CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media via zoom following Thursday’s first practice of fall camp to field questions about his team and put out a few notes regarding his program.

Brown’s presser lasted 51 minutes and hit on various position groups, how the program is handling the Delta variant, more on NIL, expectations, Sam Howell and the hype around him, and so much more.

Above is Brown’s full presser and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:

*Brown said everyone on the team arrived back in Chapel Hill on time and reported for camp Wednesday, and with the first practice here, there was plenty of excitement around the Kenan Football Center and Koman Practice Complex.

“Opening day is like the opening day in baseball: It’s fun, it’s exciting, you can’t wait to get out there, everybody’s fresh, everybody’s fighting for a position. It’s a fun day and it should be. It’s an emotional day,” Brown said.

*The Tar Heels are staying at the team hotel for fall camp, which will last about two weeks.

“We felt like that was safer, the players wanted to do it because they felt like there were fewer distractions,” Brown said. “And obviously, with people coming back to campus and COVID still out there, we have to be 85 percent herd immunity for us to eat back on our training table and meet in our meeting rooms.

“So, we were actually more normal today than we’ve been since the pandemic hit. The Delta variant is out there, it’s real, it’s causing problems again, so our players have to understand – coaches and staff – that we have to prepare for somebody to miss practice, miss a game, so we’ve got a lot of things in place from last year.”

*Having more talent and depth is a terrific thing and a massive part of the mission, but it also means coaches must be able to handle the added depth, and that’s not always easy.

“What we’re talking to our players about is, ‘We want you to play fewer plays, be more rested, and get more production with fewer plays,’” Brown said. “And that will be one of the goals as we move forward.”

*Special teams is a major point of emphasis this fall. “We’ve been average, and we need to pick it up,” Brown said. “We need to start winning games on special teams instead of being in the middle of the league… That’s part of depth. When you’ve got more depth, you should have better special teams.”

*As expected, a question Brown got today and will keep getting throughout camp has to do with the running backs room. Michael Carter and Javonte Williams are gone and the program brought in Tennessee transfer Ty Chandler, who ran for more than 2,000 yards for the Volunteers, to help move the room forward.

“We’re really excited about Ty,” Brown said. “Number one, he’s talented, he can catch the ball out of the backfield – he’s shown that ability, he’s got an all-purpose yardage record at Tennessee, he can return punts and kickoffs, but he’s older. He’s played in games against Alabama and Auburn and Georgia and Florida when he was at Tennessee.

“He won’t be surprised or shocked or big-eyed when he goes to Virginia Tech. And since that room was rather inexperienced, we felt like we needed to bring in an older, more experienced running back. And we’ve been really, really excited about Ty.”

*Not long ago, UNC’s defensive line was about as thing as it can get at the P5 level, but that has changed in a big way. The Tar Heels have 10 scholarship players who at least physically look the part. The room has exploded and could soon be a strength for the team.

“I think it’s without question to me the most improved position on our team,” Brown said. “And obviously, you talk about Sam and the quarterback room looking really good moving forward, (but) you’ve got to be able to stop the run and you’ve got to be able to disrupt the passer, and we have not been able to consistently do that.

“So that room looks good. We’re going to get off the bus and walk into the stadium looking like a much better football team than we have in the past. And we’ve lost too many close games in the end, and I feel like that’s because an (Texas) A&M beat us down, and a Notre Dame beat us down in the fourth quarter.

“So, we feel like that’s why one of our mantras is going to be ‘Fewer players and more production.’ We want you to be fresh, and we want you to be 100 percent every play on that field. And then what we have to do is Coach (Jovan) Dewitt and Coach (Tim) Cross have to do an outstanding job of figuring out who earns the most number of plays and who can be productive with that right number.

“And when do you take a Myles Murphy out and put a Jahvaree Ritzie in? That’s what you’ve got to start figuring out now what that dynamic is. But I do feel like it’s going to be fun to watch those guys compete.”

*In addition to questions about the running backs, Brown will also regularly get them this month about his wide receivers. So, he got one Thursday about where the collective chemistry is right now between the receivers and Howell.

“One of the ways you can really improve in the offseason is throwing and catching,” Brown said. “They don’t change that much. They can have player-led practices every day, they can have seven-on-sevens and it’s not that much different than it was this morning. We (coaches) just couldn’t be out there (in the offseason).

“And when you’ve got an older quarterback like Sam and guys like Emery Simmons and Beau Corrales and Garrett Walston, they’ve done this enough that they could have their own practice.

“So, I really felt like they looked good this morning, there’s a lot of continuity. Josh Downs has made so much progress in the year he’s been here, so we’re excited about him. We were talking about Emery this morning, he’s just a very good football player. He’s the same guy every day and has that energy…

“Beau’s had a lot of experience, he’ll be a really good player. Khafre (Brown) is fast and well. So you’ve got Antoine Green who you’d love to see make a huge jump, and he did some this morning. You’ve got Justin Olson who’s coming on. And you’ve got some other young guys out there, Stephen Gosnell is well.

“I think right now the fun thing is we’re more like we were two years ago when people weren’t sure about Dazz and they weren’t sure about Dyami because they dropped too many balls and weren’t consistent. So we’re kind of like that now about ‘Who is this guy, who is going to step up?’ But there’s enough bodies there that have talent.”

*Stay with THI for continued coverage of the first day of fall camp and more.