CHARLOTTE – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown hasn’t shied away from expressing disappointment in the leadership on late year’s team, referencing it numerous times this spring and summer.

He regularly says player-led teams are the most successful ones, and that was missing a year ago. Perhaps that was most revealed in the team’s inability to close out several games it could, and likely should, have won. That is partly how the Tar Heels ended with a 6-7 overall record after beginning the season ranked No. 10 in the nation.

UNC averaged 9.6 points in the fourth quarter last fall, ranking the Tar Heels No. 10 nationally in that category. Yet, they averaged only 5.3 points per fourth quarter over the last three contests versus FBS opponents Pittsburgh, NC State, and South Carolina. That is among the worst in the nation.

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Senior running back British Brooks is one of the few Tar Heels that finished the season on a personal strong note. The former walk-on rushed for 196 yards in the losses to the Wolfpack and Gamecocks, including a career-high 124 yards in Raleigh. But the Gastonia native has made preaching the importance of closing games a priority this offseason, something he emphasizes is born out of doing drills and working the right way.

"Just working on finishing," Brooks said Thursday at the ACC Kickoff, regarding his emphasis this summer. "Exaggerating how we finish every drill, every play, every rep in the weight room, just exaggerating on finishing, finishing is the top priority right now." The offense wasn’t alone having late-game issues. In the losses to Pitt and State, UNC’s defense allowed a combined 20 points in the final two minutes in those contests, notably was the 13-points-in-95-seconds meltdown against the Wolfpack.

"We could have won at NC State when we had a nine-point lead with two minutes left in the game," Brown said Thursday. We have to go back and make sure that we're addressing all the little things on and off the field that we need to do to play to a standard... We've got to do a better job of finishing close games."

In spite of those late-game problems, in particular at Pitt and NC State, junior wide receiver Josh Downs says the Tar Heels are just a few fixable mistakes away from flipping such results and residing in the upper tier of the conference.

"At the end of the day, we were right there with them," Downs said. "We truly know we should have won both of those games. We know that the talent is there. We just have to finish. Pitt got out on us quick, we came back and had them on the ropes, and we didn't finish them. NC State, that was crazy…

“Just knowing that we are really there, in those last moments of the game, we have to dig deep and come together as a program."

The coaches can preach all they want, but in the end, it comes down to the players making it happen on the field, and they know that begins long before the games are played. Player-led teams grind in the heat of the summer so they can make the plays at crunch time in the fall.

The Tar Heels say they are on that course now, to which coming results should reflect.