Mack Brown details difficult week for Malaki Hamrick

North Carolina coach Mack Brown detailed the difficult week for linebacker Malaki Hamrick, who went down with a non-contact injury during spring practice.

It was described as a lower body injury that required surgery. Hamrick was ruled out for the season after making some contributions as a freshman.

Brown discussed his young, but hungry playmaker and how the team will rally.

“Disappointed for Malaki Hamrick, that he got hurt, noncontact injury,” Brown said this week. “And this is a tough sport and we constantly talk to the guys about how you can’t control what happens to you … but you can handle how you respond to it. That’s part of life. All of us have difficult things that happen in our life and (we learn) how to respond to real negative things and he’s had a very difficult 10 days. It’s part of life and part of what football can do.

“All the other players will rally around him and help him and pick him up and make sure that we help him get back on track.”

Hamrick played 12 games last season but had minor stats: nine total tackles, five of them solo. But he was expected to step up this fall.

As a member of the Class of 2022, Hamrick was a four-star recruit out of Shelby (N.C.) High, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 5 overall prospect in the state, the No. 18 linebacker in the class and the No. 196 overall prospect in the class.

Mack Brown frustrated about NCAA coaching rules

Brown and North Carolina recently hired Clyde Christensen to be an offensive analyst. The longtime assistant was most recently Tom Brady’s quarterback coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, he won’t be able to directly coach the quarterbacks at North Carolina.

That’s due to the NCAA’s rules about how many coaches are allowed to directly coach players. As an analyst, Christensen can’t. This prompted Brown to complain about those rules.

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“We all think the NCAA should allow everybody to coach because it’s a rule that they can’t enforce, and it’s broken in most of the universities across the country,” Mack Brown said. “And, it’s frustrating for us because we’re doing it right.”