CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday for his weekly press conference at the Kenan Football Center in advance of the No. 13 Tar Heels’ home game Saturday versus Georgia Tech.
Brown discussed what was learned after watching film of the 36-34 victory at Wake Forest over the weekend, the team handling being ACC Coastal Division champions, the Drake Maye for Heisman effort UNC has started pushing, defensive struggles, program culture and so much more.
UNC is 9-1 overall and 6-0 in the ACC. It also finishes the season 6-0 in true road games for the first time in program history.
The Tar Heels host the Yellow Jackets on Saturday at 5:30 PM.
Above is video of Brown’s presser and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
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*UNC said right before the presser that senior WR Antoine Green will be evaluated during the week, and there is no chance in Ja’Qurious Conley’s status regarding his setback.
*Brown began his presser by offering prayers to the Charlottesville, VA, and University of Virginia community and, in particular, the families of the UVA football players killed Sunday night. One of Brown’s daughters is a professor at UVA, and he had been in communication with her earlier in the morning.
*The offensive MVP at Wake were Drake Maye (448 yards passing, three TDs, 71 yards rushing, one TD) and Josh Downs (11 catches for 154 yards and three TDs).
*The defensive MVP was Kaimon Rucker finished with five tackles, with one for a loss of yardage, and one that appeared to be a sack but wasn’t credited. He registered four hurries, and a forced fumble on a fourth-down stop when Wake had the ball inside UNC’s 10-yard-line in the final period looking to extend its lead.
*Special Teams MVP was John Copenhaver who played 20 plays on special teams and recorded a tackle.
*UNC is 6-0 on the road, but the wins have been by a combined 20 points. The Tar Heels have won their two ACC home games by 31 and 18 points, and Brown would have liked to see his team do something similar on the road at least once.
“We’ve won six straight games on the road, and for some reason we can’t play a full game,” he said. “We just can’t put our foot on the gas and put somebody away.”
*The defense gave up 490 yards to the Demon Deacons allowing too many explosive and chunk plays. It did shut out the Deacs in the fourth quarter, and showed some small signs of progress at times. But the struggles have been for too long a period n games.
“It’s about getting better each week as a team,” Brown said. “We’re doing that but we’re still making entirely too many mistakes.”
*Everyone on defense is to blame when giving up so many big plays, but one particular aspect has been a problem all season and continues.
“We give up entirely too many explosive plays.” He said missed tackles in the secondary is a major issue when those plays happen.
*Brown was not pleased with how UNC’s drive that led to a game-winning field goal played out.
UNC gained possession of the ball at the Deacons’ 48-yard-line with 4:20 remaining after Cam Kelly intercepted Wake QB Sam Hartman.
Drake Maye hooked up with Josh Downs for a catch-and-run for 43 yards to the Wake 5-yard-line. But Maye was sacked for a six-yard loss on the next play, a false start by J.J. Jones moved the ball back five more yards, and then Maye threw the ball away two times before Noah Burnette booted a 33-yard field goal for the game’s final points in the 36-34 victory.
But Brown doesn’t like how the possession played out.
“We’re first-and-goal at the 5 with a chance to put the game away, and we have to kick a field goal,” Brown said. “And that’s just not acceptable and not who we are.
“And the other time is six inches. I worried in the Pittsburgh game when we were one yard away and we throw a pass, and we hit Kobe Paysour, and he steps in and it was too easy. And I said that’ll cost us later, because there’s a certain toughness you’ve got to have in the red zone run game, and we couldn’t score from six inches on Saturday night.
“And that’s problematic and something we’ve got to address.”
More from Brown on that final field goal drive: “We really messed up the last drive… We didn’t do anything right to finish it. Thank goodness Noah Burnette stepped up.”
*Josh Downs caught 11 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns in the win at Wake, and in each of his last four games, the junior has passed the 100-yard mark, and combined he has 46 receptions for 548 yards and six touchdowns.
Downs also set ACC record for number of catches over a three-game stretch with 37 receptions.
“He broke the record of a Syracuse player that was many years ago,” Brown said.
*Carolina has been outstanding converting fourth downs this season, but was didn’t convert either attempt at Wake. One was at the Deacons’ 27-yard-line in the third quarter, the other was inside the Wake 1-yard-line.
How much of those decisions were driven by analytics or were they gut decisions by Brown?
“My gut, totally,” Brown said. “With Drake Maye and our offensive skill, we’re going to go for fourth-and-three, unless like the last one (field goal that won the game), it was stupid because the game dictated that you needed those points.”
In other words, field goals weren’t going to beat Wake, not when both teams scored more than 50 points apiece in each of the last two meetings versus each other.
“Absolutely,” Brown said.
