CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday for his weekly press conference as the No. 20 Tar Heels prepare to face Minnesota on Saturday at Kenan Stadium.

Brown went back over the 40-34 double-overtime win over Appalachian State, discussed his team’s passing numbers, getting receivers involved, the ground game, positives about the defense and areas of concern, and about the Golden Gophers.

UNC (2-0) and the Golden Gophers will kick off at 3:30 and the game will air on ESPN.

Above is video of Brown’s presser and below are some notes from what he said:

*Injury report: UNC expects Ed Montilus and British Brooks to practice this week and be available for the game Saturday.

*Players of the Game:

-Omarion Hampton on offense

-Des Evans on defense: “He’s playing with a lot of confidence.”

-Ben Kiernan on special teams

*Brown noted, “We’re 2-0 for the fourth time in five years.” The only season in Brown part two in which the Tar Heels lost one of their first two games was in 2021 when they fell at Virginia Tech in the opener.

*Brown was pleased with the win over App State but not over his team’s overall performance. “We made twice as many mistakes in the game Saturday night as we did against South Carolina.” He said the staff is coaching the team on Sundays as if they lost to day before regardless of the outcome.

*Some good things on offense:

-“I thought Drake did an unbelievable job in one-minute drill at the end… It was a thing of beauty.”

-8-for-13 on third downs: Mack says running the ball better on first down has helped third-down conversions because they are more manageable.

-Hampton’s 234 yards rushing were huge and put him in a spot where he has a chance to be the guy. Brooks is back this week, and he will have to work to get his role back.

*As for the highly criticized wildcat (“Ram Package), Brown said Saturday night he called OC Chip Lindsey after the second fail to not run it again. Today, he said it didn’t work because the tight ends didn’t handle their blocks, so they are looking at why and will evaluate the wildcat more moving forward.

*Brown doesn’t think Tez Walker getting starter’s reps in practice has hurt the other guys that have played in games. They have all gotten starter’s reps, so there is no issue about him taking away work from some guys, as some people have wondered.

*Speaking of Walker, Brown and WR Coach Lonnie Galloway told him about the NCAA decision last Thursday, and Brown says Walker was crushed. He actually went home that afternoon, but was back for the game.

“We felt like he needed to be picked up,” which is why they made him the team captain for the game.

*As for the defensive side of the ball, Brown says they need to have tighter pass coverage. That was an issue versus App. It’s partly why there were no sacks, and also why App converted so many third downs. Perhaps UNC might employ more press in the near future.

*He also highlighted five key penalties on the defense, four of which came on third downs in which the Heels got stops, but the flags kept stalled drives alive.

*App State didn’t boot kickoffs into the end zone, instead often opting to kick the ball short, but UNC’s return men called for fair catches instead of trying to return the ball. But Brown wanted them to try and run the ball there instead of going into safe mode.

“We could have gotten better field position.”

*Regarding Minnesota, Brown said: “They’re huge” and Gophers Coach PJ Fleck “does a great job” and “it’s going to be a really good challenge for our offense against their defense.”

Minnesota held Eastern Michigan to no first downs in the second half Saturday night

Minnesota will keep the ball, has run 140 plays to 98 in its two games