CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media via zoom following practice Wednesday morning to discuss how the week preparing for Georgia Tech is going, offer some more thoughts about the Virginia football tragedy, and field questions.
The No. 13 Tar Heels (9-1, 6-0 ACC) host the Yellow Jackets (4-6, 3-4) on Saturday at 5:30 (ESPN2).
Above is the video of Brown’s Q&A session, and below are a few notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
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*Brown said the ACC is sending each team decals to wear on their helmets honoring UVA football and the three players killed Sunday night.
“It’s been a tough week and an eye-opening week for all of us when you lose young people like the tragedy at Virginia,” Brown said. “A lot of people have asked me, ‘What are we going to do? Do we do a tribute of some kind on Saturday to the team at Virginia and the young people that lost their lives.
“The ACC is sending out helmet decals for every team. All of us will wear a Virginia decal on the back of our helmets for those young people that we lost entirely too early.”
Brown said he broke down talking to his team about it Tuesday.
“When you think about it, what an awful thing for young people to leave us way too soon,” he said. “I’m older, I’ve had a great life. I’ve been married, I’ve got children, I’ve got grandchildren, I’ve had a wonderful career. If something happened to me, I got it. We’re good. I’ve had a great life.
“But young people shouldn’t be taken away from us.”
*This is Military Appreciation Week for the Tar Heels, as Brown laid out some of the things planned with his team:
“We’ve given the team an opportunity to pick anyone that is in the service, been in the service, or lost their lives in the service from that family to dedicate the game to them,” Brown said. “It’s really, really important that we thank all of our veterans, and really our current military. I spent 10 days in Iraq on the front lines and saw it firsthand.
“We’re over here getting ready for a football game, and they’re having missiles coming into their barracks and they’re being shot at and in combat and war every day. We should thank them every day. But this is an opportunity to publicly say ‘thank you’ to all of our service people.”
*The Georgia Tech game is not sold out yet, as the Yellow Jackets returned quite a few tickets. So, Brown says it’s “just about sold out” and wanted to get out the word to UNC fans that tickets are still available.
“You that don’t have a ticket, continue to call and work to get there, (and) let’s get everybody in that stadium as early as we can. Five-Thirty is kind of a unique time for a ballgame, but you students, c’mon, man, let’s get in there early and have that stadium rocking on Saturday.”
*Georgia Tech clobbered Carolina last season, 45-22, as the Yellow Jackets sacked Sam Howell eight times and forced three fumbles. Brown said that isn’t lost on the Tar Heels this week and has helped the team’s focus as they prep for Tech.
“It helps me make sure I’m focused on Saturday,” Brown said. “When you go back and you that they rushed for 263 yards and we rushed for 63, and they had eight sacks and forced three turnovers and we gained none, absolutely… They absolutely just lined up and whipped us, and did it without question.
“So, yes, it’s been brought up.”
