Mack Brown reveals how he plans to fix North Carolina's struggles with finishing games, seasons

North Carolina Tar Heels head football coach Mack Brown met with reporters recently, providing an update on the program. The Tar Heels headman addressed several things, from expectations over the summer to their goals for next season. One of the things North Carolina will attempt to improve is their late-game execution and finishing games, something that they struggled with down the stretch last season. But before Brown addressed his plan to fix North Carolina’s struggles finishing games, he expressed concern with how his team’s schedule was laid out in 2023.

“It’s one of the reasons I made the point I made early [that] it’s the toughest schedule I’ve ever been around,” said Brown. “And even the end of the schedule, I didn’t like the way it was placed by the conference office, and I said that. Some people whined, and I didn’t care. But I want our players to know; if you’re going to be good, you got to play a good schedule. And it’s real. It’s there. So no excuses.

There will be no cupcake games for North Carolina to start the season. To open 2023, they will face off against two regional rivals: the South Carolina Gamecocks and Appalachian State Mountaineers. Those two games will be followed by a matchup against the Big Ten’s Minnesota Golden Gophers and then a trip to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers.

Since this season’s schedule was revealed, Brown has put an emphasis on preparing his team for the first four games to open the season. While he may not be a fan of how the conference set up North Carolina’s first four games, he also understands it’s something his team will have to overcome if they want to be great this season.

“We won’t talk about schedule anymore, but it is what it is, and I’ve told him every day when you’re running your sprints, you’re finishing your drills, that’s the fourth quarter of the Minnesota game. It’s the fourth quarter of the South Carolina game. So you didn’t finish at the end of the year last year; you’re finishing now to win those first four games. You’re not finishing to get through summer workouts. And that does make a difference. They can see if we opened up with somebody who wasn’t good, they’d think we got a scrimmage; we’re okay. We’ll play-in. They don’t have any play-in. We jump in with both feet to start with.”

As Brown put it, North Carolina’s schedule is what it is. But in order for his team to be great in 2023, they need to practice, not just to practice, but to win. And in doing so, the Tar Heels will give themselves a great chance to start off the season 4-0.