Third fault game. We need to win a game. We had to, uh, win the turnover ratio. We lost it 3 to 1. Uh, we need to win the game. We had to win the kicking game and they had a punt return for a touchdown and we just had one kick off. That was decent and we actually had a, a punt bounce into one of our players and it was one of the turnovers. Um, defense played the run pretty well. Um, their quarterback did a really good job of getting a couple of big plays in the passing game. I thought Connor competed. I didn't think we helped him enough. Uh, we didn't give him enough protection. Um, so, um, felt like again, um, game should have been closer. You look at the, the stats and game should have been closer than it was, but the credit to them, it wasn't. Questions. Coach Andrew Simon with Shelby County reporter. How impressed were you with Connor Harrell in his first start today? And what, and what you hope to see from him going forward? But Connor did really well. He tweaked his ankle in the first quarter and he couldn't run it or second quarter. I think he couldn't run as much and that hurt us because he's really fast and made some great plays with his feet, which tried to open up a little bit the second half and, and didn't protect him as well. And then the other part of that is when you get down and you have to go, um, you, you lose your balance and, and again, we didn't protect well enough, but I thought overall he did a lot of great things and, uh, this will really help him going into spring practice for the defense had a pretty good stretch in the first half, but it was bookended by the first play, 75 yard and then 27 seconds left in the half, they go 63 yards to kick a goal. What was the, the problem at the end? And, and what do you remember from the f from the first play that went wrong first play? We talked about stopping the run with the number one run offense in the country and they got one on one with our corner and their guy beat our guy and they made a perfect throw. Um, uh, Miles Murphy nearly hit the quarterback as, as he was, or did hit him as he was releasing it. So it's, uh, it's a game of inches and, uh, give them credit for that. And then I thought the defense played great and pulled us out of trouble so many times and then he made some great throws right before the half to, to get a field goal out of the 20 seconds when 27 seconds when you got 27 seconds and two time outs in college football, that's still a lot. We had a minute 29 when we went down to score and we had three time outs and we didn't even need them. We kept them all. So, um, give, give them credit. I thought their quarterback played really well. Um, I know obviously this game so, uh, is fresh but I guess kind of as you, you know, take the way that the season kind of progress. How do you kind of go about characterizing it and maybe how would you characterize the? Yeah, the, the thing, I, I just talked to Jones Angel and I talked to the team. You, you're nine in one last year and you didn't finish well part of its schedule, but still you got to some good teams to win then you're six and oh, this year and you didn't finish well. So we got to figure out why we're not finishing well. We're, we're so close. Uh, we don't want to hang around eight and nine. We, we said we, we needed to get there. Now, we've gotten there and we got to get over that hump to get to more. So, uh, my job the, the next month or six months will be to figure out why are we doing so well early and not doing well late. And you, you can look at everything and everybody's got an opinion. I'm the one who has to make the decisions, opinions are easy and unimportant decisions are what's important and they have consequences. And I'm the one that has to make those. So I've got to really figure out and I, I can't figure it out right now, why we can't get over the hump at the end and, and I've got to figure that out and, um, it's, I've been doing this a long time, so I'll, I'll look, uh, hard, I'll sit down and talk to every coach, I'll ask them their opinions, um, because they see it every day, I'll ask players their opinions, uh, but we gotta get it fixed second road, right. Grave Hill. 999, 10. Coach Brown after this loss. What's the immediate message to the team or is it just too raw right now to, uh, go back and just look back and reflect in the overall season as a whole? Now, you, uh, uh, this is, uh, uh, again, people who aren't involved with these kids every day don't feel this, this is the last time we'll see some of these kids. It's the last time this team will ever get together. So you have to be really careful. Some of those kids get in the car tonight and they drive home. Uh, so the, the message was that I asked you not to quit and to fight your guts out the whole game. I thought they did that I didn't think anybody laid down and quit during this ball game. And that was really important. Uh, nobody thought we were gonna win the game except the ones on the team or me and our coaches. Uh, but we had a chance and, and we didn't finish it like we should. So, uh, the message is thank you to you, seniors for doing so well, academically. Thank you for representing your families and our football team, right? Thank you for doing everything, right? If we can help you with the NFL, if we can help you in the job market, let us know because that, that's what we bring you here to do and tell you. And we've told our guys a lot of your nil is North Carolina degree when you get out of here. So then we've got to help them get jobs and then we told the guys that are going into the transfer portal. Thank you for playing so hard tonight and we'll help you if, if you haven't found what you want. So let's make sure we do that. Um, and, and then we've told the other guys that, uh, let's all work this thing out. Let's figure out why we can't get over the nine and eight hump. Uh, because that's, that's really important for us to do a lot of good players coming back. Uh I told the guys, I was proud of a lot of guys that played tonight that didn't have to play and I'm, I see Miles Murphy out there fighting his guts out at the end of that ball game and that's, uh I'm, I'm proud of that for him. Second row in front of me. Adam Smith was in South Carolina Mac. Um What did you see on the interceptions that Connor threw, that they both pretty nice