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BOONE, NC – There really isn’t any reason North Carolina’s coaches or players should feel a need to apologize or excuse celebrating their 63-61 victory at Appalachian State on Saturday afternoon.
Wins don’t come in bucket loads at North Carolina, and certainly not since Mack Brown left in 1997, save for the aberration that was the 2015 squad. UNC doesn’t simply jog out of the tunnel and wipe away opponents on a weekly basis.
That is why those within the program had moments of joy as soon as App State quarterback Chase Brice was stopped near the goal line attempting a two-point conversion that would have tied the game with nine seconds left in what is now the highest combined scoring game in Carolina history.
Kaimon Rucker and Noah Taylor stepped up and made a play on an afternoon few defensive Tar Heels did. Now, the task is for the Heels to fix so much that went wrong, sharpen so much that went right, and march forward toward Georgia State this weekend in Atlanta.
After all, UNC is 2-0, and regardless of how the first two games have gone, 2-0 is still 2-0.
“It's easier to coach them when you win,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said following the game at Kidd Brewer Stadium. “We will be all over them, and they've got to get more disciplined. They've got to cover better. We've got to get more pressure on the quarterback. We can't have facemask penalties. We can’t have a late hit. There are all kinds of things we can coach, so good for us.
“It’s easier to coach them when you win.”
The players bear some responsibility, too, as junior linebacker Cedric Gray said.
They spent the offseason talking about increased accountability within the program, and Brown repeatedly said this team was consistently at a higher focus rate level last year’s disappointing club.
So, with that the case, both should be revealed in how the Tar Heels balance the idea of winning this weekend, but not even coming close to playing well across the board. The offense was mostly fantastic, but it’s a team game. Lose as one, win as one.
"Just going back to the drawing board and see the mistakes you made and fix them,” Gray said about the task at hand. “That's all you really can do. We made all those mistakes and came out with the win. That should say a lot about how good we can be if we don't make those same types of mistakes."
And that is where this team is and where Brown wants them.
They got a win even though App State scored more points in the fourth quarter than any team has ever scored against UNC in any quarter at any time since the school first fielded a team in 1888. The Mountaineers crossed the goal line six times in the final period scoring 40 points.
App State gained 338 yards averaging 11.1 per snap in the period, and it ran 30 plays, which is another alarming stat. One more: App racked up 18 first downs in the quarter, too. So it appears what needs fixing on UNC’s defense is a bigger job than anyone anticipated two weeks ago.
Brown clearly sees the magnitude of what is in front of Gene Chizik and the defensive staff, but he is also thrilled to be unbeaten through two starts.
“There will be a lot of talk tonight and then on Monday everybody will be wanting to have somebody fired,” he said late Saturday afternoon. “And then on Tuesday, they’ll be excited about being 2-0. That’s the world we live in.”
The world in which Brown and the Tar Heels reside necessitates immediate and dramatic improvements on defense. They obviously know this, and agree the process of improving is easier when winning than when not.
