CHAPEL HILL – There was no shortage of things for North Carolina football coach Mack Brown to discuss during Monday’s 25-minute weekly press conference.
His Tar Heels were coming off a huge season-opening 24-20 victory over South Carolina on Saturday in Charlotte having exorcised quite a few demons that helped steer this program into the direction where it needed Brown to come in last winter intent saving it from veering any further off course.
So far, so good. Brown has done that, and the positivity filling the program following the victory isn’t being pushed aside in typical football-mode, where too many coaches have their teams in constant states of game preparation. Brown wanted his players to enjoy their accomplishment before cutting the cord to the win over the Gamecocks and launching into full Miami prep with Tuesday morning’s practice.
“We had a victory meal last night, we were really hard on them in the videos and showed them,” Brown said. “We won the game but here are all the things we did that could have kept us from winning the game, as coaches and players. At the end of the victory meal, we told them to really enjoy South Carolina until you go to bed and then when you get up, you’re totally focused on Miami.”
Here are some other items from Brown's weekly presser:
*Among the many things that Brown hit on Monday included Dyami Brown’s touchdown reception in the left corner of the end zone. It was UNC’s first touchdown of the game and capped a 98-yard scoring drive that began with the Tar Heels trailing 20-9. Brown’s one-hander was recognized by ESPN Sportscenter as the top play of the day.
“The catch by Dyami Brown is one of the best I’ve ever seen,” the UNC coach said. “I couldn’t see it from the sideline, and I got busy with whether to go for two or kick it, so I didn’t see the replay.
“When I got home and turned on ESPN and saw it was the play of the day, what a great catch. It’s not a good catch, that’s a great catch.”
By the way, the Heels went for two and converted when Sam Howell ran it is on an option play.
*Speaking of Howell, Brown gave high praise to his touchdown pass to Beau Corrales that gave UNC the lead for good one possession after Brown’s amazing reception. Howell led Corrales with pristine touch giving him the ball pretty much in the only place where he could catch it. As impressed as the head coach was with that throw and catch, he noted another element of Howell’s game that impressed him Saturday and is one of the true freshman’s greatest attributes.
“I still think he’s most impressive when he’s out of the pocket and he’s running toward the line of scrimmage,” Brown said. “He’s fast enough to make yards and strong enough to break tackles, but when people come up he’s got that really good awareness to throw the ball the ball downfield.”
*The only position along the offensive line in which a second-team player got a lot of snaps was Brian Anderson, who was in for 26 plays compared to the starter Nick Polino, who plays 51 snaps. Anderson entered fall camp as the blue team center and Polino was the blue team guard but he moved over to the starting center spot in mid-August because Anderson was struggling some.
It just so happens that Anderson was on the field for UNC’s two touchdown drives, so why was he in the game and how does Brown think that position fared during the game?
“We’re trying really hard to develop depth because these are long seasons now,” Brown replied. “Twelve games is a long time and hopefully you get some more. So if we see somebody that’s been on the field we feel like too long… we’re trying to get that white group to be good enough that it doesn’t matter. Just out them in and put them in any time that you want. Hopefully, we will get to a point when sometime we can put them all in…
“(Offensive line coach) Stacy (Searels) said Nick was worn down a bit because he’d never played center and he’s got that monster (South Carolina defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw) over him every play. So it was just to get some fresh legs into the game.”
*Coaches want perfection, or to at least strive for it and their teams to come as close to it as possible, so winning a nail biter generally doesn’t make coaches’ wish lists. However, there are times when it’s very important to the building process, and given that Brown and his staff are trying to fix and rebuild a college of football players’ psyches, the manner the Heels won Saturday was actually hugely positive in retrospect.
“We couldn’t have scripted it any better,” Brown said. “I mean, they’ve lost enough games late like that over stuff. Our coaches didn’t panic, our players didn’t panic and I thought we couldn’t have scripted it any better. It was the perfect way to finish. Just do your job, don’t look at the scoreboard, don’t worry about...
“It was just a process of the first time all of us have been on the field together, players and coaches. There’s nothing better for your confidence than to have a tough game that you mess things up and still win because it shows them you don’t have to play perfect in college football, it’s not a perfect game. You’ve got young people that make mistakes and the one’s that make the fewer mistakes are the one's that win the game.”
*Jacob Turner contributed to this piece
