Mack Brown reveals demand of team ahead of clinching coastal division

North Carolina‘s most recent win over Wake Forest secured them the top spot of the ACC Coastal division and a date with No. 10 Clemson in the conference championship game in December. Head coach Mack Brown attributed the Tar Heel’s success and reaching this achievement to his players and their focus, which he spoke about this week.

“When I actually said I don’t wanna hear the coastal mentioned the last two weeks, they didn’t mention it,” Brown said. “I said I don’t care about your rating, I only care about at the end of the year, in fact when I said last week you were 15th in the College Football Playoff Poll Ced Gray kind of said come on coach, who cares, let’s go man as we were sitting in the team meeting. So their approach as been let’s get better.”

There’s a special culture shift happening in Chapel Hill this season, which Brown attributes to players like Gray and Power Echols, the team’s two leading tacklers.

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“Cedric Gray might be the most important to the culture change on defense. He leads, he’s positive, he and Power Echols practice every day like you see them play, and we haven’t had depth at that position so they’ve had to play a whole lot of plays,” Brown said. “And even to the point where I’ve told them ya’ll be smart enough, we can’t afford a targeting penalty.”

Gray ranks first in the ACC in tackles and No. 5 in the country, with Echols also ranking in the top ten in the conference as well in that department. The two have been leading the defense and the team to their 9-1 record through their attitude and consistency at practice and in games.

“But they’re passionate about football, in fact the three things the players ask, passion, accounting, and toughness, they are. And they’re at the epitome of those three things and they’re both really good leaders and I can sit here right now and tell you they’ll practice really well in the morning and they’ll play hard on Saturday,” Brown said.

Gray, Echols, and other players have led this team, which according to Brown has been crucial in their success this season and contagious throughout their entire roster.

“Yeah this is as player-led a team as I’ve had in a long long time, and I really like it. You know we’ve had some great leaders on the team since we’ve been here, this whole team has bought in,” Brown said. “And there’s guys that are second and third teamers that are fighting their guts out, the show teams, the scout teams that put on the Georgia Tech picture, they are competing harder than I’ve ever seen. So this team has bought in and they’re working so hard to win.”

Brown’s players aren’t just fully on board, but their staff is as well, as he detailed how their passion and understanding of the importance of winning has fueled their success this season.

“And the coaches too, the coaches are all getting along, they’re competing and there’s a few that were yelling at each other on Saturday night because they know how important it is,” Brown explained. “That’s what I told them, you got to keep your composure but I got it man, this is important and we want to win and you can’t got out there and mess it up and everybody got that.”

And it doesn’t just stop with the coaches and players, as Brown believes their entire staff top to bottom is bought into their special season that could shape up to potentially be one of their best and most memorable in program history.

“Everybody’s on the same page and everybody wants to win, in fact I’ll say this whole building feels like they’re part of this thing and everybody in this building is trying to win because it’s been a long time since we’ve felt this good,” Brown said.