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SAN DIEGO – Mack Brown was sick to his stomach when the final seconds ticked off the clock at the Duke’s Mayo Bowl last year in Charlotte.

An uninspired Tar Heels team was throttled by South Carolina, 38-21, in a game that was more lopsided than the final score.

It resulted in Brown parting ways with defensive coordinator Jay Bateman, and as Brown said, with his team finishing the campaign 6-7, it “took the shine off” the program.

So, he and the players went back to work.

More accountability by players. Better leadership. Some tweaks by Brown, and a greater emphasis on the collective culture within, were all high on Carolina’s offseason checklist of must-dos.

A year later, the Heels are in San Diego putting the finishing touches on preparation for their matchup with Oregon in the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday night, and that feeling from a year ago certainly isn’t lost on them.

“As a football coach, you are embarrassed if your team doesn't play well,” Brown said during a Holiday Bowl press conference Tuesday at Petco Park. “And I mean by that play as hard as they can. We're going to mess up some stuff. Kids are going to mess up some stuff. But if they give us 100% effort, I'm good. I'm good. That's all we can do.

“Last year we didn't do that. Not everybody tried hard during the game. I can't stand kids loafing. I can't stand kids not caring, and there was some of that. That's all my responsibility.”

Brown spoke of the ill taste the game put in his mouth during spring practice, again during his mid-summer presser, and again once fall camp commenced at the end of July. He’s a coach, and stuff like that is difficult to shake.

The same goes for the players, especially with the reminders they’ve been given over the last 12 months.

“I told the guys this week before we started out here, I said, ‘If you are not going to give us 100 percent during the game, do us a favor, do the fans a favor, do the Holiday Bowl a favor. Stay home. Stay home.’”

Brown continued recalling his message to the Tar Heels.

“I told the ones yesterday, ‘If you are carrying water to the starters, whatever you are doing on that sideline, if you are not going to do it 100 percent, don't go. Sit in the stands because it's not fair. It's not fair to your teammates. It's not fair to your coaches. It's not fair to your family. It's not fair to your fan base. It's not fair to Oregon to go out there and stand around.”

The Holiday Bowl wasn’t entirely on Carolina’s radar six weeks ago. It was 9-1 and was No. 13 in the College Football Playoff ranking. Then the bottom sort of fell out.

Offensive production went south, and the Heels started losing the close games they had regularly found ways to win through the first ten contests of the season.

Three consecutive losses, including a puzzling blowout loss to Clemson in the ACC championship game should be enough to grab the team’s attention. Losing to the 15th-ranked Ducks (9-3) in the Dan Diego Padres’ home ballpark Wednesday night would mean closing the season with four straight losses.

Even with the many positives rendered this season, it would stand to reason that the flavor in Brown’s mouth heading into fall camp 2023 would be even worse than coming off the lethargic bowl loss.

Or maybe not.

The 71-year-old Hall of Famer doesn’t need wins for his resume. He really has nothing to prove, but he does have a mantra in how a program is run and the lessons taught within. Four straight losses with acceptable effort is easier for a coach to absorb than what happened versus the Gamecocks last year.

“So, we didn't treat the Mayo Bowl fair last year,” he said. “I've been doing this a long time, and that's one of the worst feelings I've ever had in my life walking off that field thinking, you know what, we didn't show up.

“You can't say your team didn't show up because some did. Some of those guys play their tail off every game, but as a team we didn't show up. It made me want to throw up.”

The Tar Heels’ goal for Wednesday night: Keep their coach from wanting to vomit.