#UNC coach Mack Brown press conference ahead of Saturday's home game with Georgia Tech

let me start by saying this is the um cancer awareness wiek for our game and

and we are dedicating the game to uh Ty craft uh we're not sure he'll be able to

come we're hoping he'll he'll feel better by then um and I appreciate all

the thoughts prayers and and uh the GoFundMe that that was put forth to try

to help the family people have really stepped up and done a tremendous job in that area so please keep Ty and and his

mom September and your thoughts and prayers and please continue to support the the GoFundMe program because it's so

expensive for for people who are sick and we have another player on our team that that has cancer Cal tyranny it was

a tight end it's been more of a Miracle on the other side where Ty is fighting

Cal's doing so well and he had some cancer removed in the spring he's not playing but he is working out every day

and around the team and and um and sometimes we talk so much about t that

we forget about Cal so we want to make sure that that everybody knows he is doing very well and progressing and each

of the players will pick someone in their life that is affected has been

affected by cancer a family and and they will dedicate the week to them and and um that that's something that that we do

each year so uh but again uh continue to to pray for Tyle I'm going to wear a

shirt all week um we we'll wear t-shirts in his honor for the below walk on on

Saturday um because this is a big week to pick him up and and uh try to help

him move in forward um also the it seems like there is progress in the mountains

we want to continue to to have thoughts and prayers in the mountains I I love how people have stepped up so many of

the country music stars Eric Church just donated a song and uh they're talking about concerts and so people are are

trying to help and it's a it's a long hard road but U when everybody pulls

together this country can be really really powerful uh and we've got friends that are talking about not being able to

go back to school maybe all year what do you do do you move do you have homeschool um you don't have a house for

two months do you live I mean it's some some really tough stuff that's happening

in the mountains and and one of the things we all have to be careful of is when a tragedy a disaster tragedy like

this happens and we all embrace it and we we work hard to to help and then if

we're not careful as it slows down we we go away and and they don't have as much help so we got to make sure that we

continue to fight I also wanted to say that our thoughts and prayers are with Grace of a call I saw the head

that he took and um we got tough games hard hit so we want to make sure he is

he is moving forward and doing well I used to ride all the guys that would get hurt like that if they were key players on teams and NCAA told me I couldn't do

it anymore because it was tampering uh so it's just amazing how things have changed so I can say Grayson we're

thinking about you and hope you have a a full and speedy recovery um the game

against pit I thought we we played really hard uh it was two really good teams it was a great game U they made

more plays than we did in the end and really it came down to to third and fourth downs we were seven of 21 and and

we got to do better in that area they were 10 of 17 and then we were two of five touchdowns in in the red zone and

they were four of six and other than that we were better in penalties we protected the ball we had a turnover for

a touchdown our kicking game was really good um so there were a lot of really

positive things that happened but we still didn't make the plays to win the game we're experienced enough on offense

with our our offensive line but I thought they played better they're getting better each week jacobe didn't

even go through spring practice I think he'd played 58 plays before this season and hadn't started a game so he gets

better every week uh but you go back we drop a touchdown pass we have a pass over thrown that's wide open in the end

zone for a touchdown we don't make fourth and one we're two of six on Fourth Downs in in uh on our end of the

field so all of those things win the game and then there's about six seven

plays on defense that we give up big plays um so we we've just got to go ahead and start making those plays um

and and that would would have been the difference in this game for sure uh struggled in the second half we were

looking at why we're not sure talked to chip about that today uh we've been outscored in the second half in the last

two weeks that's usually not who we are um but the uh offensive line played much

better and we just got to continue to grow and and and get better um

defensively uh quarterback and tailback are the two guys we had to stop we

didn't stop them they made the plays so we've got to we got to take away what they do best and and uh we we didn't do

that had a lot of great plays on defense we're playing consistently well and then

we're not we're giving up the big play again so we we've got to get better and we've got to force more turnovers Caleb

cost had a with a great plays of the year with his interception for a

touchdown but that's the only turnover and we had our hands on two other balls in the air we had the ball on the ground

twice and didn't get it we just got to start taking advantages of opportunities

uh and we're we're not doing those we said penalties we were much better um in

that area uh we won that that battle uh special teams look more like we did the

first three weeks kickoff return Nate McCullum had two really good ones um we

were really close on a couple of block punts uh but we still got to change the game but we did win the kicking game uh

and that was a a huge part of it and the phase um as we were looking at at the

the the video after the game Georgia Tech Brent key as the new head coach

he's done a really a good job this is his second full season he was an offensive line at Georgia Tech they're

