Brown says Heels have practiced well; talks Howell and explains why he doesn't give crazy speeches

Mack Brown spoke to the media after Wednesday's practice, which is the last time the Tar Heels would be in pads before Saturday's season-opener against South Carolina.

Here are the highlights from his conversation with reporters.

Impressions of this week's practices

I thought Sunday’s practice was really good, then they get the day off on Monday and I thought yesterday’s was OK — I didn’t think it was as good —then today I thought they really competed; they were physical and they got after it.

On whether players are nervous or feel pressure heading into Saturday's game...

You shouldn’t feel pressure if you’ve done everything right in practice; that’s what full-speed practice is about. I just told them that a few minutes ago, if you’re going game-speed every play of (practice) against (blue team players) those players will be as good as anybody you’ll play, so you shouldn’t feel pressure on Saturday. You should be a little anxious because it’s different and it’s new and you work all the time for the game, but have fun. The game should be easier and much more fun than practice.

I thought Sunday and today they were really focused. I thought yesterday there was some of both, but this bunch has tried since we’ve been here. I expect them to play hard and the question will be their confidence because they haven’t played together as a team

We’ve tried to get rid of my past, get rid of their past and it’s all about now. If you’ve practiced well, you should play well, so let’s start envisioning playing well and we know it’s a good opponent.

On his feelings on Saturday's game, given his history and accomplishments...

I get excited. You work so hard and so long, we’ve been doing this 10 months now with this team; there's got to be some ownership. I want to see them play. I tell our coaches daily and I told our players after practice today, we need the best you. You and your coach own your responsibilities, so you’ve got to do it and if you don’t do it, it’s on you and it’s on your coach.

When I first met Sam, he was committed to Florida State and I didn’t have an offensive coordinator, so he sat there and kind of looked at me like, ‘What are you in here for? I don’t know you, you don’t have an offensive coordinator because you don’t have an offense, you don’t have an offensive staff … why do you think I’m interested?’ He kind of said in a nice, polite way, ‘Go get you a staff, go get an offensive coordinator, tell me what you’re going to do on offense, then I’ll talk to you, but right now, I’ll just be watching.’

On Howell earning the respects of his teammates...

I think he earned it a lot this summer just from listening to them. In the player-led practices, they said he worked so hard. He’s in the office all the time, looking at video. For a young guy, it’s just unusual that he works so hard.

I do know we just had a leadership committee vote and he got a lot of votes. The team is very, very confident him, especially for a young guy.

On whether Howell has the mythical "It" Factor

I think so; he’s confident, in a quiet way but he exudes that confidence to the team. He’s a risk taker and he’ll have to be start Saturday … he’s been here six months. Phil is going to have to do a good job with him early in the game to make sure he’s comfortable and sees what South Carolina is doing before we go crazy and turn him loose.

On his expectations for Saturday

I feel like they’ll play hard because they’ve worked hard, they’ve been physical and if you play smart, we’re doing a better job of eliminating penalties, we’re doing a better job of making smart plays because we’ve put ourselves in a lot of positions in blue vs. blue. What I’ve seen in practice makes me think that will transition into a good ballgame Saturday. They practice as hard the last play of practice as they do the first; they seem to be in great shape. It’ll be 90 degrees, so we’ll have to rotate some guys, but that’s the norm anyway. I expect them to play well, but who knows.

We sat and watch Miami and Florida and I’m sure those two coaches went home and said, ‘Oh my gosh, how about all these mistakes?’ Then you watch Hawaii and Arizona and the winner and you go home and the winner had five interceptions. You’re just hitting yourself in the head saying, ‘Oh my gosh, five interceptions? I don’t want that in a year,’ but they won the game. All of that makes you anxious.

On choosing Michael Carter and Antonio Williams as kick returners...

We feel like every time he touches the ball, they should have a chance to score. Those guys handle the ball all the time, they’ve got really good hands, they can catch passes out of the backfield, they’re tough. I would think that Antonio Williams has probably improved as much since we’ve been here as any player on our team … he’s lost weight, he’s lost body fat, he’s much quicker and faster now than when he was when we got here. He has really put extra time into it. We will be able to rotate those backs on Saturday and all three of them can be like the best player we’ve got, the starters. That’s still our best unit because of those three, so that’s why we want to put the good-handed guys back there that can score.

On what he says to get his team fired up for a game...

I will do all of the talking during the week and I try to start on Sunday with a theme and build up to it, then Thursday, we try to hit it and put it into their brains for Saturday afternoon. Then, on Saturday, mine are more exuding confidence; I want them to be confident and I want them to bust their rear ends and I want them to have fun.

I think they need to see me as who I am, and if I change drastically between now and game-time they’re going to think I’m nervous and uptight. Then, they’re going to get nervous and uptight. They need to know I’ve done this before, for 31 years, and I’m going to help them on their sideline and the coaches are there to help them on the sideline. I don’t want the coaches’ demeanor to change between now and game-time.

If a coach is doing his job, his demeanor on the first day of practice when we got here should be exactly like it is Saturday, because you should be coaching gameday speed every day and you don’t need a personality that pops out and says, ‘Oh my God, he’s scared.’ They’re looking at our body language to see if we’re confident in them or not and they’re watching closely, now. They’re watching every little thing we do subconsciously and the best thing we can do is be us. I’ve asked them to give me their best, ‘You give me your best you; that’s all I want. If your best you isn’t good enough to beat South Carolina, then we’ll go to Miami, but all I want is what you’ve got and what we’re going to do is give you the same.’

I have absolutely told the coaches, ‘You own your position, so if your position plays poorly, you coached them poorly.’ I don’t want anyone pointing at kids; we haven’t been critical of Coach Fedora and wouldn’t, we haven’t been critical of a kid on this team and we’re not going to; they’re ours. We’re going to play hard and if I ever make an excuse, you all throw your cameras at me and hit me in the face, because me making excuses gives our coaches and our players an excuse to lose the game and I don’t want to do that. If I say, ‘Well, we’ve got a bunch of guys hurt,’ who cares? We’ll take care of the guys that are hurt, but we’ve got to play and South Carolina is not going to say, ‘We’ll give you 14 points because you’ve got some guys that are out.’ They’re not going to do that, so give me the best you’ve got and you should be coaching all of your guys so whoever is out there should be well-coached. We say that on (Saturday), that’s what it is.

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