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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media briefly Monday afternoon to discuss new offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. and offer a few more tid bits about spring practice.
Above is the full video of Brown’s presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say. Note that Bicknell was also available to the media Monday afternoon.
*Saturday was UNC’s third spring football practice and first in full pads. Brown said it was ‘fun” and “really, like we’re starting over.” He said with a new defense and plenty of young, but talented, players that have no proven themselves gives it a strong feeling of newness.
In addition, special teams have changed some with Larry Porter fully taking over that role, and now UNC has a new offensive line coach, who took part in his first practice Saturday.
“A lot of things are moving and shaking,” Brown said. “What I do like is, I do feel like we’re not there yet, but we’re re-establishing our leadership because that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Former Tar Heels Michael Carter and Myles Dorn spoke Saturday to the club about the importance of player-led teams. Carter is currently a running back for the New York Jets, and Dorn is a safety for the Minnesota Vikings.
“We’re really re-establishing our chip on our shoulder like we had the first two years,” Brown said. “We didn’t seem to have that all the time last year.”
*Brown said, “discipline shows up with mental mistakes and penalties, and we’re working really, really hard to eliminate penalties and missed assignments.” He said the team did really well in this area Saturday.
Carolina ranked No. 111 in the nation in fewest penalties last fall, so this is clearly an area in need of improvement, as Brown says they are emphasizing.
*UNC junior cornerback Tony Grimes attended the NCAA Elite Student-Athlete Symposium this past weekend. He missed practice, but being one of only 30 juniors there, it was certainly worth it for Grimes. He was accompanied by assistant strength and conditioning coach A.J. Blue.
“He had a wonderful experience…,” Brown said.
*Brown cleared up the Stacy Searels departure timeline that has been a bit cluttered in some reporting.
Searels told the players he was leaving Monday morning. THI learned from a very good source Sunday at around midnight, but we were unable to get it fully confirmed until later that morning. Inside Carolina reported it first.
So, Brown had to make some quick decisions.
“Do we move spring practice back…,” the UNC coach said he asked himself. “How fast can we move? What do we do?
“I had to get a room full of young offensive linemen, their heads were spinning, ‘Coach, we’re all excited about starting.’ We’ve got so many things they know we’ve talked about – we had the most sacks in the league, had the most tackles for loss.
“So, we’ve been all over the offense tweaking to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore. And then you’re coach leaves.
“I knew where I wanted to go. As I’ve said, I keep my list, I called and asked permission at about 10:30 Monday morning to talk to Coach Bicknell. I talked to him at 1 that afternoon on a zoom call. He was getting ready to go to practice, his first spring practice that afternoon – to show you how crazy this business can be.
“Then, that night, he was able to visit with his coach, and call me late on Monday night to tell me he was coming. A lot of things happened very, very quickly.”
*Bicknell arrived last Wednesday and took part in his first practice Saturday morning. He has a 33-year coaching career under his belt, which includes eight years as a head college coach, and seven years in the NFL.
Bicknell was at Louisville for just one season, but he had a significant impact on the Cardinals. Louisville ranked No. 22 in the nation last season allowing only 1.54 sacks per game after ranking 98th the season before allowing 2.73 per contest. So, in one season under Bicknell, the sack numbers were cut down by 1.19 per game.
“We hit a home run,” Brown said about Bicknell. “Thirty-four-year veteran. All these young guys want to play in the NFL, Coach Bicknell’s coached seven seasons in the NFL, and he was (part) of a Super Bowl champion team (New York Giants, 2012).”
Brown is pleased with the range of experience Bicknell brings to the staff and that he can allow Bicknell to do his job.
“He understands my role, and he’s going to keep things out of my office the best that he possibly can,” Brown said.
Brown also noted that Bicknell’s father, Jack Bicknell Sr, was one of the head coaches he looked up back when he was moving up the ranks in the 1980s. Bicknell Sr. was the head coach at Boston College from 1981-90. He led BC to a Cotton Bowl, and in 1984, Eagles quarterback Doug Flutie won the Heisman Trophy.
“You love to be around guys who were raised in a coaching world… ,” Brown said. “So, there’s so many great things about Jack when you start thinking about his career and his background.”
