Mack Brown opens up on keeping players engaged amid struggles
If every season has crests and troughs, North Carolina is very clearly in a trough after the last two weeks. However, Mack Brown isn’t letting anyone in Chapel Hill abandon ship just yet with a month to go in the season.
Brown explained how he’s going to keep the Tar Heels bought into the year after their two-game skid. He said it’s all about presentation because, had their streaks been flipped, there’d be much happier people around their program than there are right now.
“6-2 is one of the best seasons that we’ve ever had around here at this point,” Brown noted. “If it’s like last year? It’s the way you present it.”
“Starting 6-0? Two losses is discouraging. If you’d started 0-2 and won six in a row? Everybody would be pumped. And a lot of people would swap with us right now,” explained Brown.
The Tar Heels were riding high through the midpoint of October as they sat at 6-0. They’d beaten five Power Five opponents in that time, all by double-digits, and reached as high as No. 10 in the AP Poll.
The last two outcomes have since happened. After being in the mix for an ACC Championship berth or, potentially, starting to have a shot at the College Football Playoff, North Carolina fell by four on their home field to a one-win Virginia squad. They then followed that up with a four-point loss to Georgia Tech in Atlanta where they gave up a season-high of 46 points to the Yellow Jackets.
Still, no matter how it’s currently playing out, Brown isn’t focused on the overall narrative of UNC’s season. He wants to leave that for when the year is done as he is hoping his players will refocus with a non-conference game with Campbell up next.
“I don’t get into ‘this is good’, ‘this is bad’, ‘this is an awful season’, ‘this is a great season’. You do that at the end of the year,” said Brown. “We’ve just got to keep playing.”
Brown addresses fans’ disappointment
After starting off the season at 6-0, North Carolina has lost in back-to-back games
Following two straight losses, their highest goals have become a lot more unrealistic and, with that in mind, Mack Brown was asked if keeping his team motivated in the home stretch of the season is a priority.
“Sure, but if you’re trying to be the best you can be, and you’re trying to improve every week, and you’re to play up to a standard? None of that should matter,” Brown said. “I mean these are human beings and, obviously, there’s some disappointment for all of us. But they don’t cancel games, they don’t cancel the season.”
“There’s guys on our team that won two games one year. And there’s fans that didn’t show up for two games that are b******g about six wins. So I mean that’s just part of the deal. You just do the best you can do,” Brown said. “Trying to explain how 120 guys feel and if they’re excited, if they’re disappointed? Some that didn’t play are mad because they didn’t play, some that played good are really excited, some that played bad are blaming coaches. I mean, across the country, that’s just what happens.”
Brown definitely understands the multitude of hardships that come with losing from all different directions.
“It’s a huge span of emotions when you start looking at a football team. You just have to kind of balance it all out and do the best you can do. Try to get ready to not only beat Campbell but get better this week,” Brown said. “Because you’ve got one of the hardest schedules left emotionally that we’ve ever had.”