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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media following practice Wednesday morning to mainly discuss the transfer portal and Notre Dame, which is where the Tar Heels play Saturday night.
Carolina and the Fighting Irish kick off at 7:30 PM and the game will air on NBC. Brown hit on the strengths of the Irish on both sides of the ball, their tradition, the opportunity for his kids to play a game there, as well as conversations with the team about when players enter the portal, the process in those discussions before kids enter the portal, and much more.
Above is the full video of Brown’s Q&A session and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what Brown had to say:
*Brown said practice has gone really well this week and appears confident his team can play well against the Irish. Brown said when going well they have been really good, so perhaps that team shows up Saturday night.
“We’re doing some great things, and when we’ve put it all together, we’ve been a really good football team, we’ve just been really inconsistent,” Brown said.
*Brown brought up the transfer portal in his opening remarks, hitting on various prongs stemming from kids leaving in the middle of the season. He reiterated he isn’t a fan of players having such an easy out, thus they can up and leave a team during the season, but he also understands it and recognizes there are positives to it for the players and the teams. From the program perspective, it helps with roster management, which has become extremely challenging over the last year-plus.
“You start looking at your team in the spring; we’ll have nine early enrollees as it stands right now,” Brown said. “You start looking at the guys that you feel like will either go to the NFL or graduate. Some can’t come back. So, with the transfer portal, you’re constantly looking at your roster management, that changes (to) where you look at it every day.
“And I think what we’re going to see is if a young guy is not getting enough touches or if he’s not getting enough plays, if he doesn’t see hope for the future – even the guys watch recruiting and see who you’re bringing in and they may get more playing time than they are because of all the hype – you’re gonna have more guys transfer than ever.
“And the coaches that handle the transfer portal are going to be the ones that do the best job in coaching. We’ve got to look at the possibility of transfers coming in as more guys leave. I’ve told the coaches it’s not like somebody quitting, it’s the NCAA’s given guys opportunities to go get something in their mind that’s without having a lot of patience, they don’t wait anymore.
“So, I think you’re gonna see a lot of guys transferring every year that aren’t playing as much, and they’re gonna transfer for playing time, and that’s fair. And that’s what we’ve asked our guys to do is just let us know, ‘as soon as you can if you’re not going to be here.’ Because number one, you don’t want a guy on the plane going to Notre Dame that’s not committed to your team. And number two, you don’t want a guy to stay and get hurt if that could hurt his possibility of transferring somewhere else.
“And number (three), it lets us start looking at how many spots do we have and who can fill that position moving forward.”
*Three UNC players entered the portal as a result of bye-week conversations, but how does Brown and his staff handle it when a kid walks in and expresses concern about playing time and that leaving is on their mind? Do they try to re-recruit them or simply let them go, so as not to be a possible distraction?
“Freshmen haven’t been here long enough to figure out where their place is going to be, they need to stay at least a couple of years and figure out where it fits,” Brown said. “Guys love this school, they love our program, they’re not gonna just leave, they’re gonna leave because they want more playing time.
“But it’s really important for us to be honest with them and tell them the truth. Because if you do re-recruit them and it’s not factual, they’re gonna see that and quit later. And if they’re gonna leave, they’re better off and we’re better off if they leave now…
“Every parent loves their child, and every parent thinks their player’s gonna be in the NFL. That’s their son or their grandson, and I got that. And when they don’t get to play, when we recruit them, they think they’re going to play, then they’re disappointed. It’s our responsibility – I know it’s our responsibility – when we sit and talk to them one-on-one and you ask me specifically, ‘Am I going to be the featured player at this position?’ If he is not and has no chance to be, it’s really important for us to say, ‘No, you’re not.
‘“If you stay here, you’re going to be special teams and you’re going to back up. That’s what we see. Now you may not agree, and I understand that. Your parents don’t agree. I understand that. But that’s where we see you right now. Could you possibly change that role? Yes, but we don’t see it happening.’
“I think that’s much better than telling somebody, ‘Hang in there, it may work for you,’ if we as a staff know it’s not. And that’s going to be the hard thing moving forward. Coaches are in a different position than we’ve ever been.”
*And when three kids leave in a week’s time, how does Brown address that with the rest of the club, especially since there might be concern that many departures in a short period of time could trigger doubt in some other players still on the roster?
“We told every player, ‘We’re going to sit down and your assistant coach is going to be very direct and honest with you,” Brown said. “And what happens after that is then some guys don’t like exactly what they hear. We could wait and try to recruit them to the end of the year and then tell them, I think that’s what open date was for.
“We tell the team every time someone goes into the portal, we announce it to them on teamworks before it’s announced publicly, and then we address the team with every player that is deciding to leave. It is what it is, there is no concern on my part because the three that left are all good kids that are in good academic standing that wanted something more than we could give them. And that’s fair.
“There weren’t bad meetings, they weren’t angry, we weren’t mad at them, they weren’t mad at us. It’s just, ‘Coach, I’d like to have more playing time.’”
*Notre Dame football and New York Yankees baseball are about as historic as American sports entities go, and interestingly the Tar Heels played the Irish at Yankee Stadium in 1949, but this weekend the game will be at Notre Dame Stadium in front of Touchdown Jesus and the site where some of college football’s greatest teams, players, and coaches became legendary.
The task for UNC isn’t just facing the No. 11 team in the nation on its homefield, but also where the game is being played and that it’s on national network TV (NBC) in primetime. This isn’t just any old game, and having the players in the proper mindset is crucial heading into this challenge.
“The kids are excited about going up there, like people would be,” Brown said. “It’s a tremendous place to play. I’ve never coached a game there. I’ve been there, I’ve seen the stadium, but a lot of these kids haven’t. So it’ll be a fun trip for them, an exciting trip for them, and a hard task to make sure you do everything possible to win the game…
“I love the experience for the kids. That’s the thing. They look at all these national programs and they grew up seeing games in these stadiums, and it’s fun for them to play in them. It’ll be a packed house, it’ll be loud, it’ll be fun, and this is an experience that they’ll remember for a long time.”
*Notre Dame has not won a national championship since 1988, which is a decade before more current Tar Heels were born. The Irish have been very good, but does Brown sense his players view going up there the way some older fans and media might, those who have seen Notre Dame win titles and produce Heisman Trophy winners?
“Notre Dame’s a program that graduates players, and they recruit really well, and at the same time, they’ve been a perennial top-10 program,” Brown said. “They haven’t done as well in the playoff, but they’ve gotten there, and that’s the top four teams. So you’ve got to give them a lot of credit.
“I stayed here 10 years and I stayed at Texas 16, (and) it’s hard to stay at these places a long time and (Notre Dame Coach) Brian’s (Kelly) been able to do that. And to do that, you’ve got to win and you’ve got to be able to handle the stuff. You all get tired of hearing me and I get tired of hearing you and that’s what happens with these people; the fans get tired of your same stuff…
“And Brian’s been able to handle it. He’s handled a great program that is a very difficult place to coach but a fun place to coach, and that’s what happens in these historic programs.
“But our kids played them last year hard, they know what we’re up against on Saturday, and I think they’re really looking forward to that.”
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