CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center for his weekly press conference in advance of the Tar Heels’ game Saturday at Virginia to field questions about his unit and the Cavaliers.

Among the topics Brown discussed were quarterback Drake Maye’s success, injured players, the defense’s progress, Virginia, and more.

The No. 17 Tar Heels (7-1 overall, 4-0 ACC) and Wahoos (3-5, 1-4) kick at noon Saturday, and the game will air on the ACC Network.

Above is video of Brown’s presser, and below are some notes and a few pulled quotes from what he had to say:

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*UNC announced before the press conference that starting jack Noah Taylor is out for the season, and that defensive end Des Evans and running back Caleb Hood would miss the UVA game. UNC later put out a release that Evans and Hood are also out for the season. That came out after Brown’s press conference had concluded, so he did not comment on them, but he did speak about Taylor.

Also, UNC announced before the presser that defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker and tight end Bryson Nesbit will be monitored all week and a determination whether they will play at UVA will be made later in the week.

*Brown was quite pleased with the win over Pittsburgh, and said the players of the game were:

Offense – Drake Maye

Defense – Kaimon Rucker

Special Teams – Josh Downs

About some players’ performances Saturday, Brown said:

About Rucker: “He keeps playing great each week.”

About Storm Duck: “Storm Duck played the best game since he got hurt.”

About Don Chapman: “Don Chapman stepped up and did a lot of good things during the game.”

*Carolina moved up to No. 17 in the AP poll and No. 15 in the Coaches’ poll this week after beating Pitt 42-24. At 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the ACC, UNC has a two-game lead in the loss column over Duke and Miami, and a three-game lead over Georgia Tech.

The Tar Heels have defeated the Hurricanes and Blue Devils, and host the Yellow Jackets in a few weeks. So, if UNC wins at Virginia and Duke and Miami lose once more, the Tar Heels own tiebreakers over them. And Georgia Tech would then need to win out in order to outlast Carolina in the ACC Coastal Division. So, the Heels are in excellent shape in the division race.

“You love to play for something… late in the season,” Brown said, though he maintains the message to the team has not changed. They aren’t discussing the Coastal, their rankings, ACC title game, or whatever bowl opportunities they could create for themselves down the road.

*Staying on the Pitt game, Brown was pleased with how his team moved the chains and controlled the game clock against the Panthers. Pitt entered the game among the top teams in the nation in time of possession, and its mission against UNC clearly was to eat the clock and keep Carolina’s potent offense off the field, like Notre Dame did.

But UNC had the ball for 31:28, and Brown said that was an important element to them winning the game.

“We were worried about time of possession…,” he said. “We ended up with an edge in an area we were really, really concerned about.” But they made it a non-issue.

*Drake Maye’s amazing season is beginning to generate a lot of national attention, and he is even getting mentioned in most Heisman Trophy discussions. So how does UNC plan on handling this moving forward?

“I feel like that it takes care of itself,” Brown said. “Everybody knows that he’s good. There was some hype early, and people were wondering when he was going to mess up with a freshman game in there somewhere. And so far, he hasn’t done that.

“So, I think he just keeps doing what he’s doing, and people keep looking at it. It is what it is, but he’s starting to be recognized as one of the best in the country, and I think that’s a positive note for us and him.

“You worry about a guy that young getting so much attention, but I don’t think it bothers him at all. You all see him all the time, and he’s never different for me… The award stuff takes care of itself. We’ve just to keep winning.”

*Brown has coached some great quarterbacks in his career, is Maye the best as a freshman he’s ever coached?

“Yeah, he really is,” Brown said. “You start talking about guys like Vince Young, you start talking about Colt McKoy. These are guys that are really good players. So, he’s obviously in that mix. I think he’s as good as anybody this early at running and throwing.”

*Elijah Green has jumped into the running back mix over the last few weeks, and Brown couldn’t be more pleased for the redshirt sophomore.

“I’m so proud of Elijah Green,” Brown said. “He’s just like a poster-player for doing everything right. In a time that we’re living in with selfishness and transfer portal and ‘I don’t get to play, I’m pouting in the locker room after the game,’ this guy’s been on the scout team as a running back this year challenging our defense every play.

“And (he’s) on every special team, and he never gripes about anything. And he’s a top student in our business school. Every time some player’s griping, I say, ‘Go talk to Elijah, he made it work for him.’”

*The evolution of UNC’s growing confidence is something Brown has been able to literally see as it has been happening. The team has reached a point where its confidence is extremely high, and they don’t get rattled when behind or things go wrong because they have a deep belief they will work through it.

“What you want, and you’re so proud of, is when you walk into that team meeting on Sunday after a game, you want them happy and feeling good about themselves,” Brown said. “And last year, there were seven times we didn’t, and six times we did…

“They’re having fun, and one of the most important things, especially at this stage in my life, is that your team has fun. And that’s hard to do anymore. There’s so much pressure, and not everybody gets to play. So, for me as a coach, we’ve said that our common goals for us would be that we want everybody to have fun, we want everybody to graduate, we want to win all the games, and we want to have everybody in there prepared better for life after football.

“And this group is embracing that, and they’re really pulling for each other and having fun.”

Brown gave two interesting examples: Senior WR Justin Olson, who played nearly 500 snaps last season, but has barely played this year, went to Josh Downs during the game the other night, after Downs came off the field hobbling, and asked him what he could do to help.

The other example was that backup QB Jacolby Criswell is there to greet Maye when he comes off the field all the time.