Mack Brown stresses concerns over playing in Atlanta

North Carolina will be looking to bounce back this Saturday as they hit the road to face Georgia Tech after Virginia handed them their first loss of the season last weekend. The Yellow Jackets only boast a 3-4 record on the season, but have had quite a bit of success against the Tar Heels in recent history, which North Carolina head coach Mack Brown discussed this week.

“Georgia Tech is a game that’s been tough for us, we’ve lost two out of three since I’ve been here,” Brown said. “We didn’t win at Bobby-Dodd Stadium our first year here. But in Atlanta, Atlanta hadn’t been good to the Tar Heels, we’ve lost 10 of 12. Here me now, we’ve lost 10 of the last 12 games in Atlanta to Georgia Tech.”

Georgia Tech ruined the Tar Heels’ perfect record in conference play last season with a 21-17 win in Chapel Hill that would start a chain reaction of four straight losses to end the year for North Carolina after a 9-1 start to the season. And this year the Yellow Jackets have already proven they can beat a ranked opponent yet again following their miraculous comeback victory over No. 25 Miami in Week 6.

“So everybody thinks we’ve got Miami’s number because we’ve beaten them five in a row, well Georgia Tech’s had North Carolina’s number, and before I got here, in Atlanta. So that makes this a game that people should project that we lose, period. Because we have, 10 out of 12’s a pretty good percentages, I flunked out of Vanderbilt but it looks pretty good to me that we haven’t done very well down there,” Brown joked.

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key is in the midst of his first season as the team’s head coach after serving in the role on an interim basis during the last eight games of the season in 2022, not only knocking off the No. 13 ranked Tar Heels in the process but the No. 24 ranked Pittsburgh Panthers as well.

“So they’ll be excited, they’ll feel like they’re gonna win because they have and we’ll have our hands full. We gotta get back to work,” Brown said. “Brent Key’s done a great job, he’s a Gerogia Tech alum, he’s pulled them all together, and they’re playing really hard and he’ll have them ready to go playing with whole a lot of energy and we’ve got to do the same thing.”

The Tar Heels will look to turn around their recent misfortunate against Georgia Tech this Saturday at 8:00 p.m. ET in a matchup airing on ACC Network.