Mack Brown met with the media on Monday as he does every week ahead of UNC’s meeting with Georgia Tech this Saturday. It was on the heels of UNC’s entertaining 36-34 win over Wake Forest this past Saturday, a win Brown was very pleased with. It was on the road, a place he feels UNC must win, and they’ve gone 6-0 on the road this season for the first time in school history, another thing Brown is very pleased with. He still is confused with the way UNC cannot play a full game, “we played the best first quarter I’ve seen this season and then we kinda went to sleep for a while.” That has been an issue for the Heels all season long as teams have put together runs and stayed with the Heels even when it has looked like they were going to pull away.
UNC clinched a berth in the ACC title game, something Brown is really proud of for the guys on the team. He has been adamant that he doesn’t want to back into the Coastal Championship, he wants to win, and that’s what they did. He still knows that there is room for improvement as the heels are, “making entirely to many mistakes,”, especially on the defensive side of the ball. UNC gave up several big plays and they were often the result of missed tackles down the field. Brown wants more overall consistency from his squad for sure.
Talking about the offensive side of the ball he likes just about everything they did Saturday, but the fourth down conversions as UNC went 0-2 on 4th down throughout the game. He also said they need to get better in the red zone. Brown believes Drake Maye should at the very least get invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony based off of what he has done but also believes the Heisman is a team award and that they “must keep winning” for Maye to win the prestigious award.
Brown has talked about the maturity of this team and how much more mature they have been compared to last year's team. He has not been satisfied with the play of this team and neither have the players “I told them how can we give them the ball at the six-inch line and let them drive 90 yards and still win the game?” He feels the upcoming game against Georgia Tech could be an issue as there will be a lot of people looking ahead to the ACC title game as well as the upcoming rivalry matchup vs. NC State.
As mentioned before, UNC will return to Kenan Stadium to play Georgia Tech on Saturday in what could be a closer game than anticipated.