scoring opportunities for you and you didn't need to have that. Like, what did, what did you make of those? You know, the, the both of them were to deems May the tight end, uh that he hadn't worked with before really? Um I thought the first one probably was a force. Uh It was over the middle, um And there were two safeties there and he, he had a chance but threw a little high. Uh The second one was inches away. The young guy made a great play and Deans is gonna have like a 20 to 30 yard run. May score. Uh but the guy jumped up and made a great catch and Connor didn't get it quite high enough. So he'll, he'll learn a lot from tonight's game. Wsjs given it, Charlotte. How disappointed were you by the turnout? And were the points you had to go silent count considering how loud they were? No, in fact, uh, it was a, a great opportunity for us to, uh, have the coach to quarterback communication and coach, the linebacker, safety communication. It's the first time we've ever done that. And, uh, and I thought it worked pretty well. I mean, there are a few times that Connor would say, say it again or something. But, uh, because we hadn't done it before, but I, I thought it helped. I thought the, the fact that we use the uh um the uh videos the ipads on the sideline will be a great help in the future. We didn't get to practice that because we, we didn't have a setup for it at home or Providence Day um in, in time. So I think all that will be a help. Um The crowd is what it is. So and give, give West Virginia credit for their crowd. I mean, they um instead of talking bad about ours, I thought theirs was great that that was, I was impressed the breath coach skip form news and record. Uh You have had these late season, I feel like we're better with Collapses. Did you find one thing for one year and hope you fixed it and then you get to this year and then that didn't work or is it something you're still trying to figure out why it's going on? Well, it's something I'm still trying to figure out or I damn sure would have fixed it. I'll feed that, that that, that's it. But, um, you know, again, you look at everything, you, you, you look at who you're playing, you look at who you're playing with. You look at your depth. You, some people say we're not strong enough and we wear out. We get tired in the second half of the year. Uh, some people say we don't play enough players and we get tired. Um, um, uh, it's not like the coaches took off at, at, after nine and one last year and decided they weren't gonna coach anymore. It's not like they don't want to win. So, um, you know, some people, uh, West Virginia is so proud of their team tonight and they won nine. We won eight. It's just that they won in the end last year, we won the same amount they won. People were griping because we didn't finish well. So, uh, I think you just gotta, you gotta figure out who you are and, and, um, I gotta figure out what we can do better and, and try to do that and that's my job and, and like I said, there's a lot of opinions with people that don't have any information. I'm the one that has to make decisions. Those opinions are easy, those decisions are hard. Yes, Mike, uh, Mac Michael Kwchl and Chapel road.com. You sort of alluded to this before. But what did the immediate, uh, days after this look like for you? When do you start those, you know, evaluations on the trip back to Chapel Hill or do you wait until maybe next week or something like that? No, I, um, I go watch the video tonight and watch every play and I grade it and I take the positive things that happen and put them in one area and I put the um concerns negative things that happened over here. Uh I look at how many plays each player played. I do, I do all the things that you all will be picking on tomorrow, uh, tonight. Um, and, and then I've talked to a number of the coaches, I'll continue to that. Uh, I'll probably let everybody get home, uh, before I do it tomorrow. But, but I'll, I'll start immediately and, and start looking at what I feel like needs to be done to, to make this better. Two more questions, check her out. Yeah, this is the first time that Amari Campbell really had, you know, a full game, uh, alongside Howard in that linebacker spot. How would you assess the way that, uh, he performed, you know, getting that, you know, you know, I thought just, just watching the game, he'll, there'll be some things like probably the tight end going across the middle or the, he probably should have gotten that guy after a play fake. He's gonna be really good. I saw him make some instinct plays tonight. He's really physically loves to play and I was amazed that. I thought he in power really did a good job of, of playing tonight. So I'm, I'm really proud of him and Caleb Cost did, he didn't look like he didn't belong out there. And that's the first time he's ever played other than special teams. So, uh, but I, I thought both of those young guys stepped up and then, um, came and Rucker, they couldn't block him. Uh, they just quit dropping back because they couldn't block him. Des Evans forced a couple of holding penalties too and batted some balls down. So I thought those guys played really well, but, uh, some, some of the guys on defense stepped up. Last question, coach, when we talked to you yesterday, you said that one of your, your main focus is gonna be addressing the defensive situation in the next couple of weeks. Where do special teams fit in with that? You guys have given up the kickoff return, the punt return kicks blocked. They've been like every week. It seems like there's almost something there on the special teams. How, where does that fit into your process also had a P return for a touchdown and, uh, did some great things in the kicking game. Um, it's always harder when you have some opt outs and some injuries because freshmen tonight were ones that made a lot of mistakes that hadn't played any on those special teams. So they had to step up. But, um, I, I think again, Noah Burnett did a tremendous job. Um, Liam Boyd kicked off well, all year we had, the one returned. Um, special teams was second in the AC C last year. We'll see where they were this year. Uh, but it's an easy question tonight when they returned to punt for a touchdown. So, uh, it was a poor punt and we had bad coverage, so I'd like not to do that. Ok. Thank you. Thank you.