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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina is twelve practices into fall camp, and this past Saturday, the Tar Heels held their first scrimmage since opening camp August 3.

UNC Coach Mack Brown met with the media following practice Tuesday at the Koman Practice Complex to give updates on his team and field questions, a couple of which were about the scrimmage.

Here are some takeaways about what Brown said that were related in some capacity to the scrimmage, but also the following day, which was sort of an extension of the scrimmage:

*Brown has asked the coaches to give him a projected number of plays per player and they try to emulate that in the scrimmage, “so we can start actually to visually going through the routine we would have in a game, because substitution is so hard.”

With that, the Tar Heels must prepare for all kinds of scenarios, including defensively facing an offense that moves so quickly it makes substituting players a significant challenge.

“It’s so much harder now that you’ve got tempo, because defense can’t substitute,” he said. “As long as the ball is in play, the defense can’t substitute. So, it’s very, very difficult to get a big guy out of the game when somebody’s going fast and moving the ball.”

*Pass protection might be the most criticized aspect of the Tar Heels over the last two years, as they allowed 89 sacks; 49 in 2021 and 40 last season. It has been drilled over and over as a point of emphasis, and remains an issue, if the scrimmage is any indication.

“I’m not going through another season with a bunch of sacks,” Brown said he told the offensive coaches. “We’ve got a great quarterback, protect him. And part of it’s him (Drake Maye) getting the ball out of his hands, part of it is Conner (Harrell) getting the ball out of his hands, that’s the quarterback’s job.

“But if we run better it will help, but I’m not going to spend another year with a bunch of sacks… And then the other day in the scrimmage, we still had too many, so it’s gotta get fixed.”

*Some things that stood out to Brown about the scrimmage:

“We’re fast, we’re playing the ball better at corner, we only gave up three explosive plays, which is totally unlike last year on defense, which again, worries you more that we need to get explosive plays on offense.

“They’re really competing. They’re getting along. We’ve got to get depth at linebacker, we haven’t gotten that yet. We’ve had some guys that are out… so that’s hurt us with creating our depth.”

*More…: “I am encouraged about our pass rush. I am encouraged about (we’re) better about tackles for loss. I still think we give up too many big runs, we’ve got to stop things in that area.”

*The coaches don’t gameplan against each other on offense and defense. This allows the staff to see who can do what in a game-like scenario. This was highly valuable Saturday.

“If our tackle can’t block Kaimon Rucker, you’d have to have somebody help him. So, what we’re trying to do is see what they can do without help. And then when you see what they can do without help, you get a game plan that will help them.”

*The scrimmage Saturday was 75 plays, but the team had a “hard practice” Sunday. Brown has openly spoken about the program shedding the “soft” narrative, which is something he hasn’t disputed, instead saying it’s up to them to change it.

So, they went after it Sunday, too.

“We did it on purpose to see who could scrimmage and be excited and come back and do it the next day. Some of the guys we’re talking about didn’t play nearly as good the second day because they were excited about one day and couldn’t get it back in a position where they created an edge the next day.”