Mack Brown plans to bench players for pre-snap penalties: 'It's unacceptable'

The North Carolina Tar Heels are gearing up for their sixth year under Mack Brown. Ahead of Week 1, as a group, there has been a renewed focus on preventing penalties in Fall Camp.

As Brown explained when he met with the media, he sees penalties as a major concern for the team. So, he’s planning on benching players who commit pre-snap penalties as a way of correcting that behavior.

“Really working hard on penalties,” Mack Brown said. “We’ve had too many penalties. We’ve got the smartest kids in the league, we’ve got the best APR in the league, and we’ve been up in the penalties every year. That makes no sense. So, we’ve just told the guys that we will have absolutely no pre-snap penalties. It’s unacceptable. If they have one, we’re taking them out.”

North Carolina finished the 2023 season 125th out of 133 FBS teams in penalties. They averaged 7.2 penalties per game and 66.3 penalty yards per game.

At the same time, it’s not just pre-snap penalties that Mack Brown is worried about. Because of that, he’s also working to end post-whistle and other common penalties teams suffer from.

“And we’re telling the guys that there will be absolutely no post-whistle penalties. If they do that, they’re running laps the rest of that rack of plays as they go through,” Brown said. “So, then we’re penalizing. We’re doing physical drills for consequences on guys that have holding penalties or pass interference penalties. Those are usually what you have. So, we’re actually taking another step for enforcement into those areas.”

North Carolina finished the 2023 season 8-5 overall and 4-4 in ACC play. It’s a number that potentially could have improved with better discipline, which Brown hopes that the stricter approach in practice will help to curate in 2024.

Mack Brown addresses when he hopes to name North Carolina’s starting quarterback

A major story in North Carolina’s Fall Camp is the quarterback battle as the Tar Heels look to replace Drake Maye. It’s between Conner Harrell and Max Johnson and Mack Brown says he hopes to have a decision some time before the opener on August 29th.

“What I’ve liked in my experience is about 10 days or a week before the start,” Brown said. “Let him be the starter so he’s comfortable talking to the team as the starter and also let him talk to [the media] before the game.”