CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center for his weekly press conference to discuss what was learned from his team’s win over Florida A&M this past weekend and look ahead to Saturday’s game at Appalachian State.

The Tar Heels defeated Florida A&M, 56-24, at Kenan Stadium, so Brown spent the first part of his presser discussing that game, and fielded quite a few questions about it. He also discussed App State, his time there as head coach in 1983, why he left for the offensive coordinator job at Oklahoma, and much more.

UNC visits Boone, NC, to face the Mountaineers in Kidd Brewer Stadium for the first time ever for a noon kick Saturday.

Above is the video of Brown’s presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:

Note: UNC announced that junior WR Josh Downs and junior CB Tony Grimes will be evaluated throughout the week and UNC will let us know their status Saturday. Downs came up limping after his touchdown catch in the fourth quarter and was wearing a large ice pack on his knee for the postgame press conference. Grimes left the game with an injury on the second defensive series of the contest, and did not return.

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*The players of the FAMU game were RS freshman QB Drake Maye for offense, sophomore LB Power Echols for defense, and senior DB/ST captain Obi Egbuna for special teams.

“Those three guys played so well,” Brown said.

Brown also said that may have gone unnoticed “that really helped us win the game,” and they were:

-Offense was junior RB D.J. Jones. “He did so many things in protection to help us, and save us in a couple of instances where we couldn’t have sacks. I’m really proud of him (and) with the experience he brought with the young backs with the young backs around him.”

-Defense was sophomore DeAndre Boykins at star. “He played 68 plays. He made so many plays on defense. And when Tony got hurt, Storm (Duck) was going to play half the time at star, our nickel position, and he obviously couldn’t. So, DeAndre had to stay in there the whole game. He played a lot more than we planned on him playing.”

*Brown was quite pleased with no turnovers by the offense, no sacks allowed, no drops, 608 total yards with 314 coming on the ground. In addition, “We really only had three penalties with our blue team. There were a couple at the end, so we really were limited.”

*On the defensive side, he was very pleased with three sacks and two turnovers forced, so the Tar Heels were plus-three in the sack department and plus-two in the turnover department.

*A problem on defense was allowing FAMU QB Jeremy Moussa to complete 28 of 38 pass attempts for 279 yards and two touchdowns (plus an interception by Storm Duck). Brown explained what part of the problem was.

“They were getting the ball out of their hands so fast,” Carolina’s coach said. “We felt like we needed to do a better job of coverage and make him (Moussa) hold it a little bit longer, because he was getting it out there.

“We still got three sacks on him, but if we had done a better job in our coverage, with our linebackers – some of their drops, and with our secondary, and maybe hold it just a bit longer, our defensive line was there.”

*On the game as a whole, Brown was pleased. His team got a win, it did plenty of things right, quite a few young players gained valuable experience, and the stuff that didn’t go well is correctable and gave the staff an opportunity to show the players plenty of film they can learn from.

“I felt like overall, we did a really good job in the ballgame,” Brown said. “Lot of things to work on, lot of things that need to be fixed. We came out banged up, which you don’t like, but that’s part of football. You gotta get whoever’s ready to play and put them out there and let them go.”

*UNC’s three tight ends (Kamari Morales, John Copenhaver, Bryson Nesbit) combined to catch eight passes on 10 targets for 130 yards and two touchdowns versus FAMU. Brown said throughout fall camp that was the one position group on offense he knew well, wasn’t concerned about, and that they would be heavily involved in the plan. That is exactly what played out Saturday.

“We’re young at running back, we’re young at wide receiver, the tight ends are really the older group,” Brown said. “So, we felt like they’re talented, they’ve been around for a while. John Lilly does a great job with the tight ends, maybe as good as anybody in the country. And he brings his pro background into that group. So it’s really helped our offense.

“I liked what I saw Saturday night from our offense. I thought we spread the ball around, we had good balance with run-pass. We were around 300 yards each… And getting those tight ends involved, and because they’re so involved in the running game and play-action, it really helps them in the passing game and will help our offense.”

*Two-part question here for Brown: What was he pleasantly surprised about that his team did Saturday night that he wasn’t sure would be a strength, and on the flipside, what was a concern that maybe something he thought they were a little bit better during camp but weren’t versus FAMU?

“I was pleasantly surprised that Drake played as well as he did in the first game because that’s hard to do,” Brown said. “And he’s got some things he can fix, he would be the first to tell you that. But he made good decisions. He threw it to a lot of different people, so he can see the field. And his ability to run is something that people have not seen that we saw in practice.

“The long run on the quarterback draw showed everybody he can run. And we’ve got to get him to get down and get out of bounds. You gotta stay healthy…

“I thought both young backs were really anxious early in the game, but they played well, so they got better as the game went on. That’s something we wanted to see. We didn’t play (OG) Jonathan Adorno as much as we wanted to, so we’ll need to play him more in the rotation, because he played well when he got in there. But I thought the offensive line did a good job. 13:48

*Drake Maye generated a great deal of attention for himself with a big-time performance Saturday night. He was part of a national conversation on some shows Monday, and if he keeps playing well, he will get a lot more. So what is the message to a young man who recently was named the 12th best QB in the ACC but could soar up those rankings before October hits.

“Drake and the entire team are so inexperienced, so just be you,” Brown said the message to Maye was Sunday. “Let’s quit worrying about all the hype, and we will have that for Notre Dame, too. Just play. All you can do is be the best you can be…

“What you don’t want to do is get distracted by all the stuff around it and then not play well.”

So, nothing different for Maye than the rest of the team.

*UNC always practices the day after games so the players can get the tightness and soreness that occurs in games out, plus they put the game away after the team meal and move on. They don’t practice on Mondays unless it’s a short week with a Thursday or Friday game. Yesterday, the practice was a bit shorter than usual for a Sunday.

“We had about an hour practice yesterday because they were really sore,” Brown said. “You need to get all that soreness out and make them run, and you can see who is hurt in your mind and who is not.”

*Carolina heads to App State for the first time ever Saturday for a noon kickoff. App is reportedly bringing in 10,000 extra seats. Tickets for the game on online ticket sites makes this the second most expensive game in all of college football right now behind the Michigan-Ohio State game slated for two days after Thanksgiving.

Brown knows the reception the Tar Heels will get in Boone, and that this will be a significant challenge to his team, which went 0-5 on the road last season and lost its only neutral site game as well. So, every road task is a considerable one for North Carolina, but this one will be among the more challenging the Tar Heels have played in a while given the circumstances around it and that the Mountaineers are always really good.

“They’re really strong at home,” Brown said. “They’ve got the sixth best record at home since 2014. They’re 42-7. They regularly win nine, ten-plus games; that’s just who they are… They’re one of the best programs in the country. They play with confidence, they play tough, they run the ball, they stop the run.”

*UNC’s game Saturday will be the first time Brown has been at a game inside Kidd Brewer Stadium since the last one he coached.