Mack Brown post game conference.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Thank you.
00:02 Number one, I'm really happy for our team.
00:06 We lost this game at Virginia Tech last year.
00:09 We lost this game at Pittsburgh last year.
00:11 And the guys found a way to win it tonight.
00:13 And that's progress.
00:17 We were concerned about the three weeks off
00:20 and having a sloppy game.
00:21 And that's really what happened.
00:23 We had way too many-- entirely too many penalties
00:26 on offense that just killed drives.
00:31 We had an awful kicking game mistake.
00:34 And then defensively, we gave up too many passing yards.
00:39 On the good side, we did enough to win the game.
00:41 When it came down to the end, Trey Morrison
00:44 stepped up and made the play he had to.
00:45 I thought when we kicked the field goal,
00:48 it would be a two-score game.
00:50 And we were in good shape there.
00:52 But when we pulled that to the left,
00:53 it gave them an opportunity.
00:56 Give them credit, the quarterback
00:57 played really, really well.
00:58 The tight end's one of the best players I've ever seen.
01:01 And little four's a really good player.
01:03 And they've got some good backs in the offensive line.
01:05 Four out of their five returning starters
01:09 made some kind of award from last year.
01:11 So Boston College got a good team.
01:13 Their defense played well.
01:15 So it was what we thought it would be.
01:17 It was a very physical game on the road
01:20 that came down to the end.
01:22 And thank goodness our guys made the plays
01:24 they need to win at the end of the game.
01:27 Usually, when you outrush the opponent, especially
01:31 on the road, but mostly any time you win the game,
01:33 it's 176 to 40.
01:35 So what we've got to do is improve what
01:38 we're doing against the pass.
01:40 They did a good job protecting after early.
01:42 But even when we got to him at 6'5", 230,
01:46 he's so hard to tackle that he made play, and play,
01:49 and play again.
01:50 Or he got the ball out of his hands.
01:51 So quarterback's a really good player.
01:53 He's changed this team completely.
01:56 And they've got good players around him.
01:57 So credit to them.
01:59 They were 2-0 coming into this thing.
02:01 We're excited to be 2-0 and headed back to Chapel Hill.
02:06 Thanks, Coach.
02:08 For the group, we will use the raise your hand function.
02:11 Please say your name and your media affiliation
02:15 and go answer your question.
02:17 First up will be JB Ricks.
02:18 So JB, go ahead.
02:21 Hey, Coach.
02:21 JB Ricks here from Spectrum News 1.
02:23 Congratulations on the win.
02:26 I have a simple question of just how long
02:28 did it take for your team to adjust to the fact
02:30 that you guys had been out of action for three weeks?
02:34 Well, I'm still not sure we have, JB.
02:37 Maybe the last play of the game.
02:40 But I thought we scored too easily at first,
02:43 kind of like we did against Syracuse.
02:45 And it was so easy that--
02:49 but things were still going well until we
02:52 had the bad mistake in the kicking game
02:56 and gave them the ball at the six-yard line.
02:57 And after we got hit from behind, had the errant pass.
03:07 So when that happened and gave them a quick, easy touchdown,
03:09 I thought they gained confidence.
03:11 And the whole momentum of the game changed.
03:13 And then it was a real fight after that.
03:15 They weren't moving the ball.
03:17 We weren't giving up touchdowns.
03:19 We were in good position to put it away.
03:22 And then we just kept going and kept going.
03:25 And until Sam got hit from behind and through the pass
03:30 that they intercepted that we'll learn to back down,
03:33 that gave them a short field and changed the game.
03:37 Thanks, Coach.
03:39 Thanks, JB.
03:39 And the same thing kind of happened the second half.
03:41 We come out and drive right down the field
03:44 and then kick a field goal.
03:45 And we started kicking field goals
03:46 instead of getting touchdowns.
03:48 And that's not who we are.
03:49 So we've got to do a better job in those areas.
03:53 All right, let's go over to Andrew Jones.
03:55 Andrew, go ahead.
03:56 Andrew, I'm sorry.
04:02 I can't hear you.
04:03 All right, Andrew, we'll try to get back to you.
