Mack Brown discusses expectations for new-look UNC receiver room

North Carolina enters spring ball with one of the best returning quarterbacks in the nation under center in Drake Maye, but his receiving core will look a little bit different this upcoming season. The Tar Heels lost their top two wide receivers from a season ago to the NFL, and in a spring practice press conference, head coach Mack Brown spoke about the impact that’s had.

“We’ve had great skill people since we’ve been here, and that’s one thing traditionally that this school has been able to do,” Brown said. “And losing Antoine Greene and Josh (Downs), that’s a large majority of our passing game at wide receiver specifically. So we felt like we had to address those needs.”

Downs and Greene ranked first and second on the team and within the top 10 in the conference in catches, receiving yards, and touchdowns, combining for 137 receptions for 1,827 yards and 18 touchdown catches. They accounted for 47.3% of the teams receiving touchdowns and 42.1% of their receiving yards, as UNC now looks elsewhere for that same level of production.

“We like what we’ve got on campus, but you get a guy like Tez Walker, he’s a lot like Antoine Greene. You get a guy like Nate McCollum, he’s a lot like Josh Downs. And then you have to look at who are the three best ones, we want to play the best 11 on each side of the ball,” Brown said.

McCollum transferred in from Georgia Tech this offseason, and his 60 catches ranked seventh in the ACC last season and his 655 yards ranked 12th. Walker on the other hand also joined UNC after entering the transfer portal, returning to his home state after an impressive 58 catch, 921 yards, 11 touchdown season at Kent State.

Between their returning talent and new additions, it sounds like Brown restocked the cupboard at the receiver position, and is pretty adamant about his best wide outs being on the field at the same time for their opening game versus South Carolina.

“And I always get frustrated if a coach wants to keep a guy who’s on the second team, the white team, that’s better than the guy that’s starting at the other position. He says well he’s a left receiver, let him be a right receiver if he’s the best one, so play the best players,” Brown said. “And again I’m really talking to the coaches hard about cross training and making sure that we always have the best 11 on the field. And that’s where you maybe take a Kobe Paysour and a Nate McCollum who are both really good at slot but one of them, if he’s the third best receiver, needs to be outside instead of being stubborn and have backup slots.”