Mack Brown Interview (11-9-20)

Huge win for the Tar Heels Saturday afternoon. North Carolina 56, Duke 24. We're now being joined by the head coach of the Tar Heels, Mac Brown.

Before we get into this week's game against Wake Forest, you're going to be hosting Dave Claussen's group Saturday at Keenan. Where does the victory bell sit the other 364 days out of the year? I keep it right down in the locker room area, right outside of the locker room, so the players have to walk by it every day that they go into that locker room and come out of it on their way to practice because the victory bell is very, very important for both Duke and North Carolina. When their name is in our fight song and we play for something for 48 years, you know it's really, really important to your university, to your students, and to your fan base. So that's why that game's really important to win.

Former ECU head coach and NFL assistant Steve Logan's a good friend of mine, and in his own special way. I remember way back when, Coach, he told me, buddy, there are four levels of mentality for a football team. I hope to win, I want to win, I'm going to win, and I have a responsibility to win. And that's where the programs like Clemson and Alabama live after all the years of consistency they've had. From the outside, it looks like you guys are starting to become a program that expects to win, but how would you describe where your group is at as a program? Josh, I think we're a program that does expect to win, and our fan base is even getting that back and that's really important. If fans aren't mad after you lose, then you're not where you want to be as a program.

But I would think that we're not there yet, we're learning to win. For instance, we beat Virginia Tech and we beat them pretty badly, and then we don't play well the next week at Florida State, so we didn't take a win and move forward and let it help us make progress. And then we come back and we beat NC State by a good margin, but then we go to Virginia and we still fumble at the 30, we fumble at the 20, and we give them a 70-yard pass play, and we get beat by three points at the end of the game because we didn't stop the fake punt. And then we come back and do really well against Duke, so we've shown the ability to come back after difficult losses and respond well. Now what we've got to do is take a win like we had against Duke on Saturday and make sure that we play better this weekend against Wake Forest. And it's not about who you play, it's not about any of those teams we've played, it's about us. And we've got to build on a positive and not show some complacency.

We did that some last year and we're still doing it some this year. And the last thing is, we've got to learn to win those close games. We've been in two three-point games on the road where we had chances to win and we didn't finish. And the great teams finish.

Our best teams at Texas always won those close games, so we've got to start winning the close games as well. Yeah, and I'm interested, Coach, what do you view to be a more difficult task? Teach a good team what it takes to win in the first place or how to handle success so you could be consistent? Well, you've got to handle the first part before you can get to the second. So there's no question when we first got here, one of our seniors raised his hand and said, Coach, how do we win? We're working hard, we're trying hard.

And I thought, well, boy, that's a hard question. And then it takes time and you have to go through a process of learning how to win. And weirdly enough, part of that means keeping your locker room clean and cleaning up after you get off the bus and making sure that you have discipline in the classroom and with all the tutoring and the things that you need to do outside of your schoolwork. And when all of that starts happening, then you have to work really hard every day at practice. You can't have enough practice in a down practice. And then all of a sudden you look up and you're starting to play hard every week.

Mack Brown with us here, Tar Heel Head football coach. Pick up after yourself, huh? You sound like, man, that's a problem that I have folding up my laundry when I'm at home.

I hate, that's one of my biggest pet peeves that I have. Or maybe, you know, picking up after myself in the studio here. I don't know if I'd be a good player for you, Coach, is what I'm saying.

I don't know that you would either, Josh, from what we just said. I would think that you probably would not be playing for us if you can't clean up. So that's one thing that we have to discipline ourselves as coaches.

But you take weight for us. Dave's done a great job with a disciplined team. They lead the country in turnover ratio. They forced 15 turnovers.

They've lost the ball one time. They're second in the league in limiting penalties. And they're really good in red zone offense and defense. So they're doing the things that you need to do to win ball games.

And that's a credit to Dave. It's Mack Brown with us here, Tar Heel Head Football Coach on Sports Hub Drive, focusing on Wake Forest a little bit further. I've always said all great coaches know how to adapt style to personnel versus the other way around and try to force-feed personnel into what you want to do in a given year. And looking at what Coach Clawson's done so far, it's not at times this high-tempo offense throwing it all over the place. It's running the ball and winning with defense. And I think the Virginia Tech game best encapsuled that.