04:08 CL Brown, go ahead.
04:11 Yes, Coach, I was just curious with the penalties.
04:15 Is that part of what you were talking about going
04:21 into the season opener, you were expecting it
04:23 to be kind of this kind of game?
04:25 I mean, with the three weeks, is that basically a manifestation
04:29 of quote unquote "rust"?
04:33 Yeah, I think we had nine penalties
04:34 against Syracuse, which is entirely too many.
04:37 And then we had 10 tonight.
04:39 So it's kind of like we repeated the same mistakes
04:42 that we made in the opener, CL.
04:44 And the other thing, I looked up at one point
04:47 in the second quarter, I think, and we had one five-yard
04:49 penalty, and they had one five-yard penalty.
04:52 And then we both went crazy.
04:53 And they ended up with 12 in their third game,
04:57 and we ended up with 10.
04:58 So it was too many penalties in this game
05:02 to have a bunch of smart kids and good coaches out there
05:04 coaching them.
05:05 So we've got to clean that up for next week.
05:08 And Trey Morrison, his play, obviously,
05:12 the two-point conversion interception,
05:16 and he had the big hit on Long earlier in the game
05:19 that I kind of felt like made Long miss a second,
05:22 drop a second pass that they came back to him.
05:25 Can you just elaborate on him switching positions
05:29 and being that kind of veteran presence
05:31 and making the plays tonight?
05:32 Yes, CL.
05:34 Trey's such a winner.
05:36 He should have actually fallen down on that play,
05:39 so they couldn't strip it from him.
05:41 And then we take a knee in the games
05:42 over instead of having to have the onside kick.
05:45 But I wasn't going to go out there and tackle him
05:47 or ask him to stop as he was headed back.
05:50 And there wasn't anybody around him.
05:51 So Trey's a real heady player.
05:54 So he's that kind of player.
05:56 He's a winner.
05:57 And I really feel like the best thing this does for us tonight,
06:02 it puts us in a position on the road
06:05 against an undefeated team that was really physical to match
06:09 how physical they were and at the same time
06:11 be able to win late.
06:13 So it should give us a lot of confidence.
06:15 And we can coach them harder after you win
06:17 and have a better chance to improve
06:20 in a lot of areas next week.
06:23 Thanks, Coach.
06:24 Thank you.
06:25 OK, Greg Barnes, you're up.
06:27 Hey, Mike.
06:33 Curious your thoughts on how Sam played.
06:35 I know he made some big plays with his feet,
06:37 especially in the first half, and struggled a little bit
06:41 there in the second half.
06:42 Yeah, Greg, I was probably more impressed
06:45 with Sam making plays with his feet than ever before.
06:49 He did some of that in the bowl game.
06:53 But he made some huge plays tonight with his feet.
06:56 And that's really going to help us.
06:58 They changed up coverage a lot.
07:00 They did a good job.
07:01 So we held the ball some, I thought.
07:03 We didn't protect him well all the time.
07:06 They brought an extra player some that you have to go hot.
07:08 We didn't get the ball out of our hands quick enough.
07:11 And it's really, really hard to judge a quarterback
07:15 right after the game until you see what routes the receivers
07:19 ran, what about the protection.
07:20 So we'll know a whole lot more about that on Monday
07:23 after we study the video.
07:25 We'll actually have the video on the plane as we're going home.
07:29 So our coaches will grade the video tonight.
07:31 I won't call you at midnight and tell you what we saw.
07:34 But we can do that on Monday.
07:37 All right, and you mentioned the coverage.
07:40 So I know you have to look at the film.
07:42 The second game in a row, the opponent's done a good job
07:45 taking away the deep ball.
07:47 Is that a concern?
07:49 It's not a concern.
07:50 But it's something that we have to adjust to.
07:53 Because right now, we don't have enough patience.
07:56 Our guys think we're going to blow everybody out.
07:59 We're not.
07:59 We've got a lot of work to do.
08:01 So they get frustrated.
08:03 And they're totally impatient.
08:06 And I've told our coaches the same thing.
08:08 We've got to go back.
