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Mack Brown reveals his expectations for the UNC offense in 2022 in light of talent losses

ns_headshot_2024-clearby:Nick Schultz07/21/22

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North Carolina lost plenty of talent after last season, notably quarterback Sam Howell. Still, Mack Brown said the expectations remain the same.

Brown, speaking at ACC Kickoff on Thursday, said he’s not changing the level he wants the Tar Heels to be on in 2022. Specifically at quarterback, he said the two quarterbacks on the roster — Jacolby Criswell and Drake Maye — have enough talent to help UNC succeed this season. After all, Howell once started for North Carolina as a fresh face.

“The expectation for the offense is to be the best in the country,” Brown said. “We have to shore up sacks. We had too many tackles for loss. We’ve changed some things with our scheme. That should help our offensive linemen. We lost four offensive linemen, we lost a tailback, we lost some great receivers. But we’ve got a very, very talented but inexperienced team coming back, so that starts at quarterback.

“We have two quarterbacks in Jacolby Criswell — he was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Arkansas. We have Drake Maye, who was the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of North Carolina, that’s been there for a year. Those guys have both played and practiced a lot. We’ve started Sam Howell when he didn’t have any experience the year before, so we’re really, really excited about our offense, and we think we have a chance to be good.”

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Mack Brown: ‘It’s interesting that today is about hype’

Brown also pointed to another word coming up a lot in college football: hype. Instead, he opted to use another word to describe his team’s mentality heading into the season.

“It’s interesting that today is about hype,” Brown said. “It’s about hope for all of us. Real football starts for us in a week, and then by about midseason there’s about 75% of the ones that are hyped today that aren’t playing well. So we were one of those last year.

“We’re excited. Understanding we have a lot of question marks, and we have a lot of things we have to get fixed, but that’s what coaches do, and that’s what players do, and the offseason has been good.”