CHAPEL HILL – Mack Brown met with the media following Wednesday morning’s practice for the final time before North Carolina faces Virginia on Saturday night at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville.

The UNC coach fielded questions for 46 minutes and also introduced the media to his theories and the program’s use of analytics, something he didn’t use when he was at Texas. Brown went into great details on that, which THI will chronicle later this week.

In addition, Brown hit on a variety of things about his Tar Heels, Virginia and how the plan going up to UVA will be different from the Florida State trip two weeks ago.

Here are some notes and pulled quotes from what Brown had to say:

*Brown said his team didn’t have great practices the week of the FSU game, and consequently, they came out playing terribly in the first half and lost. So, how have practices gone this week?

“Had another great practice,” Brown said. “The guys have worked really, really hard this week and seem to be gaining more confidence and learning how to work harder every day and not have a bad day of practice, which we had some last year. We thought we had some earlier in the week.”

*Staying on that, the FSU game and this one carry plenty of similarities. Night games coming off productive victories over disliked foes, the Heels are feeling pretty good about themselves and are facing another capable team on the road, like the Seminoles proved they were. Brown will see this weekend how his team is handling their success, which is very much a part of the process toward fulfilling their mission, and how do they handle a road night game?

“Saturday night we’ll learn, have we learned how to handle success? It’ll be very obvious,” he said. “It’s one of those, you ask me, I don’t know. We’ll know after we see the game on Saturday. Will we handle road games better? We haven’t handled the two road games we’ve had near as well as we have home games. And that usually happens, especially with new programs and inexperienced teams.

“You have to learn to win on the road. Our three home games have been great, our two away games have been just, one was bad the first half, we came back and in the other, Boston College, was just ok. And then we played very poorly the only night game we’ve had.”

*So with the team not handling the FSU trip very well, and Brown noted practicing early in the morning possibly affected the team some with that night game, what will the Heels do differently going up to Charlottesville from the trip to Tallahassee?

“Number one, I said, maybe you’re supposed to fall asleep in the second half because that’s when you go to bed, not the first half. But, it seemed like we slept the first half and woke up the second half, so I can’t figure all that out. But, we’re gonna take the bus up a little bit later, so we’ll eat here, we’ll drive to Charlottesville.

“And that’s not comfortable with an N-95 mask when you can’t eat or drink for three and a half hours, so we’ll probably stop and let them have a break halfway up. And then just go to bed and let them sleep in a little bit longer on Saturday.

“And then we’re gonna keep them up and keep them moving all day with meetings throughout the day because the worst thing they can do, all college football players are tired this time of the year and it’s gonna be a cool day. The worst thing you can do is let them lay there and sleep.”

*The Tar Heels have debuted some new clothing and gear this week as Saturday at UVA is Military Appreciation game. Each player is taking part, as Brown explained.

“This is military appreciation week, so each player honors someone, either who has served our country in the past or currently,” he said. “And they either call that person and, if that person is deceased, obviously they call a family member. They practice this week, and they play this week in honor of them.

“So, to all of our military folks across the world that are trying to keep our country safe, thank you and this game will be in your honor and that's why we will be wearing the camouflage on Friday as we take the bus to go up to Charlottesville to play.”

*UNC’s run defense will be a weekly topic of conversation for the remainder of the season. It has struggled at times but is also coming off a quality performance holding State to 34 yards on 19 attempts, so that progress is pleasing to Brown. But, looking ahead to Virginia this weekend, the game could hinge on how the Heels handle the Cavaliers’ run game.

“I was very pleased against Syracuse and Boston College and, I think (reporter) asked this one day, and I said we haven’t had anybody really try to run it,” Brown said. “Why is your run defense good?

“And then Virginia Tech just absolutely took over and, in the third and fourth quarter, just ran it down the field, and that bothered me. And then Florida State’s quarterback ran better than I wanted him to, and their running back.

“And then, last week, we just stepped back up and played really, really well. So, I really feel like that’s a huge part of who we are here moving forward. If Virginia can run the ball on Saturday night, we’ll get beat.”

UNC, by the way, is No. 36 in the nation in rushing yards allowed per game (128.6), but the first to opponents didn't quite challenge the run D then Virginia Tech and FSU combined to run for 501 yards triggering the cause for concern.

Virginia's rushing offense is ranked No. 54 in the nation averaging 164 yards per contest. The Wahoos ran for 147yards (3.9 average per attempt) in a loss at Clemson and 185 (5.3 per attempt) this past weekend at Miami.

*The second-team offense got into the game during the fourth quarter of UNC’s win over NC State last Saturday, and while quarterback Jacolby Criswell played 11 snaps, he never passed the ball. UNC ran it all 11 times. What is Brown’s philosophy in that situation with respect to giving those players needed snaps but balancing whether or not they pass given the score and showing respect to an opponent?

“I talked to Phil (Longo) about it, we want to run the regular offense when our second group's in there, especially with our quarterback because he needs to throw some,” Brown explained. “We were down on their end, we had young offensive lineman in there, too. And Phil just wanted to do what we would have done in that normal situation, and that was run the ball and we were running it successfully.

“In fact, we probably would have run out the clock if we hadn’t had a bad snap in there. But, that’s something that we need to do is get the more inexperienced quarterback some work in their normal gameplan.”

*Jacob Turner contributed to this report.