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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina is one week away the beginning of spring football practice, so Tuesday afternoon, UNC Coach Mack Brown met with the media to give a full update on his team as the Tar Heels get ready to hit the field beginning March 1.
Brown went through each position group, discussed schematic changes on defense, tweaks to the offense, the quarterback battle, injuries, players getting new or added responsibilities, and the program’s disposition, in which Brown said they are getting back to the basics from his first two seasons.
THI will offer extensive coverage of Brown’s presser over the coming days in addition to this report hitting on some elements of what he discussed. Above is the full video of Brown's presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*A critical component to any winning football team is protecting the quarterback. It's no coincidence that the national champion Georgia Bulldogs ranked in the top ten nationally in that statistic. On the other hand, UNC allowed the most sacks among Power 5 teams with 49. Brown is determined to get this issue fixed, and it isn’t just the offensive line doing a better job. Much more goes into it.
“We have talked about it at nauseum, but we gave up too many sacks,” Brown said. “We had too many penalties, we had too many lost yardage plays. So, we have to play better on first down, so we don’t have third and longs. That’s usually where sacks occur on second-and-long and third-and-long. We have to look really hard at our play selection in those situations too. We have to make sure we aren't putting ourselves in bad protections in long yardage. Protection has to be the number one thing we look at, we are going back and looking at all of those situations.
“We looked at every negative play that we had last year, we looked at it as an offensive staff, and I have been in there to see every one of those plays. We have to play better on first down so we set up with second and third and average, or short. It gives you a better chance to stay on the field. That’s what it's all about in making those situations because we have to make third downs.”
*While North Carolina ranked 20th nationally in red zone offense, the Tar Heels were in the 8os in touchdown percentage in the red zone. They settled for way too many field goals. Mack Brown acknowledged the unit’s need to end more drives with touchdowns, especially when they get deep into the red zone.
“We need to score more touchdowns in the lower red zone,” said Brown. “We're moving the ball. We've run the ball better than anybody in our league for two years. We're scoring points. But we're leaving a lot of points on the field with field goals when you get in the lower red zone.
“So, we need to be more risk-takers down there. But we've got to run the ball down there and be more consistent. So, we don't want to kick field goals. We want to score touchdowns and that's really important.”
*Mack Brown understands with the transfer portal always looming, it's important to get young guys playing time to keep them happy. The benefit of this is with the recent recruiting classes UNC has an opportunity to build quality depth, while keeping all the players satisfied.
“We've been trying to play more guys since we've been here for the previous three years,” Brown explained. “We haven't done a great job of doing that. We have to do it for depth, but we have to do it for the transfer portal.
“Because if guys aren't going to play, they're going to leave. And that's just the new world we live in. So regardless of how we work it, Coach Chizik and I were talking the other day, we're trying to get 22 guys that can play on defense. And if you can only get 17 but rotate them any way we want to...
“The transfer portal is still open until June 1. So, we have spring practice, the latter part of April, and then we've got a month, that anybody could basically leave. So that changes things as well.”
*During Tuesday’s press conference, Brown touched on a number of key contributing players who will be limited in spring practice. While its always unfortunate to have injured players, the injuries will provide young players with a chance to get much-needed reps leading into the summer.
“We'll have more limited contact on defense because we got more guys out," he said. “And that's a little bit of a problem because we've got to tackle better. But since some of the starters will be out with injuries, it's going to give other guys an opportunity to step up and play.
“So that's going to be good to be able to watch them and force us to put guys out there that need to get more experienced because you're not winning games in the spring. You're trying to figure out who you are, and trying to learn how to play to that standard. So, you can be there in the fall.”
Note: THI will have a full report on the injuries posted by Wednesday morning.
*The spectrum on how good UNC’s defense could have been last season was large. There were moments, like a big portion of the Pittsburgh game, where the unit looked like the defense that should have garnered all of the preseason praise. Then there was the defense that gave up 300 yards in single halves in six of seven games. Brown is constantly looking for ways to make the defense more consistent.
“We've got to eliminate explosives (plays),” Brown said. “We were too inconsistent. We'd play great or awful. And those are things that we're addressing. We've got to force more turnovers, we got to get off the field on third and fourth downs because people have stayed out there.
“A stat right before the half. I think the opposing team scored nine of 13 games this year in the last five minutes of the half, which is such a critical part of the game. We can't allow that to continue to happen.”
*Brown has said whatever happens on the field is either being coached to happen or being allowed to happen. As the leader, Brown will take more responsibilities to assure the team’s weaknesses are addressed.
“My job is to make sure that we're doing what's best for Carolina and our personnel,” Brown explained. “And the basic philosophy of our offense is to have the air raid with the power running. That's what we said from day one. And that hadn't changed. But we have entirely too many sacks and I'm going to fix that period. I've asked them to fix it, they haven't so I'm going to.
“We have entirely too many tackles for loss. People want to say, well, how do you fix it? Well come and spend the last three months with me. You look at things that can fix it, is it personnel? Is it play selection? Is it the way you're coaching them? Is it getting everybody on the same page? Because this guy wants this, and this guy wants this?
“Yes. There are so many different pieces to this, that's where it gets very complicated. I feel like we'll be better on defense this year than we were last year, that's going to give the offense the ball more. I feel like we've got to stay on the field on third downs more. And to do that, we've got to get third and short. We've got to shorten that. So, what do you do with that? How do you handle pressure?
“Is the pressure on the offensive line or is the pressure when you're dropping back on third-and-eight and everybody in the stadium knows you're dropping back. And you've got younger receivers and they're getting covered. You get sacked and everybody curses the offensive line. Well, maybe it's play selection, maybe we should move that quarterback more. Maybe you can't let them know where the launch point is, every time you drop back. Because all of the defenses are designed to get to that one spot, maybe you should run more option to disrupt the defense.
“The offensive staff did a great job this year of utilizing more screens and draws. People don't recognize that then if you get tackled on a draw everyone curses the offensive line for it being a sack. It wasn't even a sack is a bad run, with those can happen. So, what I've asked our offense to do and they've been great with it, is we've done so many good things.
“Offensively, I think we can be great. And we've been sporadically great, which means you're inconsistent. And I have said we've got to do a better job in situations and we haven't. I have said we've got to do a better job and low red zone scoring touchdowns instead of field goals we haven’t. So those are areas that I'm getting involved with that we need to fix.”
