UNC Football Notebook

CHARLOTTE – With so much newness around North Carolina’s football program these days, there were plenty of story lines from the ACC Kickoff last week.

Mack Brown, in his second stint as UNC’s coach, Myles Dorn and Charlie Heck represented the Tar Heels last Thursday afternoon fielding questions about myriad topics, among them a few things we’re hitting on his this notebook:

The Larry Fedora era may be over, but the issue of the Tar Heels not being able to win close games in the fourth quarter a year ago lingers. UNC finished 2-9 overall and 1-7 in conference play but was usually in position to win games heading into the final period.

Heck, who started 11 games at right tackle last fall, said Brown has tried to change the mindset of everyone in the program, especially with respect to doing everything, no matter how seemingly small or big.

“Something that Coach Brown has really emphasized right now is attention to detail,” Heck said. “That's extremely important. That can cost between going 2-9 and almost winning every game, it's just attention to detail.

“Something huge is eliminating penalties, turnovers. That's been huge throughout the spring and summer. Even throughout our workouts, everything is related to finishing in the fourth quarter and having attention to detail.”

When Brown first arrived at UNC in 1988, he took over a football program that had two losing seasons in its previous three years. Success wasn’t instant for Brown, however, as he finished just 1-10 in his first two campaigns in Chapel Hill.

Brown faced a tough rebuild process but eventually came out on top as he had seven consecutive winning seasons from 1990-1997 before leaving for Texas in November of 1997.

Despite the success in his first 10-year stint, Brown still feels like he has unfinished business left to take care of in his second go-round at UNC.

“When we left, we were fourth in the country I think. We had just won 10, then won 11. We were recruiting as well as anybody in the country. We were getting most of the guys we wanted out of the state of North Carolina, some out of Virginia, some out of South Carolina and Georgia. We were really on a roll.

“Because of a lot of different circumstances, Sally and I thought it was best for us to leave at that time,” he said. “But we did feel bad leaving a great team. I think there were 20, 22 guys off that defense drafted in '96 and ’97.

“We want to come back and get it back like it was. But even better, we'd love nothing more than to win a national championship here.”

Myles Dorn’s father, Torin Dorn, played running back under Brown in the Hall of Fame head coach’s first two seasons at UNC. During his career from 1986-89, Dorn ran for 1,071 yards in his first three years as a running back before starting every game at cornerback as a senior.

Now that Myles gets the chance to play for Brown, the senior safety has already had conversations with his father on the type of person his new head coach is. Dorn has also learned things his father didn’t mention about his former coach, including one aspect of his personality that really stands out.

“The first thing my dad said is he's a great coach,” Myles said. “That's held to be true. The one thing I didn't know is that he was honest. He's the most honest coach. That's one thing you don't see in most coaches nowadays, is just honesty.

“He'll tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear. That's what you want as a player.”

Charlotte has consistently been a hotbed for Division One college football talent. Since his return, Brown has made recruiting the home state a priority just as successfully as he did during his first time at UNC. Charlotte is bigger and far more fertile now than it was then. There are similarities, still, but a lot of differences, too.

It has always produced great players but, according the Brown, there’s even more talent there now.

“One of the biggest things I've noticed in difference from the time I was here before is the growth in Charlotte,” he said. “There's so many more players here than there were before. It's a very, very fertile recruiting ground that we've lost a lot of players to the last few years.

“It's important for us to play in Charlotte so we can get these young guys to come to our game because South Carolina can get them to come and we can get prospects to come to this game now. They've changed that rule for a neutral site. So it's not only the home team can bring kids; both can.”