Head Football coach Mack Brown met with the media Monday following UNC’s 41-10 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday. The coach started with “winning is fun!” UNC honored Tylee Craft, who has cancer, during the game and the win was made just a little better for the players, who wanted to give the winning game ball to Tylee. After the win Tylee even took over Brown’s job of dancing in the locker room, which Brown said was fun and cool for him.
The offensive player of the game for the Heels, not surprisingly, was Drake Maye. The coach said he continued to impress himself and the other coaches with “everything he does.” Maye’s 22 touchdowns in the first 5 games are the most in UNC history and second all-time in the ACC. The scary thing for opponents is that both Brown and Maye know that he can still get better. “He was frustrated with a few throws he missed, and he didn’t start right in that first series.” He also wants Maye to continue to get better at protecting himself. Brown was not only impressed with Maye but also with Bryson Nesbit, who continues to play well and “find seams,” on the field. He is “absolutely amazed,” at the impact Antione Green has made since he came back as well as Josh Downs, who “amazes you every time he’s on the field.” Coach Brown also has said that DJ Jones is a guy who “continues to step up,” under the radar. He still believes that UNC can run the ball better, especially on the first down.
Defensively, the player of the game for the Heels was Deandre Boykins. According to Brown he was flying around and was “all over the field.” In terms of other major contributors, Brown said that the coaches could not agree on just one or two contributors, so they just decided to name the entire defense as key players on Saturday, “They played so hard.” UNC gave up the fewest yards since last year’s Georgia State game, giving up 273 yards, he mentioned this as well as the fact that UNC shut out VT in the second half of the game, “we showed we could be effective for a whole game.” This was something that he had been saying would have to happen in recent press conferences and UNC finally did just that on Saturday.
In terms of miscellaneous notes, Brown likes the fact that UNC only had 4 penalties, compared to VT’s 3. He applauded the officials, saying that they let the teams play and that it was a clean game. UNC outrushed the opposition, something that coach Brown has declared crucial to winning the game. He does not like how many third and longs the team is finding themselves in and links that issue to their ineffectiveness of running the ball on first downs.
UNC will play at Miami, who are coming off an embarrassing loss to Middle Tennessee, this past Saturday. Brown believes that Miami will be tough, as they have had the bye week to prepare for this explosive UNC offense and improve on their performance from the previous weeks. He said that the team that almost beat Texas A&M will be the team that they play with and not the team that got demolished by Middle Tennessee. This win was a much-needed confidence booster for our Tar Heels. Hopefully, their confidence will carry over into Saturday's game and they will produce another "W" for their supporters!
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