It May Almost Be October, But The Heels Are Starting Over

CHAPEL HILL – Mack Brown has been a head coach for 380 games in his Hall of Fame career, which equates to approximately 1,520 game-week practices.

Actually, given that North Carolina’s game versus Charlotte slated for Sept. 19 was cancelled, the number might be more like 1,144ish. The Tar Heels didn’t play that afternoon, as the 49ers cancelled due to some coronavirus issues.

So, with an open date following, that means when Brown’s team steps onto the field Saturday in Chestnut Hill, MA, it will have been three weeks since they last played. This is unchartered water for Brown and just about everyone involved. It’s the first time he’s ever had consecutive regular-season open dates and the first time for the Carolina program since 1952.

So, instead of treating it like a bowl game, which is a celebration of sorts, Brown and the Tar Heels are essentially beginning anew.

“I thought this morning about does it still hold true that you improve the most between your first and second game if there's two weeks between them, and three weeks really, between them,” Brown said during Monday’s weekly press conference, reaffirming something he noted last week. “And I think probably not, we're starting over. We've got to completely start over.”

UNC won its actual opener, 31-6, over Syracuse at Kenan Stadium on Sept. 12. Now, the Heels head to Boston College this weekend to face the 2-0 Eagles. BC has played twice since Carolina last suited up, in uniform, that is.

The Heels had a full practice week in preparation for Charlotte, so they at least had the right edge going into that one before the rug was pulled out from underneath. Last week, the Heels employed a standard open date schedule, but lost was a chance at seeing the result of their efforts at fixing all that went awry in the opener.

Brown says teams improve the most between weeks one and two, and the Heels were somewhat robbed of that opportunity. They needed a cleaner performance on special teams, more consistency from the offensive line and hoped to get some of the second-tier players and freshmen work to build more depth.

That wasn’t possible, but that doesn’t mean the Heels didn’t gain anything from being off for so long.

“I listened to some of our players, and I've talked to them, and they said they think it's been really good because we're fresh,” Brown said. “We've been able to continue to get in condition and still work on Boston College, but we still haven't had our second game.

“So, that'll be interesting to see this weekend as we move forward, but I'm not worried about him being excited about playing, they'll be ready to play and that'll be fun for them as we start going through it.”

It also gave the Heels more time to get true freshman Ja’Quarious Conley up to snuff as the team’s new starting nickel.

"It helped us with our secondary loss of Myles Wolfolk,” Brown said, referring to the senior who was ruled academically ineligible even though he already owns two degrees. “The fact that Trey Morrison and Ja’Qurious Conley had an extra week to work before we played, so that gave us also some more work for them.”

Morrison is now starting at safety in Wolfolk’s spot, so meshing that group is important, especially heading for a road game in the ACC. The Heels are slated to play the next seven Saturdays, so polishing up was a major emphasis.

“I thought we were one of the fortunate teams to have two home games to open the season so we can get comfortable with all the guidelines and then we lost our second game,” Brown said. “But now we've got to get on a plane and that'll be different. The whole thing will be different. But we have stayed in the hotel, we have some of that routine in place, so I'm just excited to see how we are. I think we've got a chance to be good.

“This will be a great test for us. Virginia Tech looked really good (last Saturday), so we've got them next weekend. We're about to jump back into it now. We've been talked about and bragged on enough, it's time for us to prove something.”

And the Tar Heels will have that chance this weekend, in what is essentially their second opener of the campaign.