Brown On What Needs Fixing, An Officiating Idea, State & More
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday morning for his weekly press conference in advance of Saturday’s game at home versus rival and No. 23 NC State.
Brown identified the areas that went wrong in the loss at Florida State over the weekend, hit on multiple aspects of his team that must improve, how his team was overrated and didn’t handle being No. 5 in the nation well, the litany of things going wrong on special teams, including Dazz Newsome and so many fair catches, an idea how to enhance officiating, this week’s opponent, the Wolfpack, plus much more.
UNC (3-1) dropped to No. 14 in the AP poll this week.
Here are some notes and pulled quotes from what Brown had to say:
*The Tar Heels were 2-for-11 on third down and 0-for-3 on fourth down at FSU. Brown said that must get fixed.
“You’re not going to win many games if you do that,” Brown said.
*While noting the players who performed well at FSU, Brown noted Javonte Williams, Josh Ezeudu and Garrett Walston before talking about Sam Howell.
“Sam Howell is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever seen,” the coach said. “He gets a targeting call every week because people are tying to knock him out of the game, and he just gets up and goes back to work. I’ve never seen a tougher player than him.”
*Trey Morrison’s interception early in the fourth quarter appeared to be the kind of game-changing play Brown and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman had been looking for from the defense this season. UNC had just scored quick touchdowns on its prior two drives moving 133 yards on nine snaps to get into the end zone. The pick by Morrison gave Carolina all the momentum they could ask for plus the ball at FSU’s 30-yard-line. Needless to say, the Seminoles were highly stressed at the time and ripe for UNC to fully take advantage.
But instead of capitalizing, the Tar Heels stalled on a three-and-out moving the ball just three yards, and then Grayson Atkins missed a 44-yard field goal attempt so UNC got nothing out of that key sequence. Brown thought it was the most important series of the game.
“I thought the series of the game in the second half when we were in a position to win the game (after) a tremendous interception by Trey Morrison to end the third quarter…,” Brown said. “We’re moving the ball, things are going well and that was a horrible series for us and then we miss a field goal. And I thought that was probably the difference in the ballgame until the last drive.”
*The Tar Heels missed 19 tackles in the win over Virginia Tech and a week later missed 19 more in the loss at FSU. That’s 38 missed tackles over the last two games. That needs fixing.
“That’s two weeks in a row we haven’t tackled well against good offensive players,” Brown said. “We lost our eye discipline in the first half. Guys are playing man coverage, the quarterback’s a good runner and he’s scrambling and we didn’t contain him very well, and he’s looking downfield and we’re looking at him and they complete balls, which really, really hurt us.”
*Perhaps at the top of the list of what needs fixing right now are the special teams, which other than Jonathan Kim consistently getting touchbacks on kickoffs, has been mediocre and at times a liability. FSU blocked two punts on UNC’s first three possessions spanning the first 8:04 of the contest giving the Seminoles an enormous lift. They scored a TD on a 23-yard run one play after the first block, which was on UNC’s opening possession.
Also, Dazz Newsome called for fair catches on all five FSU punts, Atkins’ missed field goal, and Carolina also failed on an important two-point conversion attempt in past because of a false start that pushed the ball back to the FSU 7-yard-line, significantly raising the degree of difficulty on the play. Each unit on special teams has had breakdowns in recent weeks with the exception of the kickoff team.
“Special teams were poor,” Brown said. “I was wrong on the first blocked punt, we absolutely had a guy just let a guy go. It wasn’t on the outside, it wasn’t slow operation time, we had a player stand there and a guy ran in front of him and we didn’t touch him. It wasn’t anything that they did, it's what we did, what we didn’t do, and that’s coaching.
“We’ve got to get the guys to know who to get. Our guy just released and ran and, on the second one, we were soft in the shield and big (Marvin) Wilson reached over and blocked the punt. So, the second one didn’t hurt us as much. Emotionally, it gives them a lift, but the ball was on their end and they didn’t get points out of it the first one, so it’s a tough one for us.
“And then we missed a field goal that would have put us in a great position starting the fourth quarter. We didn’t get any punt returns, we fair caught them all and didn’t hold them up very well. And Jonathan Kim continues to kick the ball out of the end zone, that’s the only thing we did good on special teams.”
*Brown not so subtly hinted last week his team was thought of more highly by the national media than what was warranted. It wasn’t a criticism of his team, it’s just a coach being honest about what he sees, which is refreshing. So, Monday the Carolina coach doubled down on it, something that’s easier to do now that they not only have lost a game but in the manner they succumbed to Florida State.
"As far as our top-five rating, we're ahead of schedule as a team, our recruiting's going really well, we're playing hard, but were not the top five team in the country,” Brown said. “Part of that was because the Big Ten wasn't playing yet, part of it's because we've won two or three games, but I didn't think we handled it well.
“I thought we were a little comfortable at Florida State, instead of confident, and we got hit right in the mouth and thank goodness we responded to it and came back and still had a chance to win. But, I felt like it was a little bit like our response at Wake Forest last year, after we'd beaten South Carolina and Miami.
“We walked in a little cool and then got hit right in the mouth and had to stop that surge and then respond back in the second half. That's something that we've got to do, we've got to learn how to handle that."
*A video clip that surfaced Sunday night on social media generating a great deal of commentary shows and FSU defensive tackle pouncing on UNC center Brian Anderson punching him a few times before the play ends. And official was in the vicinity but did not throw a flag. Brown did not specifically mention the play Monday, but he likely was speaking with it in mind when he offered the following suggestion for how officiating can be improved.
"I do think that, in college football, and I've thought this for a number of years, we out to have a right with the official with the review, if he sees something that's flagrant, whether it's a player taking an act against another player that he shouldn't that's missed by the officials or if that's a game-changing play and the officials just absolutely miss it, I think that guy upstairs should have the right to call down and say, 'That was holding. That was pass interference. Or this young man should be kicked out of the game because of an action,'” Brown said.
“I've always felt that way and I believe it now. People say, 'Well, it'll slow the game down too much.' It won't because it's only on game-changing plays that officials miss. And they're human and the human errors are gonna cost some guys opportunities. So, that's something I'd like to see in college football."
*The Wolfpack and Tar Heels will square off at Kenan Stadium on Saturday and the way Brown sees it, the different perceptions of the rivals are inaccurate.
"NC State's doing really well,” Brown said. “I think we've been overrated, I think they've been underrated. They're 4-1. On offense, (offensive coordinator) Tim Beck's come in, he was at Nebraska, Ohio State, I knew him at Texas, and he's done a really good job with their offense.
“They're physical up front, they're running the ball, they've got two outstanding backs. (Cary) Angeline is 6-7, 250 (pounds), a transfer from USC and he's really, really good. (Baily) Hockman will be the quarterback and he's a transfer from FSU. They've got tall receivers, so they're doing a great job running the ball and using play action on their offense.
“And, defensively, Dave (Doeren) hired Tony Gibson, who a lot of our guys know from West Virginia. He's running a three-man front. They're really, really aggressive. They've had three of the best goal line stands I've ever seen. One at Pitt, one against Virginia and one last week against Duke. So, they're playing really, really aggressive on defense."
*Jacob Turner contribued to this piece.