Mack Brown's Tar Heels Will 'have our hands full' Against Clemson
In this story:
North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown understands what it is like to be the standard in a league, after leading Texas' return to glory and a national title. With that understanding comes a realization of what it is like when other teams face the standard-bearer for a league, which is exactly what he sees when he looks at this week's opponent in the ACC Championship--the Clemson Tigers.
"They've got an unbelievable fan base, their facilities are fantastic," Brown said. "They recruit really, really well. They got a lot of guys on their team we recruited, we don't have many on our team they recruited. It looks like an NFL defense. I mean, they're just unbelievable how big and fast they are. We'll have our hands full."
His goal for the Tar Heels is to return them to a league contender similar to when he left the program the first time in 1997.
"When I got back, I wanted North Carolina football to be relevant again and we have been to four straight bowl games," Brown said. "One of those bowls being the elite Orange Bowl and here we are playing Clemson. We get a chance to play a national program like Clemson. Clemson has been the standard in the ACC for many years. When I was here before it was Florida State. Florida State was in the national picture every year. I think Coach Bowden had 14 straight years of being in the top four. So, all the rest of us were second and below. And that’s pretty much what Clemson has been. Last year it changed a little bit. Dabo (Swinney) has done an amazing job of getting his team back this year and being in the national picture.”
On hitting the reset button for Clemson after two losses:
“You are in a championship game. None of these kids have ever been in this championship game. So, they will be really excited about it. We haven’t played Clemson since four years ago. I think next year we play them in Death Valley, so playing Clemson is an exciting thing and a great challenge. They know that they’re playing as good of a group of athletes as anybody in the country. So, it will be a fun challenge for us.”
On playing Clemson in Charlotte and the importance in recruiting:
“I think it’s good. They have beaten us a bunch in recruiting. Most of the guys on our team weren’t offered by them. So, there’s a lot of great players on their team that I’ve tried to recruit that decided to go down there. They got a great program and they are the standard in this league. They got outstanding facilities and Dabo has done an amazing job, so I get it. We will be playing a lot of great players that I wished we’d had gotten.”
Want to join in on the discussion? 100% FREE! Interact with fellow Tiger fans and hear directly from publisher Zach Lentz, deputy editor Brad Senkiw, recruiting analyst Jason Priester and staff writer Will Vandervort on any subject. Click here to become a member of the ALL CLEMSON message board community today!
Get your Tiger tickets from SI Tickets HERE
Do us a HUGE favor and like, subscribe and follow us on social media:
►LIKE us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allclemson
►SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/c/AllClemson
►FOLLOW All Clemson on Twitter:https://twitter.com/All_Clemson
More on All Clemson: https://www.si.com/college/clemson/
