CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Football Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday for his weekly press conference to discuss the Tar Heels’ win over Charlotte this past Saturday and look ahead to the home game against North Carolina Central this Saturday.
UNC beat the 49ers 38-20 improving to 2-0 on the season. It’s the fifth time in Brown’s six seasons since returning that Carolina is 2-0. The 20 seasons before he returned, the Heels started 2-0 only five times.
The Tar Heels and Eagles kick off at 6 PM and the game will air on ACCNX.
Above is video of Brown’s presser, and below are some notes and quotes from what he had to say:
*UNC injury news: RB Darwin Barlow and center Austin Blaske will be monitored during the week. Kaimon Rucker will not play against NCCU.
*Max Johnson is returning to Chapel Hill from Minneapolis on Wednesday. He will work on recovering and helping with the team.
*Players of the Game:
---Offense: True freshman RB Davion Gause – 105 yards on 16 carries
---Defense: Sophomore LB Amare Campbell – 7 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 2 hurries
---Special Teams: Kickoff specialist Liam Boyd
*75 players got into the game Saturday, 69 on either offense or defense
*Conner Harrell had the second start of his career and first at home, and also first this season, and was 16-for-25 with 219 yards, two touchdowns, an interception, and he ran for 39 yards plus a score. Harrell made some mistakes, but also displayed some positives. Overall, Brown was pleased with how he played.
“I thought Conner played well. There are some things he can improve, but I thought overall, we thought overall, he did a really good job for a first start at home. And we can help him more.”
*Brown is “really excited about the way we’re running the ball.” The Tar Heels ran for 269 yards on 45 attempts (6.0 average), a week after Omarion Hampton went for 129 in the win at Minnesota.
“We’re being physical with a new offensive line. You lose your center (Blaske) early in the first quarter, and you still just keep going.”
Carolina got 13 offensive linemen into the game.
*The Tar Heels had 18 explosive plays against Charlotte, “which was so much better than in the opener.”
*A positive defensively is how UNC defended the run against Charlotte, which followed up an outstanding effort at Minnesota. The 49ers gained 49 yards on 25 attempts, the Gophers had 78 yards on 33 attempts. So, that’s 127 yards on 58 attempts, which is an average of 2.2 yards per attempt.
“I’m so pleased that we’re stopping the run… We’re 16th in the country against the run, which is something we’ve talked about for five years and haven’t done.”
*Carolina allowed eight explosive pass plays by the 49ers, which amounted to gains of 34, 42, 28, 25, 37, 23, 30, and 40 yards. That’s 80% of Charlotte’s offensive output.
“We’ve got to clean up the explosive plays in the passing game.” He said the DBs have “got to be able to play the ball.”
Brown also added: “When people say, ‘why don’t you be aggressive, get after the quarterback?’ Well, that puts your cornerbacks in one-on-one, so you’ve got to be able to play the ball. Marcus Allen made a couple of great plays. Alijah Huzzie’s not giving up plays.
“They’ve hit us a couple of times at star, so we’ve just got to clean those up. And we’re going to continue to be aggressive and continue to blitz and continue to stop the run, and we’ve just got to play the deep ball better.”
*Through two games, UNC has forced just one turnover, and considering the mission was to improve on last season when the Heels forced 22.
“We’ve got to force more turnovers, We’re not getting turnovers… We had three turnovers that we missed.”
*With Rucker out, redshirt freshman Tyler Thompson got the start at the rush position and played 28 snaps. Redshirt freshman Jaybron Harvey also played a lot, logging 23 snaps. Brown says both did some nice things and were somewhat fueled by a speech Rucker gave them and the team Friday, when he learned he couldn’t play in the game.
