Note: Video of Brown discussing his thoughts below this report.

Mack Brown believes football will be played this fall and that his Tar Heels will be in Orlando on Sept. 4 to take on Central Florida kicking off the 2020 season.

The North Carolina coach fielded questions from the media via Zoom on Monday afternoon, and among the many topics was whether or not UNC and the rest of the college football world would get on the field this season.

Brown, who is in his second season back at Carolina, was guarded in expressing optimism about having football this fall, offering respectful and understandable words regarding the current COVID-19 pandemic that still has a firm grasp on the nation. But he does believe the Heels will face the Knights, a week later will met Auburn in Atlanta and will play their 12-game schedule.

Instead of dressing up what Brown said by filling in a variety of details, most readers know the gist of what has been discussed for the last two months with respect to the possibility there is no football this season. After all, the NCAA Tournament was cancelled, the NBA and NHL aren’t in the midst of their playoffs, the Masters was cancelled, and Major League Baseball may or may not even launch its 2020 season.

So, here is Mack Brown in his own words along with the questions asked regarding his thoughts about there being a season this fall or not:

Q: As we continue to learn more about the virus, have you become increasingly optimistic that fairly close to normal is actually possible when you get to August, and are you are you hearing more optimistic presentations of options come August and September?

BROWN: “The virus is awful, it’s still killing people at a high rate and I have to be careful not watching it because it’s depressing. And you sit there every day and you think these are not numbers, these are not digits, these are family members, these are people, these are friends. So, I do think that we have to be cautious that we don’t get hardened to it because we’re so tired of being in and just say ‘everything is okay’ because it’s not.

“And then Sally and I have really been careful with our social distancing. When we go out, if we’re supposed to wear a mask we wear one. I go exercise every day and I haven’t worn a mask there because I’m out by myself waking and don’t see the need to, but if I’m going to get gas I get a rubber glove on – I’m trying to do everything right not to be infected, but also not to infect someone else. And I know that Kevin and Bubba (Cunningham), Rick Steinbacher, they’re working really, really hard to make sure that we would not have kids or coaches back on campus before everything is safe and clean.

“Even there’s some thought we might could’ve gone back June 1 but the cleaning company s going to start June 1. I wanted to make sure that they’ve got 15 days to learn how to clean the building and keep everything exactly where it needs to be before we would even consider our coaches coming back. And then you take a coach like Jovan DeWitt that just got through with a bought with cancer and he’s got an underlying medical condition, so I’m not sure how we will handle Jovan. We want him to be comfortable and safe. So we’ve got to look at all of those things coming back.

“I don’t think that short-term will be normal. I do think that classes will be smaller, I do think there’ll be more online classes, I do think we’re all going to have to look at what social distancing means in football. I hear there may be some different things – I saw the Miami Dolphins said the other day they may have 15,000 people in their first game. So there’s going to be a lot of changes and we’re going to have to adjust to that to have football and make sure it’s safe. But I don’t think it’s going to be normal.”

Q: The chatter, has that changed? We had you about five weeks ago and everything was unknown, but have things become a little bit more defined as we continue to learn more about this and ideas are vetted a little bit more?

BROWN: “Yes. What I’ve learned is that I’m a football coach, I’m not an expert on disease control, I’m not running our country, I’m not a governor, I’m glad I’m not having to make those decisions. They’re very difficult decisions, obviously. So what I’ve learned is I stay in my lane, and my lane is to get our guys ready until I’m told differently that June 15 date and July 1 date, and that would give us a month to prepare for the physical part of it, which Brian Hess is doing a good job. And he said the other day there’s no way that the kids at home can be as strong or east as well as they would if they were here. So there’s no question about that. So what I’ve tried to do is stay out of all the speculation and just plan on what I’ve been told a long time ago might be the truth. It does sound like the NFL said they’re going to play football in the fall, there is talk about baseball and basketball and all of the sports starting maybe without fans possibly this summer.

“So there is chatter out there for all of us. I felt a little buzz of excitement with our staff because it seems like people are planning on us having a football season. And that was unsure, and here you were trying to work on game plans for Central Florida and Auburn when you didn’t even know if you were going to play them. So I did feel a little buzz this morning in our zoom staff meeting about, ‘Hey, this may be getting closer here. We better get to work.’”

Q: There has been some discussion among coaches the last few weeks about maybe playing a more regionalized schedule in which some states won’t let their teams participate which could affect conferences, have you thought about the potential about not being able to play this year?

BROWN: “I really have not. I’ve heard it and again, I’m staying in my lane. That’s for commissioners, that’s for presidents of those universities to decide, that would be for Bubba to re-arrange our schedule if that happened. And I would hate it for those coaches and hate it for those kids, but I feel like we have every intention of playing, so I’m more concerned about us right now than the others.”

Q: Do you see the conferences all getting on the same page through this pandemic in order for college sports to return this fall? Is that going to be the biggest hurdle for all the conference to get on the same page?

BROWN: "You know, and I know it sounds like I'm just not going to give you an answer, but again, I think that's up to the commissioners. They've all got to decide what's best, and if Commissioner (John) Swofford tell us we're going to play and nobody else is going to player, we're going to have a great league and we're going to have great competition in this league, and I'm going to enjoy it. I've got my plate full. I've been around Zoom more than I've been around Sally. So, I'm Zooming about six or eight times a day, but I haven't worried about that. I've got to worry about our players.

“I was so worried about the academics and it looks like they're doing great in school. I was concerned about that. It looks like the weights are okay. I don't think they're, again, like they would be on campus. Nutrition, we're trying to send out the legal supplements and to keep them with some. Some kids parents, they've lost their jobs so there's no money so they're having to take the scholarship money and help their parents and it's really, really sad. So, we're worried about all those things so I would think my focus is more finite on my team than it is on the whole scope of college football right now because I've got to get our team ready if we play, and I'm planning on us playing."

Q: If North Carolina's not a hot spot anymore and the state is safe, the other question is about maybe regional play. For the love of the game, just to play football, you may end up playing like an NFL division where all those big schools in North Carolina play home-and-home. They play all the schools twice a year just to play football for this year. But doesn't it look to you like the possibility that the health officials who are going to decide this thing are going to say, “There are no sports, there's no football. There's nothing in the fall until this country is safe." Then can you see football moving the schedule to February, March, and April?

BROWN: “Again, I'm staying in my lane. I know it sounds like I'm not answering, but I will not have any input in any of those decisions, and I'm planning on us playing Sept. 5th at Central Florida. And until somebody tells me differently, that's what I'm planning on. Because if they move it back ... There's been so many different scenario, possibilities, and rumors, and, ‘Don't play the out-of-conference games. Move them back to October. Start over. Play in the spring.’ All those things. I don't have any idea how any of that would possibly work. But if that all happens, I'm going to have time to adjust to it. I'm not going to have time if I don't do anything in preparing for Central Florida. So I'm preparing for Central Florida.”