Mack Brown heaps praise on North Carolina's defense following win vs. South Carolina

Not many outside of Chapel Hill expected the North Carolina defense to step up the way it did Saturday against South Carolina. The Tar Heels were the worst defense statistically in the ACC last season and ranked 128th in the entire FBS in total sacks, but you wouldn’t have guessed that from they way they performed against the Gamecocks.

UNC held South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler without a touchdown in a 31-17 win. They also came away with a total of nine sacks after recording just 17 for the entire 2022 season. Not only that, but they held the Gamecocks to -2 yards rushing for the game.

Speaking postgame on ESPN, Tar Heels coach Mack Brown beamed with pride as he talked about his defense.

“We challenged ’em to be tougher longer and that’s what they did,” he said. “…The defense stepped up and they played so hard tonight and so tough. I knew they’d be much better. We’ve still got some young corners to work on. Hopefully we’ll get our receivers back and that’ll help us some too. But really proud of this staff and these kids because this is a good SEC football team that beat Clemson, Tennessee and nearly beat Notre Dame in a bowl game. So this is a great start for us.”

Things remained neck-and-neck throughout the first half as North Carolina took a narrow 17-14 lead into the half. However, the defense really put the clamps on the Gamecocks in the third as the Tar Heels outscored them 14-0 to pull away for good.

North Carolina would go on to allow just a field goal in the fourth as the defense again helped the offense overcome two late interceptions from quarterback Drake Maye. South Carolina’s final three drives of the game all ended with a turnover on downs.

Much of the talk about the Tar Heels this offseason focused on their offense as Maye enters the year as a candidate to win the Heisman Trophy. However, the defense proved it deserves its fair share of respect too with this performance, and if they can keep it up, UNC will be a dangerous team in the ACC race.

“They’ve gotta keep stacking on better games,” Brown said. “We’ve got some things we’ve gotta fix. We’ve gotta go back and play next week like we did with the same energy as we did tonight, but better. And not start thinking we’re good. We’ve gotta be good. We’ve gotta keep getting better to get from good to great. We were good tonight. We need to be great.”

North Carolina next awaits a matchup against Appalachian State at 5:15 p.m. ET next Saturday in Chapel Hill.