Mack Brown says UNC will 'know who we are' after difficult opening stretch

Everyone wants to know what their college football team is going to be with kickoff so close to being here. North Carolina won’t have to wait long to figure out their potential, though, as Mack Brown says we’ll all know who the Tar Heels are before the first month is even over.

Brown spoke about the difficulty of UNC’s first three games in a media availability at fall camp a week ago. He said starting with three tough non-conference matchups, even if two are in Chapel Hill, is going to speak volumes about what North Carolina has the chance to become by the end of the season.

“A win (in the opener) would set the tone but a loss doesn’t kill you because a lot of people think you’re going to get beat anyway. You’ll know who your team is,” said Brown.

“Then you’ve got App State coming right in. We only gave up 61 to them last year so they’re not a threat,” Brown said as he laughed. “Then you’ve got Minnesota coming in who was 9-4 last year and won another bowl game. We’ve got our hands full.”

South Carolina is going to provide a big-time matchup in their opener in Charlotte. After that, they’ll get another matchup with the Mountaineers after barely leaving Boone alive with a 63-61 win last season. Then, at the end of that trio, Minnesota, which has won nine or more games in three of the past four seasons, will also make the trip to play inside Kenan Stadium.

You’d like to think that this could be a 3-0 start for the Tar Heels with them being in the Top-25. Even so, more than one loss is entirely possible depending on how they look to start. Either way, Brown is certain that everyone will have an idea of what North Carolina is made of by the time they head to play the Panthers in their final game of the month.

“The great thing about this schedule is we’ll know who we are after week three before we go to Pittsburgh to start the conference schedule. There are no gimmes in there,” Brown said.

Breaking down the North Carolina’s season using the over/under

On3’s J.D. PicKell believes North Carolina won’t necessarily have the season they’re expecting this fall. Oddsmakers have pegged the over/under for the Tar Heels at 8.5. PicKell is as big of a Drake Maye fan as anyone out there but the UNC defense is just too big of a question mark for him to push them to at least nine wins.

“You got Drake Maye so that’s really exciting,” PicKell said. “You have Mack Brown who, historically, is one of the best coaches in college football.”

“The unfortunate reality for North Carolina is Drake Maye isn’t playing defense,” said Pickell. “They might be better than they were last year defensively but I think they had six wins by one score. So I understand the hype around North Carolina and I’m not here to say North Carolina is not going to be a good team. But that number feels a little bit rich to me. I don’t think they will hit the over on that number.”

On3’s Andy Staples is with PicKell in the end. With their schedule, he also has North Carolina finishing under 8.5 wins in 2023.

“They open with South Carolina in Charlotte,” Staples said. “That’s going to be tough. Look at what they drew within the (ACC). They got Clemson, they don’t have to play Florida State. But they’ve got to play NC State at the end of the season, as usual…The closing stretch of Clemson, NC State is going to be tough. And Duke, under Mike Elko, has proven to be pretty interesting. They go to Georgia Tech — Georgia Tech beat ’em last year.

“I think under 8.5 doesn’t feel that crazy to me. Because unless you can show me how they dramatically improved on defense? Until I see that, I can’t be confident.”