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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center for his weekly press conference to discuss more from his team’s win at Virginia over the weekend, field a variety of questions, and look ahead to the Tar Heels’ game Saturday at Wake Forest.
Carolina is coming off a 31-28 win at UVA winning its fifth consecutive game, plus moving its road record to 5-0. Overall, the No. 15 Tar Heels are 8-1, including 5-0 in the ACC.
UNC and Wake Forest (6-3, 2-3) kick off at 7:30 PM at Truist Field.
*No injury report from UNC for this week, meaning nobody got banged up enough in the UVA to warrant a notice to the media. A few notes, however:
Brown said Bryson Nesbit played nine snaps Saturday but he should be ready to go this week for Wake Forest. Also, Kaimon Rucker did not practice last week with full pads, but still played 42 snaps. Brown said Rucker should be much healthier this week.
*UNC is 5-0 on the road for the first time since 1997, and has a chance at going 6-0 on the road for the first time in nearly 100 years.
“In 1925, there were six (road) games, but two were at neutral sites,” Brown said. “So, this is the first time ever. And if you think, this will be the sixth road game of our ten games, which is so unusual for a team. And after last year’s team was 0-6 on the road, for this team to be sitting here 5-0 is very, very impressive.”
The 1925 UNC team won true road games at South Carolina (7-0), at Duke (41-0), at NC State (17-0), at Mercer (3-0), and won neutral site games over Maryland (16-0 in Baltimore), and VMI (23-11 in Richmond). Carolina went 7-1-1 that season.
Also note that UNC is in the midst of its third long stretch in between home games. The Tar Heels opened the season August 27 at home versus Florida A&M and didn’t play its next game in Kenan Stadium for another 28 days. UNC hosted Virginia Tech a week later, but then didn’t return to Kenan until Pitt visited 28 days later.
And now, with Georgia Tech the next home game for UNC, the Tar Heels will go three weeks in between times running out of the tunnel at Kenan. They close the season six days later versus NC State in Chapel Hill.
*MVPs from the win at UVA:
Offense – Josh Downs (15 catches for 166 yards, 1 TD)
Noted: Drake Maye, John Copenhaver, and Spencer Rolland
Defense - Cedric Gray (16 tackles, 2 PBUs)
Noted: Chapman, Ritzie, and Duke
Special Teams – Downs (two punt returns for 55 yards)
Noted: Justin Olson, Obi Egbuna, and George Pettaway
*UNC allowed four sacks to the Wahoos, but overall he’s pleased with the season numbers so far. Interestingly, only two were charged to the offensive line.
“We gave up too many sacks; we gave up four sacks,” Brown said. “Only two of them were the offensive line sacks. I looked at it, last year at this time, we had given up 34 sacks, and right now, we’ve given up 23. So that’s a significant difference between the two, so we are doing a better job with our protections.”
*As maligned as the defense is, and it did not play all that well at UVA considering how much the Wahoos’ offense has struggled this season. But Brown was happy to note some stats that should ease some of the concern many have about that side of the ball.
“The defense continues to play much better in the second half than the first half with the adjustments the coaches are making,” Brown said. “We’re averaging giving up 8.4 points per game in the second half of ACC games. We’re averaging giving up 5.6 points per game in the fourth quarters of the ACC games.
“So, we’re playing much better defense than we’re getting credit for. And I think we’re holding (opponents) to 24 points in the ACC games; 24 points per game. And it’s all about scoring defense. Scoring offense and scoring defense makes the difference.”
*There was a lot of chatter about Antoine Green possibly returning the onside kick at UVA for a touchdown, had he actually tried to. Instead, Green ran 20 yards before going to the ground at the Virginia 35-yard-line with 3:24 remaining and the Tar Heels leading 31-28.
In a similar situation, Bryson Nesbit returned an onside kick for a touchdown at App State in September, and Brown said that was a mistake because it only gave UNC an eight-point lead. Time was on Carolina’s side had he just fallen to the ground because only 28 seconds remained. UNC could have run out the clock.
Instead, App drove the field and scored, but failed its two-point attempt with nine seconds remaining. As for Green at UVA, Brown said the senior did the right thing.
“After looking at Antoine Green’s onside kick (return), he did really what he should have done because he wasn’t going to score. If he could have scored outside of three minutes, you let him score. But he was going to get tackles, and instead of getting tackled, he went down so there wouldn’t be any chance to have the ball popped away.
“It was really a smart play by him.”
*Elijah Green played 66 snaps Saturday and D.J. Jones played 13. That’s it for the RB room. Plus, Green had all but one carry for the running backs. The rest were by QB Drake Maye, who was credited with 16 runs.
“Their (Virginia) quarterback has been their leading rusher, and it’s happening now more with college football,’ Brown said. “And the more we throw, the more scrambles there are, so most of those were scrambles, they weren’t quarterback draws, weren’t designed runs.”
Brown has told OC Phil Longo he doesn’t want many called runs for Drake Maye because, “He’s going to have enough runs when protection (breaks down) and they’re covered, and he can run and make yards. So, let’s don’t add to that.”
*This may still be a bit early, and to Brown it is, but the head coach was asked if Maye belongs in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Only five players are invited, and Maye has climbed into the Heisman discussion. But Brown isn’t going there just yet.
“I think we’ve got to finish the season to see,” Brown said. “I remember talking to so many of the Heisman voters, because we had guys in Texas, and they always say at the end of the year, ‘that’s a Heiman moment.’ That’s what gets you there. It’s gotta be a game you’ve got to win, and you have to play good. So, I think it’s too early.”
