CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center for his weekly press conference to discuss his team’s open week, elements of the club, and to look ahead to the Tar Heels’ home game Saturday versus Pittsburgh.

Among the things Brown discussed are points of emphasis during the open week, including discussions the staff had with the team about being ranked and how it doesn’t matter right now, not focusing on winning the Coastal, just the next game ahead, a lot on Pitt, discussions with players about their futures, a few specific players, success in the passing game, and what Brown did Saturday watching games all day on TV.

The Tar Heels (6-1, 3-0 ACC) and Panthers (4-3, 1-2) kickoff at 8 PM and the game will air on the ACC Network.

Note: UNC said before the presser that D.J. Jones, William Barnes & Don Chapman are all back practicing.

Above is the video of Brown’s Q&A session, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:

**************************************************************************************

Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!

***************************************************************************************

*It’s interesting that while the team had the weekend off and players could go home, they also had homework assignments. The staff wanted them to watch the Virginia-Georgia Tech game last Thursday night and the Pitt-Louisville game Saturday night while taking scouting report notes, and they were later quizzed on both games.

“That’s fun when you’ve got some time off on a Saturday to watch everybody else play,” Brown said. “Then your coaches can say, ‘Act like you’re playing the game, and write down these notes and answer these questions for me. What did you see, and how would you attack that differently than maybe someone that was doing it during the game?’

“And they also see how crazy college football is. I’m starting to show them every Sunday all of the scores, and I’m asking them what their thoughts are, who’s going to win this game.”

Brown said it’s fun to discuss this with his team, and had fun with the Duke-Miami game since they had just played both. He asked the team who they thought was going to win, and the point here is for his team to learn more about college football. It helps with them understanding the wild ebbs and flows in games, which has happened in a lot of their games so far.

*UNC has won three consecutive games, all ACC contests, and have either dominated (Virginia Tech) or found ways to win late (at Miami, at Duke), and it appears the Tar Heels were gaining some steam when them open date hit. Brown has said over time it’s always a bit of a concern having a team connect playing well before an open date to playing well after one, so that has been a point of emphasis over the last week.

Add to it that this was a second open date for UNC, the season has been a bit disjointed in that respect. Brown relies on something legendary Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden used to say in aiding his process during open dates.

The focus, however, was getting better. The heavy emphasis on that should keep the players and staff sharp.

“What do we need to fix, and how do you fix it,” Brown said. “Coach Bowden used to say, ‘Don’t keep practicing bad stuff. If it’s not working, change it.’ It’s very simplistic, but it’s so true…

“We had harsh conversations all week again about where are we improving and why haven’t we scored touchdowns against Pitt? We’ve given up too many sacks against Pitt. Multiple sacks both games… What do we do to change that? Let’s not have the same problems.”

Brown said some of the younger staffers spent time looking ahead at the last five opponents to begin planning ahead, the staff also did another “harsh study” of themselves, and put a lot of time into Pitt, which has the same defensive coordinator from the previous two meetings between the teams.

*A year ago, North Carolina didn’t become bowl eligible until it defeated Wofford at home the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The Heels then lost at NC State and in the bowl game to South Carolina to finish the season with a disappointing 6-7 record. But they are currently 6-1, so the pressure of being bowl eligible is certainly gone, but Brown hadn’t thought of things in that manner.

He said the team’s mission wasn’t to just getting to a bowl, the aspirations have always been much loftier.

“It’s a pride factor that they’ve already won as many as they did last year when they played 13 games,” Brown said. “But I do feel like it gives them more motivation, because now you’ve reached one of those goals, and that’s to have an extra game, and now you’re trying to see how high that level can go from this point to the end.”

*Graduate defensive tackle Ray Vohasek is out for the season, but he hasn’t been away from the team. He will miss Saturday’s game versus Pitt because Vohasek is having surgery Wednesday and will be recovering. Brown says Vohasek has been there for his teammates just as British Brooks has.

“He was the leader, he was the guy, and he stirred them up, and they had fun with him,” Brown said. “He’s been out there every day, and he hasn’t missed practice and he hasn’t missed a meeting. So. He’s been like British Brooks and Antoine Green really staying involved with the team.

“I think he has his operation Wednesday, so we’ll miss him for the game this weekend. But he, like British, has stayed really active and involved.”

*True freshman RB George Pettaway cannot redshirt this season since he has already appeared in five games, but he has played just 69 offensive snaps, and did not appear in either of UNC’s last two games. In fact, Pettaway played 16 snaps versus Florida A&M and 25 at App State, so 41 of his snaps came in the first two games.

And with D.J. Jones back on the field, Caleb Hood and Omarion Hampton owning two spots in the rotation, and the emergence of Elijah Green in the Duke game, just where does that put Pettaway right now?

“We don’t talk about redshirting anybody we think can help us win a game,” Brown said. “We think George is really good. Our running back room… we’re still not settled. George is in the mix, and he’s really talented, and I wish we could get him in more.

“D.J. got hurt, so you had to figure out what to do when Caleb was playing so good. He’s played so well then he gets banged up. And then the other night, (RB Coach) Larry (Porter) decided to put Elijah in and he looks great…

“George is happy, (but) he’d like to play more. We’ve told him, ‘Keep working on your pass protection and keep doing all the things that you need to improve.’ We think he’s really, really good, and is one of the few on the team that we haven’t been able to get in as much as we’d like. He has a great future, so I hope we can do better there.”