23-16, they won that game. Defense and running the ball. How much of a different scout has it been looking at Wake Forest this year versus what they were a year ago when you saw them?

It's very, very similar. What Dave has done is he's got a system that fits Wake Forest perfectly. And he knows his system inside out.

And he knows exactly how to win with it. They are not going to beat themselves. They're going to run the ball and take shots off RPOs. And Sam Hartman's a very accurate quarterback. He hasn't thrown an interception all year. They protect the football.

You're not going to get it away from them. They're very, very sound on defense. They've done an amazing job of evaluating players. They've got a lot of players that are very good players that maybe weren't as highly recruited as some others.

And they don't care because they develop them after they get there. So I've been really, really impressed with everything Dave's done in my year and a half at North Carolina. I love the way you put that, Dave Clossett. He's perfect for Wake Forest because it seems like in the ACC, you've got different types of institutions across the entire league, which I think warrant different types of coaches that you see there. When I look at the SEC, for example, I see a bunch of programs trying to recreate what Saban has built there, which is very difficult to do.

You have a lot of his former assistants, a lot of his descendants taking over there. And in the ACC, it doesn't really seem like there's a common trend between you and Dabo and Bronco, who is a really good fit in Virginia. And, of course, as we've talked about with Dave Clossett, and I'd even say David Cutcliffe thrown in that mix as well. Do you notice that from someone who's been in the media covering it and now in the league the last few years, how diverse a group of coaches the ACC has?

I do. And I even think you just mentioned it, but David Cutcliffe is the best coach to ever coach at Duke in my estimation. He's just done it for so long and done it so well, and he fits there perfectly. You look at what Dave Clossett's done, and Dave did it differently at Bowling Green.

He did it differently at Richmond. But he's going to find the perfect situation for the university that he's coaching for, and that's what he's done. But just look at Mike Norvell at Florida State and Jeff Haffley at Boston College. We hired two new coaches in the league this year, and I think they're young superstars.

They were guys that I had my eyes on when I was in the media just watching them and just amazed at how successful they were. So this league is just full of really, really talented coaches. Let's close on this. Mac Brown, North Carolina coach, with us getting set for Wake Forest this Saturday afternoon. We'll be at that game excited to see what that's going to bring. We saw Notre Dame Clemson on Saturday, and there's a chance we could get it again in the championship game. And since you're playing Wake Forest this weekend, in a conference game nonetheless, it begs the question, are you in favor of removing divisions and keeping the scheduling format the way it's been this year beyond 2020?

No. We had that in the Big 12. And that way, you ended up playing a repeat game with somebody in the championship game. And I like it better when you've got two divisions. You have to win your own division because that's really important and something that's special. And then the Coastal and the Atlantic would play for the conference championship.

It still could happen that you overlap and play the same team twice in the championship game, but it's unlikely to happen. And to me, that makes it much more exciting for all of us, and especially as this league's improving. Every team in this league right now is getting better. And that's really special for John Swafford in this league. I'm very impressed with the recruiting in this league and the way that teams are competing against each other.

You just said it. Wake Forest just beat Virginia and Virginia Tech in the last four weeks. Virginia beats us. So it's just NC State had beaten Wake earlier in the year.

So anybody can beat anybody in this league right now. You've got to be ready to play. And I think that's what makes it exciting. Coach, the time in the Triad's always appreciated. Best of luck against the Demon Deacons on Saturday.

And we'll be catching up, I'm sure, somewhere down the line. Thank you so much. There he goes. That's Mack Brown, North Carolina coach.

Kind enough to be here yet again. Doing kickoff time. Wake Forest, we just learned, they're going to have a noon kickoff against Duke as well.

So that's three straight noon kickoffs for Wake Forest. Media members love it. I think the coaches love it. I don't know if the players love it.

Fans certainly don't, but they're not really a lot of fans going to games right now and college football. So we'll continue to follow that game all throughout the week. Two big things to address on the way. I've got my grades for Panthers Chiefs to get to. And is Justin Fuente's job in jeopardy after Saturday's loss to Liberty? We'll get to both of those next on The Drive.