a turnover on the first play of the game, they were plus-11 in turnovers and we were minus-one; that’s one of the things that Wake Forest had done so well during the season,” Brown said. “And we ended up getting two interceptions with Cam, which was a lot because of pressure by our front. And then we were able to get two fourth-down stops…

“So, Cam Kelly was the player of the game.”

*The offensive player of the game was Ty Chandler, who set a career-high with 213 rushing yards and four TDs. He’s the first Tar Heel to score four rushing touchdowns in a game since Leon Johnson in 1993. Chandler also had a 30-yard reception on the day.

“Ty is getting better each week,” Brown said. “He’s showing his quickness and his speed and he’s got more patience now. I think he’s in tune with the offensive linemen, he ahs good chemistry with them now, he’s understanding offense, because it’s different from what he ran at Tennessee.

“He’s had three or four great weeks in a row. But he’s a factor now, and has the speed to go score. The last touchdown was really, really impressive. He broke some tackles and made some people miss him. And he’s got the ability to get the jump-start like Michael Carter, and then hit the ground going and go full speed after he goes sideways.”

*The special teams player of the game was placekicker Grayson Atkins, who was 3-for-3 on field goals and converted all of his extra points.

*Brown was not pleased with the targeting call that disqualified linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel at the end of the first quarter.

“Jeremiah Gemmel coming out of the game really early hurt us,” Brown said. “He’s the leader. He’s the guy. He’s like the coordinator out there. And he’s probably our best defensive player…

“I do think that college football needs to change the targeting rule. I understand why it’s in. If it saves one young person from having a serious head or spine injury, it’s worth it. But, the hit that Jeremiah had, there’s a lot of inconsistency with what targeting is; I can’t tell anymore. It’s kind of like pass interference and holding. It’s very, very inconsistent.

“So, when you take a guy who is sliding or going down, and your guy comes in hits him: It wasn’t a flagrant foul, he didn’t hurt him, he wasn’t trying to hurt him. So if you want that to be targeting give somebody 15 yards, but don’t take a guy out of a game for making a good tackle.”

*Brown was highly impressed with how Storm Duck played, especially considering he’d gotten minimal action in one game since a win at Boston College more than 13 months ago. He played 71 snaps, was targeted nine times allowing three receptions, and played 71 snaps.

“Storm Duck played really well,” Brown said. “I’m amazed. And some of this we talked about after the game, but now I’ve had a couple of days to look at it, it’s really amazing how well he played after not playing for nearly two years. I’m proud for him, but it also shows how talented he is because he had no practice. He practiced last week maybe for the first time in about a month.”

*Carolina’s defense did not play well Saturday by any measure, but the two turnovers it forced led to 14 points, while Wake only got a field goal after recovering a fumble on Carolina’s first offensive play of the game. That’s an 11-point difference in making good on forced turnovers, and it was obviously the difference in the game.

“It’s not only the turnovers, our offense scored 14 points off the turnovers,” Brown said. “Our defense held Wake Forest after they got their turnover, so we gained 14 points after turnovers, Wake Forest only gained three after their turnover. And I do think that was the difference in the ballgame.”

*The students rushed the field as Saturday’s game ended, and while there has been debate about this in recent years, and certainly after the mad dash people made onto the field at Texas A&M following its last-second win over Alabama in September, Brown is fine with it. Of course, as long as it’s done right. It can also help with recruiting, and with 150 prospects on hand Saturday, they were impressed by the rush of fans onto the field.

“I was really, really proud of our students coming on the field after the game,” Brown said. “It was really cool. They were having fun. They’ve been that way all year. They’re enjoying the games, they’re making a difference, and it was no harm, nobody got hurt, and they were just having a blast.

“And it was really cool, and it does affect recruiting. Those recruits were loving it, and our players walked back out and talked to them, and nothing wrong with a college student having great fun and clean fun. I appreciated it so much.”

*The offense has clearly gotten back on track in recent weeks, but one issue still remains, a point Brown hammered home Monday: The offensive must do a better job in short yardage situations and in the red zone.

“I also felt like the offensive line played really, really well,” Brown said. “You can’t rush for 330 yards against a top-10 team without them playing well.

“And I liked our offense getting back on track. We were able to use the outside receivers; I think they caught eight balls. Still getting the ball to the tight ends, and doing some good things in that area.

“I’m still not happy with our short yardage and red zone offense. We scored 58 points, that’s a great day for the offense, (but) we still messed up some third-and-ones; two or three of them. We had a second-and-two at the goal line when got hurt and we didn’t score. We needed a touchdown there, we didn’t need to kick a field goal.

“We had another opportunity first-and-goal at the six, and we end up kicking a field goal. We’ve got to do a better job in red zone offense scoring touchdowns instead of field goals.”

*UNC was flagged 27 times for a total of 261 yards over the first five games of the season, something Brown noted following the win over Duke. In the last four games, however, the Tar Heels have been flagged 42 times for 405 yards, including 11 times for 118 yards Saturday.

The average over the last four games: 10.5 penalties for 101.3 yards. Brown says his team must be more disciplined, and it affected a questioned decision near the end of the game.

“The game was a chippy game,” Brown said. “There was a lot of talking and pushing and shoving back and forth… Too many penalties. And we’ve got to stop. I said, ‘Act like you’re doing something good.’

“We take our helmets off when we go ahead in the game? Somebody mouths to us we mouth back? We push and shove? It’s just uncharacteristic, it’s not a disciplined team when you do those things, and it got us in trouble.

“It forced us to kick a deep squib kick from the 20-yard-line when the game should have been over, because Jonathan (Kim) would have kicked it out (of the end zone).

“Some people have asked ‘why did you squib instead of kick it deep.’ If you kick it deep they’ve got a better chance to return it for a touchdown. They got good field position with the squib, we would have liked for the squib to have been deeper. But you don’t kick it off deep when your guy can’t kick it out because you had the 15-yard penalty.”

Note: We will run Brown’s comments about Pitt later in the week.