CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Football Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center for his weekly press conference in advance of the Tar Heels’ game at Florida State on Saturday.
UNC is coming off a 41-14 win at Virginia, which snapped a four-game losing streak, and the Seminoles are coming off a 36-14 loss at Miami and have dropped four straight contests.
UNC is 4-4 overall and 1-3 in the ACC. The Seminoles are 1-7 overall and 1-6 in the ACC. Their lone conference win was 14-9 at home over California. This is also FSU’s last ACC game of the season.
The game kicks off at 3:30 PM and will air on the ACC Network.
Above is video of Brown’s press conference and below are some notes from what he had to say:
*Per UNC: OG Jonathan Adorno and freshman DL Leroy Jackson are also out for the season. This means Adorno’s college career is over. Jackson will use the season as a redshirt.
Also, CB Marcus Allen and safety Jakeen Harris will be monitored this week in practice. Both played missed the game at UVA. Tight end Bryson Nesbit remains out as well.
*Brown said the performance in Charlottesville was his team’s best of the season and he maintained Monday what he’s been saying for more than a month that this team will close strong. The Tar Heels’ remaining four games are at 1-7 FSU, home against 4-4 Wake Forest, at 4-4 Boston College, and home versus 4-4 NC State.
*Brown said QB Jacolby Criswell’s 19-for-30, 293-yard performance at UVA was “by far” his best of the season and clearly his career.
---Brown notes Criswell is maturing into the position
---The game is slowing down for him
---Criswell and the offensive line are building chemistry
---OC Chip Lindsey is learning to call what fits best for Criswell in various down-and-distance situations.
*A key in the win at UVA, Brown says, was how Alijah Huzzie fielded punts saving the Tar Heels field position multiple times. Virginia’s punter was “held” to 10 yards below his average because of Huzzie making the fair catches and not letting the ball bounce.
*Carolina’s Players of the Game:
-Offense – JJ Jones: 5 catches, career-high 129 yards, 2 TDs
-Defense – Kaimon Rucker: 8 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 INT
-Special teams – Michael Short: 2 tackles in coverage
*Brown understands the importance on the team remaining based in their thinking, but there is confidence across the board they can finish very strong through these last four games, and how it could affect the way people view the season.
The win in Charlottesville was a restart, but also a rebirth. The team shed a lot of stuff in the two weeks between games and was loose and ready to roll at Scott Stadium. Brown has told the team people will more remember how they close the season than that they lost four straight games at one point.
*Asked how backup, and former two-game QB starter, Conner Harrell is going, Brown lathered him with praise.
“Conner’s been unbelievable. He was so happy after the win Saturday. He’s helping Jacolby on the sideline, he’s running around talking to players. I really was hoping that we could get a stop with seven minutes left so we could get Conner in so he could play the last drive and let him play, because we still may need him.
“But in a time where we’re talking about transferring, pouting, and ‘I’m gonna opt out,’ and “I’m not gonna play because you put him in my place,’ Conner Harrell is one of the nicest kids I’ve ever been around and the smarted. He’s one of the top students in our business school, he’ll graduate here. He’s going to make more money than all of them playing football or not.”
*Staying on that, there’s a warning about being complacent this week. That FSU is FSU, the game is at Doak Campbell Stadium, and the Seminoles have had really good stretches the staff will show the players should be enough to keep from getting complacent and overlooking the Noles.
In addition, Brown is viewing Florida State in that it is the same program that went unbeaten in the regular season last year and is “well coached” by Mike Norvell. Brown sees talent everywhere, it’s a matter of FSU putting it together at one time, similar to what the Tar Heels did at Virginia.
“They’re very talented, they’re going to play well against us, we know that. It’s going to be hot in the 80s.”
*Brown told a funny story about when he took Tulane to Tallahassee in the 1980s and, after taking a 7-0 lead, Bobby Bowden and the Seminoles blew them out 77-14. It’s good stuff.
*Staying on that, Brown continued the story transitioning to people saying, “You never beat Florida State when you were here before. I said, ‘Yeah, well nobody else did, either.’”