08:10 And if people are going to go--
08:11 they're going to back up to cover us,
08:13 we've got really fast receivers.
08:16 We've got to throw the ball to the receivers underneath,
08:19 make them come up, and then get double moves to get deep.
08:21 But we can't just run by them.
08:23 We had two or three--
08:25 one today I thought we could have caught,
08:27 another one that was thrown over his head.
08:29 And so there's so many things that we can
08:32 do better than we did tonight.
08:34 And the good thing is we played far from our best game and won.
08:40 Thanks, Mac.
08:41 Thank you, Greg.
08:43 OK, Pete Thamel, go ahead.
08:46 Thanks.
08:47 Hey, Mac, up here in the press box in Boston.
08:51 Curious, especially, you mentioned a lack of patience.
08:54 Do you think that got into the play
08:56 calling a little bit tonight, Mac?
08:57 I mean, you're on the 30, first and 10.
09:00 You pass the ball twice, and then you get two penalties.
09:02 You backed up, and you kind of have
09:03 to squeeze your way back in the long field goal range.
09:06 And I thought you guys really did a great job running
09:08 the ball when you did tonight.
09:10 Again, you've got to sit back and digest the game.
09:12 But did you feel like maybe you weren't quite patient enough
09:15 in your play calling tonight, and that might have undercut
09:17 some of your progress?
09:18 Pete, when you-- again, you can't make that analogy
09:23 from my standpoint right after the game
09:25 until I go back over it and look at it.
09:26 And if we'd hit one of those passes like we did last year,
09:30 and I go tell Coach Longo, why the heck did you throw it?
09:33 And he said, well, it was a touchdown.
09:36 Then we wouldn't have questioned it.
09:38 But when you're throwing it, and you're not completing them,
09:41 and you're running the ball well,
09:43 sure, it's something you have to look at each week.
09:46 Thank you.
09:47 Thank you.
09:49 OK, last one for Coach from Chapel Fowler.
09:51 Chapel, go ahead.
09:53 Hey, Coach, based on my very poor two-second research,
09:56 that pick two by Trey was the first in school history.
10:00 Just from a historical perspective in your career,
10:02 have you ever seen anything like that?
10:04 I saw it once against Texas A&M when we were at Texas.
10:10 We intercepted a ball, Lee Jackson, on a two-point play,
10:15 and ran it back for two points.
10:18 And that was the first time I think I'd ever even seen
10:21 that rule called during a ball game.
10:24 So I think that's the second time I've ever seen that.
10:28 I like both of them.
10:30 I thought they were really, really good.
10:32 And in closing, Mark, if that's the last one, let me say this.
10:37 We have made a tremendous amount of progress
10:40 when we won two games two years ago.
10:43 We won seven games last year.
10:46 And we can go home a little disappointed in some things
10:48 that we need to improve.
10:50 So man, we are in a better place than we have been.
10:56 So I like having things we need to fix and winning.
11:00 And one of the things I said when I came back,
11:03 I was always disappointed at Texas if we didn't play well
11:06 and we won.
11:08 And I said, I am not going to be that way at Carolina.
11:11 I'm going to enjoy this one.
11:13 I'm going to appreciate winning.
11:15 And then we'll start being hard on those kids
11:18 tomorrow for next week so we can get ready for a really
11:21 good Virginia Tech team.
11:22 But I'm proud of the kids.
11:24 I'm proud of the coaches.
11:25 I'm proud of the way they fought.
11:27 This is about winning.
11:29 It's not about anything else.
11:31 It's about winning.
11:32 And our objective was to be 2-0 coming on this trip.
11:36 We are 2-0.
11:37 I knew it was going to be a hard-fought game.
11:39 We had chances that we could have pulled away.
11:43 Give them credit, we didn't.
11:45 They've got good players, too.
11:46 So that's why we play these games.
11:50 It's not the best teams.
11:52 It's the team that plays the best that day.
11:54 And today, we were one play better than they were.
11:59 Great, Coach.
11:59 Thanks so much for your time.
12:00 Safe travels back.
12:01 Thank you.
12:02 Bye-bye.