4- two uh they're a lot like Pittsburgh they're physical they can run the ball

but they they've got Hayes Kings a really good quarterback that's a dual threat he can run and we didn't stop the

running quarterback last week very well uh but he's also got an outstanding arm coaches kid out of Texas he's a transfer

from Texas A&M Jamal Haynes is a really good running back he got over 100 yards against Duke he was a converted wide

receiver they use a lot of Shifting and motion and and they've got really good skilled people so they they do a good

job of getting the the ball to their skill people in space uh they're only giving up 19 points a game so they're

playing much better defense than last year last year we had a shootout with them uh but they're they're playing

great defense right now their Rush defense is only giving up 87.5 yards per per game and 44 eford

Kyle eford leads the team and tackles with 42 and he's all over the place he's really a good player and he's he's fun

to watch um you look at college football in general it's crazy right now it's

down to um who makes the best plays at the end because there's just a a fine

line between most teams there's some that are better than everybody else and everybody else got a chance each week

you look at vanderbel beats Alabama number one Alabama they did it by keeping the ball 40 minutes uh

Washington gets beat by ruers last week and beats Michigan Michigan last week

beats uh Minnesota by three points Minnesota goes and beats USC then you look at &m beats Missouri

badly Missouri is a top 10 team you start looking at Miami is down 25

against C and comes back wins Virginia has an 184th quarter in

wins if you look at James Madison as good as they looked against us they got beat 19 to 21 against Louisiana Monroe

uh it's just it's uh really really crazy uh to see how college football is right

now because you just don't know every week that you walk out there it's exciting but we're headed more toward

the NFL I'll bet you we'll end up having some eight- win teams in playoffs because you you just got to you got to

make the plays each week and and that's just something happen so from our coaches we've got to continue to coach

better people that coach the best are going to be the ones that are going to win because it comes down to those 10 plays a game and and that's what you got

to do I thought our guys were ready to play I thought they played really hard we've just got to continue to uh help

them as coaches and and and help them make plays

questions 10 around 10 each week for you guys or maybe in this week was there maybe more because of the big plays

defensively and some of the missed opportunities on offense yeah no there were eight80 defense and they're probably like I said

we Dro a touchdown pass we don't make a fourth and one a pass is overthrown with the end zone that could have been a touchdown we don't make four of the the

six fourth Downs that all could have been tou touchdown so um you could ask

chip exactly I sat down and I went over all eight with the defense this morning and why and what happened and what we

could have done differently how do we start having fewer um and then I I just did the same thing with the offense and

I'll I'll do the same thing with the Special Teams this afternoon you mentioned the fourth and one the other night you were talking about analytics

you've talked a lot about analytics the last few years when did analytics become a thing for you and was there any form

of analytics when you were at Texas and if so did you rely on anything like that

yeah Andrew it's a it's a good question I haven't thought about it so I'll I'll try to give you an answer here when um

when we were at Texas and we started playing Texas Tech and Mike Leech was going for fourth down every time he went

for 13 fourth Downs against us one time in Austin I think he made four of them he said I was going to get beat anyway

so what the heck we'll go for it um so we made a decision when we were playing

Mike Leech if we cross the 50 there were no field goals everything was fourth down because you're going to have to

score touchdowns because he was going to score some touchdowns uh so that was kind of analytics we didn't know it at

that time there wasn't such a thing and and now we we get report every Monday um

we really get it Sunday so we go over at the staff meeting this morning and they agreed with everything we did except one

they thought I should have gone for the fourth and two uh that we didn't go far on the

minus 30 I think uh and we punted and we held them so we made the right decision

and they said we would have told you to go for it the way it worked out it worked out fine because you stopped them

and got the ball back so um what I told the coaches is that there's one thing to

go for them you got to make them now if we kicked three field goals and those other we' still got to beat but um we

would have had a better chance but we we knew we had to score touchdowns going into this game because they were a team that scoring a lot of points um so you

take the analytics and then you take it to the momentum of the game and then you put it in what's best for your team at

the moment so I take the analytics every time and I go with my gut to do I think

is best it's like at the end of the game they helped us some by throwing incomplete passes uh because then we

could use our timeouts and and you've got to strategically use all your timeouts which actually would have given

us a chance and we nearly intercepted the pass right before the field goal if

we do that I mean we're driving a score to tie it up instead of them getting 10 points so U analytics is something that

