Mack Brown challenges fellow ACC teams to 'be tough,' win more 'national' non-conference games

North Carolina has a tough non-conference schedule in the 2023 season, opening up the season with a matchup versus South Carolina followed by hosting Appalachian State and Minnesota in back-to-back weeks. But at ACC Media Days, Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown revealed that he is fully embracing the challenge and asking his team to do the same.

“I told [the team] it’s the toughest schedule I’ve ever been involved with, and that’s fine,” Brown said. “It’s what it is and it’s not changing. So let’s not gripe about it, let’s go play it. And it won’t be mentioned again after today, because they know that we’ve got our hands full. GameDay coming to South Carolina game is huge, season tickets are sold out. I’m so excited. We’re in a great place to take another step and now we’ve just go to do it.”

South Carolina and Minnesota are respectively coming off of eight and nine-win seasons in the SEC and Big Ten conferences. And UNC’s matchup with App State serves as a series tiebreaker after the Heels beat the Mountaineers last season by two points in a shootout and App State pulled out a three-point win in Chapel Hill in 2019.

Regardless of the outcomes, North Carolina will enter their Week 4 matchup versus Pitt as one of the most battle-tested squads in the ACC. But if they are successful in those matchups, it will only further bolster their resume, which could be important toward the end of the season and is something that Brown believes all ACC programs should strive to do.

“You can only talk so much, you’ve got to show me, man. That’s what I told our team, let’s quit talking and start showing people. And if you get tired of someone saying you’re not tough, be tough. Be tough. Be in tough games,” Brown said. “That’s what our league has to do. Our league has to step up and we’ve got to start winning some national games, and we’ve got to start winning out-of-conference games to show that our conference is as good as anybody.”

Last year was the second consecutive season without an ACC team in the College Football Playoff, with Clemson serving as the only team in the conference to ever make the cut. It’s no secret that the ACC on and off the field is trying to keep up with the SEC and Big Ten conferences, and although the expansion of the College Football Playoff will likely help with playoff inclusion, Mack Brown’s idea of ACC team’s scheduling and winning big time games versus non-conference opponents would definitely help the cause.