Mack Brown cites Tylee Craft's sickness for JJ Jones' early attitude on the field

North Carolina receiver JJ Jones was playing with a lot on his mind earlier this season as he watched his teammate and friend Tylee Craft battle cancer. Those feelings didn’t always come out in the best ways as Jones struggled early this season with receiving unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

Tar Heels coach Mack Brown explained in Monday’s press conference that Jones was closer than most on the team to Craft, given they worked in the same position group. But Craft had not played in a game since the 2022 season. Seeing his friend fight so hard and not be able to take the field took a toll on Jones.

“His best friend was Tylee Craft and he watched him getting sicker and sicker,” Brown said. “There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on these young people anyway. Then sometimes it’s not working on the field as well. Whether it was him getting balls or us winning games. Then a certain amount of frustration builds up and people show their frustration in different ways.”

Sadly, Craft passed away from cancer earlier this month after spending the past five seasons in Chapel Hill. Jones had a difficult time dealing with it, but his coaches let him know they were there to support him.

Receivers coach Lonnie Galloway sat down with Jones to talk things out.

“Lonnie Galloway is one of the best coaches and people I’ve ever been around,” Brown said. “He loves those kids so much and he was so invested in Tylee’s life and his health and sickness here at the end. Lonnie just sat down with him and said, ‘Come on now. This isn’t you.’ He’s wonderful. He’s a great person, it’s just frustration.

“When you work that hard and maybe you’re not being as productive as you dreamed in your last year and the team’s not winning, it puts a lot of pressure on these kids.”

Jones has found his stride as of late and finished with a season-high 129 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-14 victory against Virginia this past week. He has also managed to keep himself in check during game and avoid penalties.

The victory against the Cavaliers snapped a four-game losing streak for UNC and Brown hopes it will help them gain some momentum for the end of the season. He urged fans to continue to show up as players like Jones only have these games left and deserve the support.

“They’ve worked every day of their life to get to this point and he’s got four guaranteed games left,” the coach said. “Then there’s no guarantees after that. These kids want to win. I would challenge the fans the last four games (to) stick with ’em.

“They are trying so hard and the norm is to quit. The norm is to be pointing fingers and opt out. They’re playing hard. They’re practicing hard. They’re trying hard. But that’s total frustration and you learn from it and move forward.”

North Carolina next faces Florida State at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in Tallahassee.