Brown Discusses Syracuse Film, Elements Of His Team & More
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown finally had a game film to evaluate Sunday, as his Tar Heels defeated Syracuse, 31-6, to open the season Saturday at Kenan Stadium. And the film didn't spring any surprises.
Brown was pleased with most of UNC’s performance but also noted many of the things the Tar Heels must improve moving forward.
Here are some notes and quotes from Brown’s weekly press conference from Monday morning. The full video is posted above:
*The four players who missed the Syracuse game will be evaluated during the week and a decision made by Saturday when the Tar Heels host Charlotte. The players are Desmond Evans, Josh Ezeudu, DeAndre Hollins and Ty Murray.
*UNC is on a four-game win streak for the first time since 2016 and is ranked No. 12 in the nation in the AP poll and No. 11 in the Coaches’ poll. The Tar Heels haven’t been this high in the rankings since 2015 when they were No. 8 going into the ACC championship game loss to Clemson.
It’s also the first time UNC has won consecutive openers versus Power 5 teams since 1996 and 1997, Brown’s last two seasons during his first stint at Carolina. The Heels had dropped 11 straight openers versus Power 5 teams since Brown left until defeating South Carolina a year ago.
And, it was the first time UNC has not given up a TD in an ACC game since a 19-6 win over Duke in 2009.
*Brown lamented about some of the criticism directed toward the Tar Heels' second-quarter performance. He noted the difference was just a few plays that went wrong, and otherwise it was nothing to be all that concerned about.
“We’re living with different expectations,” Brown said. “Going into last year, we were coming off two wins and nobody knew if we’d win any games or not. And here we are we win 31-6 and people are questioning quarters now. I remember that happening when we got really good here before. 'What happened in the second quarter, man?’ I thought they don’t count quarters, they count games.
“I’m proud of the guys. We got a little frustrated in the second quarter, but when you go back and study it, the offense only had the ball twice in the second quarter after Dazz (Newsome) fumbled a punt and Sam had a tipped ball that was intercepted.”
*The defensive player of the game determined by the staff was lineman Tomari Fox, who finished with three tackles, two of which were sacks, and was very active along the front, made the Syracuse QB move quite a few times, and was a clear presence out there.
“He was so disruptive up front,” Brown said.
The running back tandem of Michael Carter and Javonte Williams were the offensive players of the game. Carter ran the ball seven times but for 78 yards with a long of 45 that helped set up a Carolina touchdown. He also caught six passes for 60 yards with a long of 23. Williams ran for 60 yards on 14 carries and scored three touchdowns, all in the fourth quarter.
“They're as good as anybody,” Brown said. “Those two guys are special. And they block, they catch. They're very unselfish. They kind of substitute themselves and we're very proud of them.”
And the special teams player of the game was Dazz Newsome, even though he dropped a punt early in the game, he responded with a big return later.
“And that was obvious with his punt returns and what he's showing for the future,” Brown said.
*Grayson Atkins was 1-for-2 kicking field goals in his UNC debut. The miss was from 50 yards out, and while Carolina will often go for it on fourth down in that situation – fourth-and-7 at the Syracuse 33-yard-line – Brown explained why he chose not to that time.
“I wanted to see him kick it,” Brown said. “And it was into a light breeze and he had plenty of leg, he just pulled it a little bit and hit the cross bar. So one our of two, he made the 31-yarder and had a chance at the 50.”
*Sam Howell threw two interceptions Saturday. Brown said one of the passes was a mistake by the sophomore QB.
“One was just a bad decision to throw deep and the other was a tipped ball,” Brown said. “And as our team has a really high expectation, Sam does, too. People expect him to complete every pass every minute and he is a human being. And we didn't go through spring practice and, and obviously the preseason was disrupted so I was proud of the way the guys handled everything offensively as well.”
*The Tar Heels scored just 13 rushing touchdowns last season, so a point of emphasis in the offseason was scoring TDs in the red zone while getting better running the ball in those situations. Not only were the Heels 5-for-5 in the red zone Saturday, four of the scores were touchdowns with three coming on the ground. That was a huge positive.
“It was really important,” Brown said. “It’s something that coach (Phil) Longo and the offensive staff has worked so hard on. It was one of our number one emphasis going into spring practice and we missed that. And then we didn't get a lot of summer work obviously with the pandemic.
“So that's something that our coaches have worked on every day and practices is short yardage and goal line we were 5-for-13 on third downs, so we still need to improve there. But we felt like that you get the ball down around the goal line and we've got to be more physical at times than we were last year, so four touchdowns out of five trips to the redzone was really, really important for us.”
*In last season’s opener, the Tar Heels were flagged for 10 penalties for 90 yards in a win over South Carolina, and on Saturday versus the Orange, the Heels were flagged nine times for 91 yards. Is Brown concerned?
“We've had officials at ever practice and we've had very few penalties the last 10 days,” Brown said. “So, I was surprised and disappointed a lot of the penalties were in the kicking game and you aren't doing that as live as just like the kickoff coverage and kickoff returns; our kickoff returns, we had two guys just get run over that were young guys and they've been working against the scout team and, and I mean they get run over. And they came over the sideline and said, ‘Okay, I got it. This is full speed I got it's not scouts anymore.’
“So, I think some of those penalties probably were because it's the first time you are going live against really good players. And Syracuse has very good special teams, and they're well coached and we knew that coming in.
“Secondly, I thought some of the penalties we’ll turn into to the conference office because you've got to look at them and they're very questionable and we're all human players are human, but the officials are human, too. And sometimes they miss some and when they do, all we can do is send it to the conference office and ask them to evaluate it. And the hardest ones are holding and pass interference. Those are those are always the toughest ones early in the year to figure out exactly
what you saw and, and making sure you call it right.
“But it's an emphasis we have every day, but it gives us a chance to go back and emphasize it. I think the first two games last year we had 10 in the opener… I remember that and, and hopefully we can clean up some of that this weekend.”
*Now that the players have been through the very bizarre experience of playing a game with no pre-kick pageantry, traditions, buzz or with fans in the stands, Brown believes it will be a lot easier the next time. So, with Charlotte visiting this Saturday and no fans allowed in the stadium again, the players will know what to expect.
“I asked our guys, Sunday, yesterday, ‘When did you think we were going to play?’ And it was really interesting, some of them didn't think we were gonna play until last Sunday and some thought maybe 10 days ago," Brown said. "So by and large, these guys in their mind they were practicing, they were trying, but they weren't prepared to play a game 10 days ago or maybe even a week ago.
And then they look up and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I think we're actually gonna play. Man, we better get ready to go.’
“So after watching the NFL, as strange as it was last night and yesterday some for no fans, I think it will help all the teams in their second week a lot more than the first week just because we'll be more prepared for no pageantry and no band and no cheerleaders and no students and no Bell Tower walk, everything is so different, that it'll be more normal this week. And I think because of that, everybody will have a chance to play better.”