Mack Brown on win over South Carolina: 'Got some respect back'

The North Carolina Tar Heels exorcised several demons on Saturday with their victory over rival South Carolina to open the season. The Tar Heels took down their southern border rival 31-17 to start their 2023 season off 1-0.

That Week 1 victory exacted reveng for their loss to South Carolina in the Dukes Mayo Bowl in 2021. It also ended the Tar Heels’ four-game losing streak dating back to last season. And according to North Carolina head coach Mack Brown, the win on Saturday helped gain back some of the respect the program lost at the end of last season.

“Got some respect back that we lost the last four games of the season. Whether it was all fair or not, we lost a lot of respect,” said Brown. “But I thought we gained it back nationally on Saturday. It’s easy to gain back, hard to keep. So, you gotta make sure that you do it every week. That is the expectation that we have and the expectation that they have.”

North Carolina ended 2022 with losses to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl and Clemson in the ACC championship game. But before those two losses, the Tar Heels were stunned at home by NC State and Georgia Tech. Nevertheless, with Saturday’s win, those losses are behind Brown and the Tar Heels, and opponents, going forward, should respect what North Carolina brings to the field unless they want to end up worse off than South Carolina.

Brown talks respect and North Carolina’s Week 2 opponent, Appalachian State

The topic of respect came up in Brown’s thoughts on UNC’s next opponent, Appalachian State. The two North Carolina schools 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, 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.”