North Carolina
Mack Brown: It's the best time in history to be a student-athlete
Mack Brown praised the community impact his players are able to have.
Even helped that. We've got guys that are working with table to try to feed the kids in poverty in Orange County. We had 26 guys that habitat for humanity building houses the other day. So a lot of our guys are involved in the community and and what a great message we even have with IL, we call it hometown heroes. We want our guys to go back to their hometowns and give back and be involved in charity there because that's where their name is big and they can have camps and they can do things to help their community. So I do think it's the best time to be a student athlete in the history of our game. And we've got some things we need to figure out some guidelines, but they're also learning much more about giving back than ever before. Thank you. And then my last question is what play was generated on the field last season that you didn't have that much to do with. What was your favorite woman? Oh gosh, never been asked that John. I see. Yes, I would have to say it was maybe 1/4 and 32. Against Notre Dame that Drake through a hell Mary up to Antoine Green for a touchdown and we don't practice that one. I remember that. Thank you so much, appreciate going back to what you said about, you know, this being a great time to be a student now because of the n but still there are things that need to be kind of ironed out. Are you seeing progression in that area at all? And what's the next step that needs to be taken for this to get on an even plan for everybody across the question. The question is, things are better for athletes than ever before because of N A. But what has to happen to make it where it's right because we still don't have enough guidelines. And I do feel like that the politicians, each state, the commissioners, the presidents, the athletics directors and the NC A all have to get on the same page and that's a big task. And what we've got to do is get a national standard where there's some equality back in recruiting or we're going to have 12 to 16 teams that are better than everybody else. And everybody agrees that the guys have got more money than they've ever had more opportunities. And that's a good thing. But now everybody also agrees, we've got to have guidelines. I see it getting better because everybody knows we've got a problem and everybody's trying to fix it. Are we there yet. No. And do we have any answers? No. I think that's it. We're also learning some things that we shouldn't do and we can't do it and they don't work. So I just, I feel like we're making a lot of progress and I'm more encouraged than I was last year. You said that you're not a fan of scrapping the divisional war. What is it about that, that you like so much? And why are you kind of? Yeah, I like the visions because you had a champion and you had a divisional champion and then you had an AC C champion. And when we were in the big 12, the same thing happened and you're more likely now to have the same two teams playing each other again in a championship game than before. And I didn't like that as much. Plus when you've got divisions, you've got natural rivalries and now we're going to play everybody in the league, which is better than it'll be fun and all of that. But I also know that we're gonna lose. We don't play Virginia Tech this year. Virginia Tech and North Carolina are a rival game. We don't play Wake Forest this year and we've played Wake Forest every year, even though they're in the other division, we played them as an out of conference game. So we're going to lose some of what we have with our rivalries and we could have two teams play the last game of the season and then play again for the championship. Do you think that coaches in the Atlantic division where they had to play close to Florida State every year? Do you think they feel a little bit differently than that? I don't ask them about how your team is an issue. How much does the fact that Drake so many guys play a role in the fact that the question is, I mentioned that our locker room hasn't had issues with N I, why is that? And one of the reasons is Drake May, he's, the quarterback is going to make more money like in the NFL and than the other kids do. That's just the way it is and the kids understand that. But Sam and Drake have really worked hard to get opportunities for the other kids. I look out the window the other day and, and, and Drake's out there with all the offensive linemen doing a commercial that, that they wanted him to do and he said I'm not going to do it unless the offensive lineman do it. Uh, I see a seafood opportunity where all the receivers are getting fed. Drake is the one that set that up and, and, uh, so when, when you've got kids that get it and are about the team still and want to get back, uh, it, it's got a lot better chance to work. Can you give me your thoughts on him and what he's done with the program. Yeah, Frank Beamer is a dear friend of mine. We went in the Hall of Fame together and we coached against each other and, uh, we kind of grew up together that I was here struggling when he was struggling at Virginia Tech. And then we both made it and hung in there for a while. Uh So it, it's funny, I've