Mack Brown shares confidence level of North Carolina

Mack Brown kept stressing to his players after road escapes against Appalachian State and Georgia State that a lack of physicality was going to catch up to them. Sure enough, Notre Dame upset North Carolina one week later. That might have provided just the jolt Brown needed, though.

Since then North Carolina’s confidence level has soared.

“Weirdly enough, I do think that these guys gained great confidence after Notre Dame seeing we just got whipped and saying, ‘OK, here’s the deal… they’ve been telling us we’re too soft and they’ve been telling us we’ve got to do this, but man, it’s real, so let’s go to work,'” Brown said Monday.

“And they took that game and turned it into a positive about being more physical and stopping the run.”

After allowing Appalachian State, Georgia State and Notre Dame to average 270 yards on the ground over a three-game stretch, North Carolina has held both of its last two opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing.

Virginia Tech managed just 99 yards in a 41-10 loss to North Carolina, while Miami gained just 42 yards on the ground in a 27-24 defeat over the weekend.

“And that’s where I feel like (defensive coordinator) Gene (Chizik) is such a great teacher, showing the guys in a positive way that we’re not accountable enough because we didn’t stop the run,” Brown said. “‘You can’t win a game if you don’t do this better.’ It’s made them better, and they are very confident right now, but not complacent. They’re excited.”

North Carolina’s confidence level growing

The Tar Heels already had one of the nation’s most explosive offenses. That much was evident in scoring 63 in a shootout with the Mountaineers in the second game of the season.

But the defense had been a serious Achilles’ heel. Is that changing?

Two games don’t necessarily make a trend, but Brown has been overwhelmingly positive about this squad’s mental makeup for quite some time.

“I said back in the spring, last year’s team was hard,” he said. “You just never knew who was going to show up. This year’s team, so far they’ve practiced well every day we’ve practiced. They’ve been excited.”

At this point, there’s still everything to play for at North Carolina. The Tar Heels are 5-1 overall, certainly not yet out of the playoff picture despite being unranked at the moment. They’re 2-0 in ACC play, the lone unbeaten team in conference action in the ACC Coastal.

Moreover, UNC will get a shot at two of the ranked teams in the ACC Atlantic down the stretch (at No. 14 Wake Forest on Nov. 12, home against No. 15 NC State on Nov. 25), with a shot at the Coastal winner, potentially, in the ACC title game.

A real run is not out of the question at all. Especially with North Carolina’s confidence level improving, odd as it may be, since that Notre Dame loss.

“I just think this is a team that, unlike last year’s, is a team that likes to play,” Brown said. “They like each other and they are feeling much more confident about themselves.”