CHARLOTTE – As North Carolina was draped with soft kisses and warm hugs by the national media last summer and tabbed as one of the teams to watch that season, its leader knew deep down that narrative was a bit off.

Maybe really off.

Mack Brown was concerned. He wasn’t getting the vibe his team was ready to break out. Instead, he saw red flags that resonated with a seasoned coach more than 40 years into his Hall of Fame career. The Tar Heels weren’t the team most others suggested.

And Brown was right.

Carolina was flat and out-toughed by Virginia Tech in a hyped opener on national television, and after two home wins, the Heels were humiliated at Georgia Tech, which won just once more on the season. Brown knew that night his team was in trouble. Starting the season ranked No. 10 in the nation was too much for the program to handle, and the club really never got off the ground.

“Our team had won five games over two years when we came in, four years ago now, we jumped out and had a seven-win season and won a bowl game,” Brown recently said at the ACC Kickoff. “We jumped out and went to the Orange Bowl. So, all of a sudden, the narrative changed. We were one of the top teams in the country and we were a top-10 team.

“And even though the previous year’s team was good enough to be considered with that hype, last year’s team was not.”

Running back and special teams dynamo British Brooks emphatically agreed.

“We let that get to our heads,” he said.

Brown has a different take on his team this summer, in part because there isn’t any hype to distract the Tar Heels from their external and internal stated missions. Carolina finished 6-7 a year ago, and Brown dismissed defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. Lessons were learned about what Brown didn’t want and what the program needed. He hired 2010 national champion Gene Chizik for a second bout in Chapel Hill, as well as Jack Bicknell, also a former head coach at FBS level at Louisiana Tech.

Brown wanted more gravitas in the program, and not just on his staff. Their aim was to register with the team’s leaders an understanding of all that is necessary to win, thus elevating the culture within. So, a word regularly tossed around the Kenan Football Center these days is “accountability” because it has become an absolute mandate.

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For North Carolina to become the North Carolina that Brown envisioned when he took the job in 2018, there must be complete accountability within every layer of the program. That is the difference between right now and this time a year ago; the head coach sees exactly that from his team.

Brown says they were “criminally overrated” a year ago. Now, there is no hype, they are well off the national and regional radar. Even in their own state, the Tar Heels are a bit of an afterthought.

Wake Forest and NC State are in the top 15 of almost every preseason ranking that has come out, and should be in that range when the formal initial Associated Press poll comes out in a few weeks. UNC is nowhere in sight. And that’s fine by Brown and his players. But it isn’t serving as much fuel, though it would be foolish to believe it doesn’t give the team a bit of a chip.

Their motivation, however, is greatness within in every little thing they do. The belief is it will translate better onto their performances on the field.

“As far as last year, we were letting little things slide, as far as people not coming to lunch or not getting tutoring done,” junior linebacker Cedric Gray said. “Maybe on the field, they’re not executing or they’re being lazy and not giving the right effort. These are all different things that can happen throughout the building.

“So, as a leader, we’re just kind of honing down on those things, having a standard. Setting a standard that we will do this and we will be like this to be successful.”

That is where it begins. Last year’s team had plenty of talent, but so does the 2022 edition of UNC football. The current club might be more talented, but is younger and won’t have record-setting quarterback Sam Howell.

But none of that matters. The talent it there, the number of players worthy of getting on the field is, too. Among Brown's personal mandates this season is to be better as well.

He takes the blame for what ultimately transpired last season, but only to a degree. The players must do their part.

“There are a lot of great things we did (last season), but what we didn't do is we weren't consistent, and that's my fault,” Brown said. “The team, they take on the personality of the head coach, and if your team is playing inconsistently, that meant I coached them inconsistently, and I hate that.

“It just makes me sick when our team doesn't play with passion every week. That's what I've seen these guys do every day of (and since) spring practice.”

He isn’t ill these days, and that’s where one can detect more a tint of excitement and optimism from the thoughtful coach. The same goes for the players.

“We get together a lot more this year than last year,” Brooks said. “We take more accountability in what we’re doing and focusing on what we need to do instead of what we haven’t done.”

Record-setting wide receiver Josh Downs echoed Brooks’ sentiment while offering a bit of insight on the leadership aspect within the locker room. It begins with the coaching staff and then to the hierarchy of identified vibe setters.

“We have a leadership council,” Downs said. “We have about 15 guys our peers chose to help lead this team and be a voice. I feel like we’ve come together very strong. We’ve had a lot of meetings and dedicated a lot of time to coming together on our off days, and just finding ways to lead this team, improve more, and bring everybody together as a whole.”

The Tar Heels have moved on from last season’s disappointment. New faces, some new leaders, and a renewed optimism permeates the program. Lessons learned can be a valuable tool for future success.

And that’s exactly the purpose of heightened accountability.