watched Shane grow up. I remember a little kid hanging around when we were, um, coaching against each other and going to all the conventions and that kind of stuff. Um And I'm really, really proud of Shane. He's, uh did a tremendous job in his early years here at South Carolina. He's got so much energy and so much momentum going and I'm, I'm proud for him. Don't want him to win his opener, but, but I'm, I'm still really proud of what he's done. Big first two games for you guys. What that means for the state of North Carolina and how that's been. Yes, the rivalries. We're playing North Carolina Central. I think next year we're playing Charlotte in a couple of years. I think the philosophy for our administration has been, if you're going to play out of conference schools that are definitely group five, then try to play in your state. So that money stays in your state and stays in your state system. And Sean Clark is a tremendous coach. What a game we had last year, both defenses gave out in the fourth quarter. It was the hottest day I've ever seen in Boone and I've been up there a whole lot, but we've had two games that came down to the last play with them and I expect this one to be the same this year back and the trajectory of the programs on. Do you feel pressure to really make the most of that and take that next step? You know how these teams can be? Yeah, I'm driven. I don't ever feel pressure that that's if I felt pressure, it put pressure on our team. Um I don't get nervous, I get anxious because I get excited and, and, and want to go and, and to me that we've got the pride back in North Carolina football. We're four years away from winning two games and here we are, this team has gone to an Orange Bowl, been to four straight bowl games. This team has won a divisional title. So there's a lot of great things and now you're starting your fifth season with a sold out stadium, a really difficult schedule opening game on game day, one of the best quarterbacks in the country, a lot of guys coming back. So you won expectations and if you don't have expectations, you haven't done a very good job. And, and that's, this is what we came back to do. Do I feel pressured to get one last question? I want to get one last question in on Drake and, and maybe whatever lessons were learned when you had Sam and that he had to deal with and things didn't kind of live up to those expectations. What lessons are you taking from that, that you can pass down to Drake for him to be, I guess, more prepared for. What lessons can we learn for, for Drake to, to handle the Heisman hype. The biggest thing is you learn from your experiences and Jeremy Sharp, our Director of Communications had a lot of experience with a lot of Heisman hopefuls and winners at Texas. So we know what we're doing. The biggest thing is to win the Heisman, you got to win. And if we had won against Georgia Tech and NC State, Drake would have been in New York because we would have won 11 games at that point with two left. So Drake knows it's all about winning. It's not about anything else. It's not about the hype, it's about winning period beyond the personnel changes. What do you see differently about the defense this year? They're older, they're more experienced, they'll be in the same defense for the second year in a row after they changed after three years. So they'll know more what they're doing. Coach Chizik will be better after being out for five years and seeing all the changes on offense, he got an awakening early in the season too and we continue to get better last year and people have talked so bad about him and, and the narrative early was we played awful against that state and we played awful against Notre Dame. I got that. We started getting better and nobody gave us credit because you don't, there's so much going on, you just say they're bad. So they're bad for the year. We're going to do that. And those kids have heard that enough. They're getting tired of hearing it. So they're going to come in with a chip on their shoulder. Would you be in favor of freshman not receiving N A for a future program? No, because if Sam Howell was a freshman, he was our starting quarterback. I think you get N A based on what you deserve. I would like for us to start calling it, pay for play because the ones that are playing really good are the ones that are making the money and for us to say it's not pay for play seems a little facetious to me, but I don't think you could even legally say these can get money and these cannot, I think with the federal government, you'd have to say everybody has a free right to get their money. You watched him build the program as a media member and as a coach, he's stuck to his way of doing it. What do you think about how, how that, how that turned out? Yeah, that has been successful and, and he, he learned from, uh, coach and he, and Woody mccur and, and they've got a plan that plan has worked for many years and you may tweak it a little bit, but you're not gonna change it, that whatever is working, you keep doing it. I wanted to ask you about South Carolina in that game. What sort of challenge the game coach specifically? Do you think the hard thing? Well, South Carolina came out of last year with so much momentum. We did not. And that was a different.