Mack Brown on ACC Coastal race scenarios: 'None of it matters'

North Carolina is 7-1 on the season, ranked No. 17 in the first College Football Playoff rankings and seemingly headed for a date with Clemson in the ACC title game. Of course, the Tar Heels still have an ACC Coastal race to wrap up.

Currently at 4-0 in league play, the Tar Heels have a two-game lead on both Duke and Miami in the division standings with four games to play.

Miss coach Mack Brown with any talk about that right now, though.

“Proud of the guys that they’re rated and they’re going up in the polls each week,” Brown said Monday. “I did ask them yesterday, I said, ‘Ten years from now, people aren’t going to ask you where you were rated after Game 8. They’re going to ask you where you were rated at the end of the year.’ But nobody cares. So good for you, but forget it and move on.”

His point: Doesn’t mean much if you let it slip.

Given the way his defense has played at times this season, that’s probably a smart approach, though North Carolina has been better the last few weeks. And any time you have a gunslinger like quarterback Drake Maye, you’ve got a chance to make a deep postseason run.

But again… be careful about bringing any of that up around the North Carolina head coach.

“You start talking about the scenarios in the Coastal,” Brown said. “None of that matters. You’ve got to be good enough to win. If you win it takes care of itself, if you don’t it takes care of itself as well. So if you’re good enough to win the Coastal, good for ya, go prove it, don’t talk about it. We don’t need scenarios, we need to win.”

ACC Coastal race scenarios unimportant to Mack Brown

The thrust of Brown’s message to his team is the preparation can’t slip just because North Carolina has won four straight and is starting to get some more recognition on the national stage.

Though Clemson doesn’t look invincible on the other side of the league by any means, North Carolina has to continue to take things one step at a time.

If the 2022 season has taught the Tar Heels anything so far, it’s that anyone can win on any given Saturday. They’ve watched as top-ranked teams have tumbled in front of them.

They’ve also scraped by against the likes of Appalachian State, Georgia State, Miami and Duke.

There’s plenty of work to be done still.

“And if you’re not good enough to win the Coastal then you don’t deserve it and you shouldn’t be in the conference championship anyway,” Brown said. “You don’t want to back into the conference championship, you want to be good enough to earn the right and have the chance to go play and win.”

To that end, North Carolina will look to put together a more complete game against Virginia on the road this weekend. The two teams will kick off Saturday at noon ET on the ACC Network.