Mack Brown after viral reaction to JMU loss: 'I'm not a good person when I'm mad'
The North Carolina Tar Heels gave up 70 points in a loss to the James Madison Dukes. After the game, head coach Mack Brown was reportedly emotional in the locker room, with it even being reported that the loss forced him to consider retirement.
Now, Brown has explained what went into that reaction to the JMU game, explaining that he struggles to be a good person when he’s mad or frustrated. Once he had time to take a step back, he even reached out to athletic director Bubba Cunningham and North Carolina Chancellor Lee Roberts and apologized.
“I told Bubba I apologized, and the Chancellor’s great,” Mack Brown said. “I love Lee. Lee texted me after the game and said, ‘Sorry about the game. You don’t need to be apologizing to me.’ He’s wonderful. He went to Minnesota with us. I said, ‘You know we’re gonna get back at 5 in the morning?’ He said, ‘I’m all in.’ And he was. But I told Bubba, ‘I apologize. I shouldn’t have gotten emotional.’ I was trying to do what was right. I always try to do what’s right.”
The loss to James Madison was a shocking one. It was a 70-50 final score, with both offenses putting up massive numbers. However, the biggest shock was how the Dukes were able to score 53 points by the half. The Dukes quarterback, Alonzo Barnett, threw for 388 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for 99 yards and two touchdowns in the effort.
“I normally slow down when I get mad because I’m not a good person when I’m mad, I don’t handle things well. I don’t say the right stuff when I’m mad. I have a really bad temper, and I have learned that that’s why I get by myself and I keep my mouth shut when I’m mad after losses. In this time, it just grabbed me, and it was a mistake, like I said. Can’t change it,” Brown said.
“What you do is you learn from it. I can learn at 73 that I messed up. It’s kind of like, nobody in this room has been in that situation, so it’s easy to say, ‘Well that was stupid.’ Come join me sometime when you’re so disappointed in yourself and you’ve let so many people down and you’re a guy who likes to please, then that’s wrong. I wasn’t there to quit. I was walking there to say, ‘Hey, we stunk. If this isn’t working, man, help me. I’ll get out of here.’ That’s what my purpose was. It didn’t turn out well. We shouldn’t be talking about me. We should be talking about the kids.”
Now, Mack Brown and North Carolina are hoping to be able to bounce back from the tough loss as they go into ACC play against rival Duke.
Mack Brown: ‘You shouldn’t be at North Carolina and lose to a Group of Five team’
In the wake of that loss to James Madison, Mack Brown made his frustrations clear, explaining he expects to be able to beat a Group of Five teams at North Carolina.
“Embarrassing day, shocking day. You shouldn’t be at North Carolina and lose to a Group of Five team – period. There are no excuses,” Brown said.
“It can only come back to one person and that’s me. I’ve hired everybody on this staff, I hired everybody that works in this building, and I’ve signed every player on this team. So, I mean, the people that want to blame me? They should because I am at fault – 100%. I missed it.”