Mack Brown: 'App State cannot respect our defense'

North Carolina and Appalachian State played an insanely high-scoring game last year. It ended up as a wild 63-61 win, but near upset, for UNC in Boone. As we head into the rematch this weekend, though, Mack Brown knows that that outing did no favors for the reputation of the Tar Heel defense in the eyes of the Mountaineers.

Brown spoke about his defense during a press conference on Monday after a positive first showing against South Carolina in their opener. He said they must now go get their respect from App State because, based off last year, they likely have no reason to respect UNC on that side of the football.

“One of the big words we had last week, and it’ll be this week as well because of the embarrassment we had last year, is respect. If you don’t have respect in your life? You don’t have very much,” said Brown. “You have got to have respect. South Carolina could not have respected us after the game two years ago. And App State cannot respect our defense coming in this weekend.”

Again, last year’s game got insane. North Carolina gave up their most points of the season by far, which is saying something. The two teams also combined for over 1,200 yards of offense and 17 total touchdowns in what was a near fourth-quarter comeback for the ages for the Mountaineers.

After being downright bad at times on that end in 2022, UNC had a strong start against the Gamecocks as they posted nine sacks this past weekend in Charlotte. Now, with that positive start sending them into this matchup, Brown wants to see his team, specifically his defense, go and take their respect back against Appalachian State on Saturday afternoon.

“It’ll be a fun challenge for us to see if we can change that narrative,” Brown said.

Brown evaluates Drake Maye’s play in Week 1 win

North Carolina QB Drake Maye lived up to his Heisman Trophy and NFL prospect hype this weekend helping lead the Tar Heels to a dominant 31-17 victory over South Carolina to start off the college football season.

Following the game, Mack Brown evaluated the performance of his star quarterback.

“I thought Drake played great. He probably will have to look at it. He had a lot of pressure and he probably forced two balls,” Brown said.

“But you know what? He made a throw to John Copenhaver for a touchdown that he was on his back. He made another throw to Bryson Nesbit with somebody hitting him right in the chest when he threw it,” Brown said. “If you’re gonna make those throws and you say no no no, great job Drake. Then you can’t say that when he gets one intercepted.”

Maye made numerous highlight reel-worthy, NFL-level throws in Saturday’s game that were dazzling. According to Brown, though, his young quarterback will likely harp on the mistakes he made over the highlights.

“I thought he played great. He’ll be so hard on himself because all he’ll think about is the two interceptions. He won’t think about all the other things he did. But I thought, for three quarters, he handled the game as good as anybody could ever handle it,” Brown concluded.