UNC wants bowl game to be a stepping stone to improvement in 2022
Posted December 8, 2021 4:20 p.m. EST
On the surface, UNC football looks to be the lone stable program in the Coastal Division. Just days into the offseason, four of the seven Coastal teams lost or fired their head coach. Two more, Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech, lost their offensive coordinator.
As of now, UNC still has both offensive coordinator Phil Longo and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman, although that could change if either took another job or Brown decided it best to part ways with one of them.
But the saying if it ain't broke, don't fix it? It doesn't really apply. There's plenty to fix, Brown said on Wednesday when he met with the media ahead of the Duke's Mayo Bowl matchup against South Carolina.
"These meetings have been brutal. I've asked (coaches) to say whatever's on their mind because we've got to get some things fixed and this year was not what we want," Brown said. "We've got to figure out why we start so poorly on the road offensively. It's just unacceptable. We've got to figure out why we're still not as good in red zone on both sides of the ball. We've got to practice differently. We've got to figure out why I love to go for 4th and (short) and we're not as good at that."
Brown said he and his staff have gone through the tape of every game together to look at what's plaguing the team.
"This is an exciting time that I can take everything that all of us know needs to be fixed and have hard conversations with, tell me why it's not fixed and tell me what you're going to do to fix it or I have to get involved more. And those are the hard conversations we've had and I will say, to a staff member, they all are in total agreement with me. They're not ducking anything," Brown said. "They understand exactly where we did what we did well and what we did poorly. They've taken full responsibility for it. So nobody's mad. Nobody's acting like they're going to run out and point fingers at somebody else. Everybody gets it and we've just got to keep moving forward and get better."
That unpredictability that made this college football season so fun for the fans was maddening for coaches. And Brown watched a program that he'd built back into a contender slip from the preseason top 10 to barely making a bowl game.
It was a roller-coaster season for the Tar Heels. They began the year with a disappointing loss to Virginia Tech on the road. Then they beat Georgia State convincingly and won a high-scoring game against Virginia at home before getting obliterated by a Georgia Tech team that finished 3-9.
UNC then made easy work of Duke at home, and the thought was, maybe UNC just struggles on the road. Then Florida State came to Kenan Stadium and won by 10 points. That loss aged a bit better than the one to Georgia Tech, but still not the one you expect.
UNC's final six games of the season were a little steadier in terms of performance. But in those games, they finished just two of them: Miami at home and Wake Forest. They led at Notre Dame, Pitt and NC State in the second half and couldn't get those wins.
So a loaded back half of the schedule against almost exclusively ranked teams saw UNC play much better than it did against the easier portion of its schedule, and yet the results were the same: 3-3.
"Let's take for instance our last game (at NC State): if the offense makes another two first downs or scores a touchdown, there's not two minutes and 12 seconds left on the clock. So that's four minute offense. And then obviously defensively, if we make a stop, the game's over. Then on special teams, if we get the onside kick, the game's over. So those are obvious things that we need to fix," Brown said.
UNC's defense has taken the blame for most of its issues. On the surface, it makes sense. UNC's offense finished the season No. 7 nationally in yards per play. The defense was 96th.
But, Brown said, it's not that simple.
We don't need to worry about how many points we get or how many yards we get — we've got to worry about winning the game," Brown said. "(Against Miami), the offense played great for three quarters and we absolutely stunk the two times we got the ball in the fourth quarter. The Miami game shouldn't have been that close if we moved the ball and kill the clock. But we have two three-and-outs immediately and let Miami get back in the game.
"People cuss the defense but really and truly, we've got to do better on offense in those situations too. .. We've got to do a better job in one minute before the half (drives) on defense. We've done pretty good with one minute on offense, but we're not very good at third (down) and 2-4 and we've got to figure all that out. So we'll be looking really, really hard at those situations. I've been here three years, it's time to get those things fixed."
UNC is thankful to be in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, all things considered. But obviously it has some things to fix.
And the sense of urgency is even stronger considering that this will very likely be the final game of UNC quarterback Sam Howell's Carolina career.
Brown said so far, no UNC player has opted out of the bowl. And Howell plans to play in a game that will neatly bookend his career, should it be his last game. His first game was in Charlotte against South Carolina.
"(Howell) comes up and says, 'I want to play, Coach. I want to play in the bowl game. This is important. We need to win, we've got to finish this thing right.'"
Howell has not told the staff if he's entering the NFL Draft, but that's the broad assumption. Brown said he's going to stay out of it one way or the other. Howell just wants to think about his final collegiate game first.
"Normally we've told our guys if you're a first-rounder, go. But he doesn't want to be a distraction for the team just like on senior day or before the bowl game and start talking about something else. He's all about the team and it's all about winning. And I couldn't appreciate all he's done for this program any more," Brown said.
"Our job is to give him information. He and his family's job is to make the decision on what's best for him and we stay out of those decisions completely. I've seen it in a situation where a coach talked one into coming back and he didn't want to come back and he played awful and he was miserable.
"But good for Sam that he doesn't want to talk about him before this game. He knows this game is important for us. And we didn't finish a couple that would have given us eight wins, and have a chance to win nine games in the bowl game and we came short on those games. So it's really important to him that we finish right."
After the season ends, though, the work will continue. Brown said that after early signing day on December 15, some of the new freshmen will join the team briefly during its bowl practices but will not be eligible for bowl gifts and can't practice off of UNC's campus.
"Some of it is tweaking. Some of it's getting a little bit older as a team. We had a tremendous recruiting class last year. We're going to have a better recruiting class this year, most of our team was freshmen and sophomores. So we've got to learn to win," Brown said.
It was easy to be happy about where the program was after last year's Orange Bowl appearance. The sense of urgency, though, has heightened considerably now for Brown and his staff and everyone around the program to make sure they're doing all they can to improve.
Improvement, after all, is the name of the game. And Brown knows you can lose momentum in college football in a heartbeat.
UNC has recruited very well during his tenure. But as it ends Year 3 and approaches Year 4, it's time to take the next step.
And for Brown, it stops at the top and trickles down.
"We've got to have guys step up and make plays when it's their turn. We've got to coach them to make those plays better and get them in better position," Brown said.
One thing he says is working in UNC's favor, though? The players have done the first and most important thing he's asked of them: play hard.
Brown said he's been reminding his team to play hard and give them everything they have. But he wants to add a caveat. "I also said I'm going to add something: 'Give us all you've got and figure out a way to win the game at the end' because that's what we're not doing."
Some of UNC's penalties or mistakes have been due to exuberance, Brown says, and not a lack of effort. But the fact remains: to win games, those things can't keep happening.
"We've got to have guys step up and make plays when it's their turn. We've got to coach them to make those plays better and getting better position. We've got to tweak some things that are obvious that we're not doing as well," Brown said. "We've gone back through every reason for every sack, every player, we've gone through every penalty, who's had too many penalties and why. We're looking at every position for the spring to see who we should move around and who should be at a different spot, who's not carrying their load where they are.
"We've asked everybody to be very, very critical of their self evaluation and we're looking hard at the reasons that we didn't start like we should have or finish like we should have."
Last time UNC played South Carolina in Charlotte, it was the start of something promising. They hope this team it will be too.
