Mack Brown says it's 'time' for North Carolina to win more than nine games

The North Carolina Tar Heels had a ‘good’ 2022 season, winning nine games and securing a spot in the ACC championship game as winners of the Coastal division. But head coach Mack Brown is not after a ‘good’ season. No, he is on a quest to be great. And during a recent appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show, the Tar Heels headman alluded to how his team can achieve that.

“We ended the season against Oregon with Bo Nix and Drake Maye playing against each other. Two of the best quarterbacks in the country,” said Brown. “We’re going to start the season with Rattler and Drake Maye playing against each other. South Carolina ended with a lot of momentum, beating Tennessee and beating Clemson. We did not. We lost to Clemson and Oregon right at the end of the season. So, they got a lot of hype. We got a chip on our shoulder and get back to where we need to be.”

North Carolina had a hot start to their 2022 season, going 9-1 in their first ten games. But that high would soon come crashing down as the Tar Heels ended the year on a four-game losing streak that included a one-point, 28-27 loss to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl.

This year’s schedule appears to be more challenging than last year’s to start this season, which is why Brown gave his team a simple message regarding the first leg of their 2023 campaign.

“We open up in Charlotte, with South Carolina, then we got App State which is an in-state game that really matters to us. And then we got Minnesota here, (and) we go Pittsburgh,” said Brown. “So, I told our guys, ‘keep your mouth shut, start playing.’ Because that’s going to be a very physical start. And we finish with Duke at home, at Clemson, and at NC State. So, we better step up and get the things done; we need to get done if we’re gonna finish better than we did last year. Nine is not enough. We won the Coastal. We won nine; that’s good for being around here. But we don’t want to be good. We want to be great.”

Brown is on a quest for North Carolina to finish this year on top of the ACC. The veteran college football head coach knows what it takes to win at the level, climbing to the pinnacle of the sport during his 2005 season at Texas when he led the Longhorns to a national championship victory over USC.

Now he wants to do the same thing for North Carolina and Tar Heel fans. But in order for that to happen, he needs his players to buy into being great and not being good with just nine wins.