Mack Brown Wednesday Update: Senior Day, Finishing the Recruiting Class and Meeting a Standard

North Carolina coach Mack Brown met with the media after Wednesday morning's practice to provide a final update before the Tar Heels play host to Mercer in Saturday's Senior Day game at Kenan Stadium.

Highlights from the conversation:

Opening Statement 

It’s been good all week. we took some of last year’s Western Carolina video and showed it to them this morning and we weren’t very focused and we made a lot of mistakes. What we’ve got to do right now is continue to get to be a better football team.

It’s about seniors this week, without question; it’s about playing to a standard this week because we’ve got to take the next step and get better and finish and close on these games. We’ve emphasized red zone, we understand both sides of the ball. There’s a lot of talk about our offense in the red zone; our defense hasn’t been successful and that’s where you win football games, so we’ve got to force more turnovers, we haven’t done that. You have to stop the run, put the quarterback in tough positions on second-and-long, third-and-long and we haven’t done those things. There’s so many things we need to get better at that we need to improve those things on Saturday.

That said, senior days is really, really important across the country. You have one. It’s the last time they’ll play in Kenan Stadium and we used to say that they’re very emotional. I used to tell them, the seniors that cry before the game, I said, ‘Cry after the game, after you win. Don’t cry before the game and stink and lose,’ because usually, we hadn’t played well in the first quarter because they’re so emotional because they’re thinking about, ‘This is the last time, man.’ Well, make the last time a good memory. I think the seniors get it. They started well, in the middle it was rocky and now they need to end well.

Everything this week is about the seniors. Seniors will be captains, all the seniors will be on the hash if they’re not one of the five guys that walk out there first. Seniors eat first, seniors get off the bus first, seniors walk the Bell Tower first. This is definitely the emphasis of senior day.

You didn't like the passion and intensity against Wake Forest and Appalachian State. How has it been since then?

I think that’s it. Those two didn’t seem to be passionate.

Coach (Frank) Broyles told me one time when we were playing 11 games, you’re only going to be really excited and have full energy and play at your best in four of them. The other seven, you’re going to have to be better than the other teams you’re playing.

This team, to me, has played hard with passion every week except for Wake and App. They played hard in those games; they just didn’t have the same passion. I’ve been amazed every week that they’ve come out every week with excitement and passion.

I just asked them, ‘Why do you play? Do you play because you love football? Do you play because you love to win? Do you play for your teammates? Why do you play? … Do you play because you need the scholarship? Do you play because you have to? Let’s figure out why we play and if that’s the case then you should play hard every week. it shouldn’t be (up and down) this way if I love to play and I love to compete and I love to win.’

I said, ‘Why do you play Pop-a-Shot? You want to win? Why do you play ping pong? You want to win? I walk in there and you’re all fighting with each other to try to win, so what’s the difference? Compete; compete to win.’ That’s all it’s about.

Is it a tough sell to get them up for Mercer?

It’s not about Mercer; it’s really about them. It’s about us. I’ve said from the beginning, football is very simple people are very complicated; and what we’ve go to do is learn to play football at the highest level every time we walk out here, whether it’s practice or whether it’s a game, and that’s on me because they’re a reflection of me. That’s what I’ve told them. I get ready for every practice, I get excited about it. I get ready for every game, they need to do the same.

On preparing the same, regardless of the opponent

People want to say, ‘This one is bigger than this one.’ They’re all big. Coach (Gene) Stallings told me one time, ‘If you think it’s not big, lose it. Then it’ll be big.’ That’s just part of the deal.

What's the conversation like with fourth-year juniors who decide to graduate and move on?

Some guys aren’t going to play a lot, some guys aren’t playing a lot and they can graduate. They came here to graduate and that’s their deal. If they want to graduate and they’re not playing a lot here, they want to go ahead and play somewhere, that’s what graduate transfers were put in for.

If they graduate and they don’t want to play somewhere else, they’re through, then we’ll help them get jobs. That’s the good thing about the graduate transfer rule; it gives guys who aren’t playing a lot or satisfied with their playing time a chance to go somewhere else and be eligible immediately.

Is that the same conversation if you need their scholarship?

Same one. You don’t need the scholarship if they’re playing great.

What's the focus over the next month leading up to signing day?

Same thing. You constantly have contact with the guys. We have official visits set up, we have a weekend, I think the 6th and 7th, and a huge weekend for the 13th  and 14th. So, we’ll bring all the guys that haven’t been on official visits in. A lot of them will still come to the game this weekend with Mercer and then you plan on all of them signing on the 18.

