UNC Coach Mack Brown met with the media on Friday morning ahead of the Tar Heels’ Orange Bowl matchup against Texas A&M on Saturday night in Hard Rock Stadium.
UNC arrived in the Sunshine State on Thursday and will have a walk-through at a local high school in preparation for the fifth-ranked Aggies on Friday.
Among the topics discussed during Brown's presser were reaching the Orange Bowl, Texas A&M’s strengths and coach, building momentum for next year and much more.
Here are some pulled notes and quotes from what Brown had to say:
*Saturday’s Orange Bowl is the first major bowl appearance for UNC since the 1949 Sugar Bowl.
Brown knows how big of an accomplishment it is for his team to be playing in such a prestigious bowl and hasn’t been shy about reminding his guys.
“We told them we're excited to be here,” Brown said. “Now, we want to play well and win the game. That's very important against a great opponent. Our local reporters understand we've played against No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 10 Miami and now No. 5 A&M at the end of our season. This is great for us to see where we are as a program and where we need to be.”
The Hall of Fame coach also added that he’s not content with just reaching a New Year’s Six bowl. He wants this to be a regular occurrence for his program moving forward.
“A&M and Notre Dame have been in this area before,” Brown said. “They've stayed here a lot and we haven't. It's important for us to start trying to do everything within our power and recognizing what it takes to be a top 10 team, and then you work to the playoffs and then you work to the National Championship game.”
*Brown and Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher are far from strangers.
The former Florida State head coach is in his third season with the Aggies and has posted a 25-10 record since taking over in Dec. 2017. Brown, who used to work for ESPN as an analyst before taking the UNC job back in Nov. 2018, is very familiar with Fisher and even covered some of his games while he was with the network.
“I was fortunate to do three of Jimbo's games when he was at Florida State when I was on TV,” Brown said. “I got to study them, I got to watch them, and they're like a pro offense. They're huge on the offensive line, their tight end is as good as anybody in the country.... They've got a 225-pound running back. They run downhill.
“So, what they want to do is dominate the line of scrimmage, keep the football. Kellen Mond is a game manager very much like Ian Book. He knows what to do. You sit and look at the end of the game, he hasn't turned the ball over and he's 23 out of 28 passing, and he makes no mistakes.”
Not only was Brown full of praise for the Aggies, he was also full of praise for Fisher and his coaching abilities.
“He knows he's a great coach,” Brown said. “He's done a tremendous job. He gets them in the right place. They've recruited as well as anybody in the country every year, and I'm really, really impressed with Jimbo Fisher and what he's done at A&M.”
*With Michael Carter, Dyami Brown, Chazz Surratt and Javonte Williams all opting out and declaring for the 2021 NFL Draft, UNC is preparing to face the Aggies without four of its top players.
Brown knows the challenges that come along with this, but he’s not dwelling on them. He’s solely focused on finishing the year with a win in order to not only cap off a really positive season for the program, but also build momentum going into 2021.
“We think this is the start of 2021, simply because we're a different team now than we were when we were here a few weeks ago to play Miami,” Brown said. “We've said, let's honor our seniors, the guys that are playing. This is their last ballgame with us.
“It's the last time our team will be together tomorrow night, so let's play for the seniors, let's honor them. But also some of the guys that will play tomorrow night haven't played very much, so they will step up next year and they will be part of the future.”
Here are the complete pre-Orange Bowl video press conferences for Mack Brown and Jimbo Fisher.
