CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina’s football program held its summer press conference on Wednesday at the Kenan Football Center in which every assistant coach and 13 players were made available to the media.

As we roll through each interview, here is what head coach Mack Brown had to say during his 13-minute Q&A session with the assembled media.

Above is the full video of Brown’s 12-minute Q&A session, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:

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*The Tar Heels’ first three games are versus an FCS team (Florida A&M) at home to open the campaign, as opposed to hosting one the week before Thanksgiving, then road games at a pair of G5 opponents, at Appalachian State and Georgia State. The latter two are dangerous games, especially the one in Boone.

Afterward, the Tar Heels have an open date before Notre Dame visits Sept. 24, which will be Carolina’s first home game versus a P5 opponent. But Brown and his program aren’t looking ahead to the Irish, there are bracketing the first trio of games and only focused on them right now.

Also, the FAMU game will carry added importance to Brown.

“We’re really just going to focus on the first three games and what we’ve got to do to win those games,” Brown said. “I’m really excited about Florida A&M at home and celebrating HBCUs. We’ve got coach Billy Hayes (former Wisnton-Salem St. HC) and coach Rod Broadway (former NC Central, NC A&T HC) coming in as our honorary captains.

“Florida A&M has coach Rudy Hubbard coming in for their honorary captain, and they may have some more as they go. We’re going to honor their band, we’re going to honor the black sororities and fraternities on our campus…

“Going to Boone, they’ve done as good as anybody in the country, and it’s really hard to play up there. And the same with Georgia State. They had their best team ever (last year), they beat Tennessee a couple of years ago, they ended up really, really strong… So, those will be three really tough games for us to open up with. And we’ll know who we are, because we’ve got a lot of question marks.”

*A year ago, Brown was concerned with what he was seeing and hearing within his program. The Heels were being celebrated by some in the national media as a possible CFP team, and were in just about every preseason top 10. But they ended up going 6-7, validating what Brown thought about his club.

This time around, UNC is getting very little press, but that doesn’t matter to Brown. How he feels about the team in so many intangible areas have changed for the better, and that’s his focus.

“Everything I didn’t like about last year, so far I like about this year,” he said. “I did not feel good, standing here last year, about where we were headed. And the expectations were sky high, the standard was set, but I didn’t think our team and our staff were doing the things that we needed to do. And for some reason, I didn’t do a good job and didn’t get it changed.

“So, we’ve had the best spring I think we’ve ever had, I know since we’ve been here. The guys are hungry, they’re eager, they’re working so hard, and the leadership is better. We’re doing a better job teaching leadership, and guys are stepping up.

“The changes on the staff are all really cohesive as a group. They’re having a lot of fun together… We’ve probably got more cohesiveness on the staff than we’ve ever had.”

*UNC has elevated recruiting significantly under Brown, and in spite of last season’s 6-7 record, the culture and standard within the walls of the Kenan Football Center are in good shape. So, what is next for Brown and his program?

“We’ve done everything right here except win enough games,” Brown said. “So, the next step is to continue to work to win every game. And when people say, ‘Why, why win every game?’ That’s what people want. That’s your goal. If you don’t try to win every game and have that goal and vision, then you can’t do it.

“What we’ve told our guys, ‘Your goals should be to be happy, your goals should be to get a degree from North Carolina, your goals should be to win every game, and to better prepare yourself for life after football. Your dream should be the NFL.’”