Brown On Avoiding Rust, Conditioning, BC & More
CHAPEL HILL – It’s game week for North Carolina for the third time this season, even though the Tar Heels have played just one game so far.
They had a full game week to prepare for Charlotte’s scheduled Sept. 19 visit, but the contest was cancelled two days before kickoff. UNC was open last weekend.
So, the Heels will visit Boston College this Saturday after having gone three weeks in between regular season games for the first time since 1952 when a polio outbreak forced the cancellation of games versus NC State and Georgia. It’s the first time since 1961 that Carolina will have played just once entering October.
Brown discussed during his weekly press conference Monday how his team has handled the time away from playing games and this week’s opponent. Here are some notes and quotes from what Brown had to say plus the full video of his 30-minute presser is above:
*Starting offensive guard Josh Ezeudu and true freshman Desmond Evans are back at practice and likely to play at BC. They will be monitored this week and a decision will be made as the team's departure nears.
*UNC added a home game versus Western Carolina slated for Friday, Dec. 11. Brown said the ACC wanted the plus-one game filled for TV purposes and this was the only spot remaining UNC is comfortable having a game. Brown said Nov. 21, which is currently an open date and the week before Notre Dame’s visit, isn’t ideal because the players take final exams that week.
However, if UNC has an ACC game postponed, the Tar Heels would play that game on Dec. 11 (or 12th) instead.
*Brown has watched games the last two weekends and says the comebacks from large deficits and poor kicking games have stood out.
“The kicking games have been all over the place, it’s been crazy,” he said. “I think it’s probably because we didn’t have as much time to work on some of those issues as you normally would have.”
*Brown says among the positives are that the team is healthy and it’s fresh. He has concerns about it being essentially “like starting over,” but is confident his group hasn’t lost its edge, focus or that its timing has been affected.
“We still haven’t had our second game, so that will be interesting to see this weekend as we move forward,” he said. “But I’m not worried about them being excited about playing, they’ll be ready to play.”
Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley played in college at Siena under 26-year-old head coach Jay Bateman, who ran the program from 2000-2003.
“(Bateman) and Jeff are very close, and they’ve been good friends for a long time.”
*BC has four starting offensive linemen back from last year, each of whom were honored in some capacity, and the Eagles still like to play power football but are also throwing more than in recent years under previous coach Steve Addazio. They also have one of the top tight ends in the nation in Hunter Long, who has 16 receptions for 174 yards and two TDs.
“He is an impact player for sure,” Brown said about Long.
*BC QB Phil Jurkovec transferred in from Notre Dame and has passed for 510 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs and completed 70.5 percent of his passes in wins over Duke and Texas State. Brown is impressed with him, as well.
“He didn’t even get there until August, so every week that he plays he’s going to get better and learn more about their offense,” Brown said.
*There will be no fans in Alumni Stadium this weekend.
*Without having played a game since Sept. 12, how has the staff handled conditioning with the team so they are in the proper game shape heading into the BC game this weekend?
“We continued to do what we've been doing,” Brown said. “I've been so impressed with the three phases of our program outside of the coaches, and that's coach (Brian) Hess, and the way he's handled the COVID workouts from day one when we all went remote. To Luke Ross, who has handled all - he and the the the medical staff, Dr. Ciocca, have handled all of the guidelines that the kids have to go through.
“I wasn't sure any of this was going to work and our eating's working, the food's been good, we social distance at lunch. And then following up with Kelsey, our nutritionist, she's done a tremendous job. So, we only had one player get cramps in the opening ball game, only one, and it was hot against Syracuse. And now we've had a couple of weeks to continue to run…
“We don't run the old traditional sprints after practice that we all had to run, unless we feel like someone has not gotten the running during practice. And you're specialists, the receivers, the running backs, the defensive backs, they run the entire practice, so they're always in shape.”
*Brown got an interesting question about roster management and recruiting. Basically, every player gets this season back regardless, and with 17 players committed for the class of 2021 and UNC still going after a couple of other targets, how might recruiting be affected by the fact that everyone on the current roster could potentially come back?
Brown said the 2022 class will be more affected than the 2021 one. There are other things to consider, too.
“It's very interesting,” Brown said. “We're all sitting here looking at roster management now and what does that mean? Because we've never had COVID before, so that changes a lot of things that you're doing. We've never had the NCAA come out and say this year doesn't count, so all your guys are eligible four years after this. So then, do your seniors go try to get a job when the job market is tough? Do your seniors go to the NFL if they're not really sure what round they're going to be drafted, but do they roll the dice? Because you have to determine by the second week in January.
“If you're a graduate, can you get into graduate school if you want to come back? Or do you have to be a grad transfer and go somewhere else? If you're not playing a lot, do you want to transfer? And all those things now are issues that weren't issues before. We've got 120 lockers in our locker room. Next year, we could have up to 97 guys on scholarship, and then what do you do? I don't have places to put them. So, there are a lot of different things that we're having to look at we've never had to look at before.
“The most concerning thing to me, it won't affect this year's recruiting class. We had a lot of parents say, ‘Are you still going to be able to recruit my son even though you have some seniors that may come back?’ And the answer is yes, you still get your initials this year that you had. The big question will be, and not just your seniors, your seniors will be gone next year if they come back. The big question will be all of the other guys that did not count this year and their eligibility means that we could have like 52 freshmen on our team next year.
“And then that really affects the amount of numbers that you may have available for the 2022 class. That's where it's really going to affect recruiting in my standpoint. Billy High and I have talked hours about the effects of recruiting in two years. Not this year, but two years. Because, if everybody stays and the seniors that may not have an easy time finding a job right now if they're not in the NFL. If they want to stay, then you go. But if you go back to 85 in two years, that 2022 class could be a really small class. It’s a concern all of us are having to look at.”
*Jacob Turner contributed to this piece.