What about with others you're still recruiting?

You just keep recruiting them. That’s what you do. You constantly recruit them and you try to figure out what kind of chance you’ve got. You don’t want to be foolish and spend a lot of time with somebody you have no chance to get and then it cost you another one.

If you lose a couple at the end, then you’ve got two extra scholarships, then you look at transfers, you look at possible graduate transfers or you look at the possibility of signing somebody on the second signing day.

Do you expect them all to sign next month?

Yes, but football and recruiting are simple; people are complicated.

Is that communicated to them?

Yeah, and most of them want to. If he doesn’t sign on this date, let’s put it this way: if you were engaged and had your marriage date set and she said, ‘I’m going to move it back a month,’ you’d probably wonder why. If they’ve told you they’re signing on signing day and they don’t, there’s concern.

On 12 early enrollees for January

Yes and that’s an NCAA rule. It’s a problem; we’ve got more guys wanting to come than we can (take), but you have to have a guy graduate in December before you can replace him and I hate that. We’re going to have some guys that are going to graduate in June that aren’t going to be on our team and aren’t going to play in the spring, and we can’t bring these guys in. We’ve got some really bright kids that want to come early and I hope that’s a rule we can change.

On why UNC has been able to sell out every game up to this point

I think it’s excitement for the future, I think it’s hope. The fanbase wants to see their kids try and these kids have tried; they’ve really tried. We’re not as good a team as the one that played against Miami, South Carolina or Clemson — we’ve lost a lot of guys — we’re a different team now than we were then, but they’re still fighting and I feel like our fanbase knows. We challenged them early about, ‘These kids are going to play to the level of excitement you bring. So, if you’re committed to it and fill the stands, then they’re going to play like you fill the stands and it matters. If you don’t it’s a harder sell for me to say they’re really pumped up about this; they’re just at home.’ So, I really, really am pleased with our fans and excited.

I know it may rain on Saturday; I don’t care. We’re going to be there, players are going to be there … so, fans need to be there, even if it rains. Get a rain coat. If our guys are going to play in the rain, you can sit with a rain coat and stay dry; you’ll be a lot more dry than they are.

You're close to another sellout for Saturday. What does that mean?

This is a great message for recruits and for our players moving forward that we’ve sold out every game.

What's the biggest perception you had to change in recruiting around the state?

That we were the cool place to be. We’ve lost so many in-state guys. When we were here before, we built this on in-state guys and great players from out of state, if there was a player from out-of-state that was better than the in-state player. We are the state university and the high school coaches love having us win because it sends a message about high school football across the country when we win as well.

I think that’s the biggest thing is, ‘It’s OK to come here again; we’re going to win, we’re going to have full houses, we’ve got great facilities and the future is very bright.’

Does that become easier when you get a few top guys to commit?

When we were here before, the guys that were here recruited the other ones. When you have a great one come here like a Greg Ellis, like a Dre Bly, like a Brian Simmons, Ryan Sims, Ebenezer Ekuban, you start checking that list; they recruit others like them. When a guy that’s out there can see that the best player in the state or the five best players in the state are coming, they say, ‘This is pretty cool, I want to be on that team.’ Everybody wants to win and they want to join other guys that win with them.

Are there any similarities between Myles Dorn and his father, Torin?

Yeah, they’re so much alike. I have to be really careful that I don’t call him Torin … that’s been really cool.

Antonio Williams originally committed to UNC before going to Ohio State, then transferring. What do you take from his story?

I think, No. 1, it sends a message to in-state guys, ‘Look at home first.’ If he had it to do over, he’d stay here; that was the message. Try to stay at home where your friends can see you play, your high school coach can see you play and your parents can see you play easily. Don’t put pressure on your parents to go way off.

Secondly, if it doesn’t work, change it. That’s what he’s done. He’s had the best attitude on our football team, regardless. Every morning at 5:30 when I walk in there, he’s upbeat. It’s like he jumps out of bed and comes in and says, ‘Hey coach, how are you today?’ I said, ‘I’m fine, how are you? How do you get this happy?’ He’s worked that way. He has been as big a joy to coach for me as anybody I’ve ever coached; he’s been that much fun, and I’ll really miss him.

Do you hope to work in older players or younger guys if you have the opportunity on Saturday?

What we want to do is win the game. We have no luxury of thinking about anything. In fact, if you look at our history, you would think it would come down to the last drive of the game; every game but one has. We’re treating this game like we treat every other game.