Mack Brown calls other teams' Week 1 opponents 'laughers'

North Carolina takes center stage this weekend to kick off the college football season as they take on South Carolina at Bank of America Stadium in one of the marquee matchups of Week 1, even getting a visit from ESPN’s College GameDay as a result.

But this isn’t the case for every team in the country, as many teams will be facing lesser opponents from lower conferences and divisions of college football. Which Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown referred to in his game week press conference, taking a subtle tab at some programs across the country.

“I was looking at the openers across the country and most of them are laughers for Saturday, most of them are scrimmages for the teams that are going to play because they’re playing teams that couldn’t possibly beat them,” Brown said. “We’re not. We’re jumping in with both feet.”

The ACC did a solid job of scheduling stiff competition to start the season, as Virginia and Florida State will also be facing SEC opponents in Tennessee and LSU and four teams will open up the season with pivotal inter-conference matchups, as Clemson and Duke square off along with Louisville and Georgia Tech.

But Saturday’s matchup between the Gamecocks and Tar Heels has it all, as a veteran coach in Brown will be taking on a rising newcomer in Shame Beamer, with each team led by quarterbacks that have NFL potential written all over them.

“Because we’ve got a great challenge with South Carolina, especially with their momentum, and at the same time there’s opportunity,” Brown said. “Because everybody’s going to get a first impression of this football team, and I said we lost some respect at the end of last year and this is a very important game for us to try to get our respect back nationally.”

The teams from opposite states had opposite endings to last year’s college football season. South Carolina went on an impressive two-game stretch where they defeated No. 5 Tennessee followed by a win over No. 8 ranked Clemson to close out the regular season, ending the year with an 8-5 record that’s their best since 2017.

North Carolina on the other hand started off the 2022 season hot boasting a 9-1 record before losing their last four consecutive games, dropping their final two regular-season matchups, the ACC Championship game, and the Holiday Bowl matchup against Oregon by one point.

The Tar Heels will look to start the season off by creating some new momentum, while the Gamecocks will look to continue building on what Beamer’s started, as the two teams will square off this Saturday in Charlotte at 7:30 p.m. ET in a game airing on ABC.