all us are looking at like like I said after the game I think is um

when we start the game I will turn to Alex Mars and when we get the ball and

it's first and 10 at the at the 20 25 um they will say one yard is a

go so if it's fourth and one on the first drive they're going to go for

it analytics now Pittsburgh was fourth and two at the minus 45 on the first

drive and it bothered me because they immediately analytics would they go for

fourth and two at the minus 45 and I mean they didn't think about it they didn't look at the punter they got

people on the field and went for it immediately so uh I knew it was going to be that type day that they felt like

they were going to have to score some points so you you can just tell by the feel of the game what the other team's

thinking and also Andrew we always look at who uses analytics and who doesn't for the other team because we'll

know who's going to be more if you're using analytics you're going to be more aggressive and you're going to go for more

if I can ask quick follow up on that how often do you find yourself excuse me when you only have a handful of seconds

to make a decision where your instincts all those years that you became a Hall of Famer and everything kind of fight

against the analytics but you you have to sort of have an internal squabble there for a couple seconds how much you deal with that I I grew up as an

offensive coordinator so I want to go for every one of them I want to score touchdowns I don't want to kick field

goals and everybody says well you should have kicked the field goal there's no guarantee you going to make it

ours is good so we've got a higher percentage uh but but no I am an

aggressive go for it um confident gives your team confidence when you go forward

but you got to make them and you sit there two out of six and we just went over all all six of those to show

exactly what we did and what we should have done differently um to to decide

this week as we're looking at Georgia Tech and we look at our game uh will we

be aggressive this weekend defense overall um we played the best

defense we've played but we've been inconsistent there's times chip when I look at it I told the players us

yesterday I said it's amazing you all look great and then we give up a big play I mean those are those are things

we can't do so I met with a defensive staff an hour this morning and said okay here are the eight out of 77 plays

there's eight plays that make a difference now there there's not those other 60 something were really

good so they made a difference but here's eight that we've got to do better in and we went through every one of them

and said is it too much did we not practice it enough in practice have we

got the wrong Personnel out there was he tired should we have call time out I mean what what changes these eight place

and the same thing the second half against Duke uh and that's what you got to do you got to change and sometimes I think are we have great kids on this

team and they're really trying and sometimes I think they may be trying too hard they're trying so hard that they'll

overrun and Tackle or they'll get in the wrong place because they're they're trying so hard to get there and get out

of space so we we've got we got to push them we got to keep picking them up but

also you don't want to have kids trying too hard and they mess up because they're so afraid that

they're going to mess up that they're they're playing tenative too

too hard make a play something El those big you're talking Jeff will talk to you

about it because I I went over with coordinators this morning and and the entire that side of the ball that staff

uh but it's just the the hardest thing about coaching is to take the mistakes figure out why they were made uh was it

a coaching era was it a player era was it somewhere in between were they playing too hard trying too hard they

were all focused they really tried they really wanted to win and that's why when I walk off the field and we've played as

hard as we can um I I can handle that then we as coaches have to help direct

them better you on football running more you guys

definitely done that but then I'm also like watching them like you nice to have some more big plays like you guys used

to have so I mean you sense that too like hey is there like a happy medium

offes you had we we had we had an hour with him this morning as well and and said um we're you know we when you've

got a completely new offensive line and you've got a quarterback that's as inexperienced as jacobe you're really

trying to figure out who you are and then by six games he he didn't even play in the first one uh played a little bit

in the second one so he's four games into this uh and we are getting better we had a 19 play

drive but we're not having the big plays and that's because we overthrow a

touchdown uh we we drop a touchdown pass and and right now we don't have the

margin of era to do that we've got to make those plays so our our biggest

takeway from the weekend was make five of those 10 plays that are out there and we win the game I love receivers playing

a lot saw Jordan ship was out there got you kind of searching for somebody to

step up to be that guy like joshs had a great game Saturday when you don't

win the game we don't give credit to those that play great well he had a bunch of catches he

had 10 catches that's the second best game he's had I think since he's been here Minnesota last year was his best

one I think were 15 six catches then uh but um no we wanted to play more players

we're trying to get more guys in the game um but we just got to make plays we

we have a couple of guys open and we miss them Chris got a chance at a a Post Corner we

overthrow it so we we just got to we got to protect better got get jacobe going

he made some great plays but but again we're about like everybody else so we

we've got to do a better job 1995 the team got off to a three and three start and then one four out of six

and kind of set the table for the final two years that you were here what allowed them to turn the season in the

middle of things and do you think this team has some of those similar enemies

yes I said from the beginning that U I feel like this team will be one that

will keep getting better you got a new defensive coordinator uh We've shown signs of playing great defense it's just not

consistent U the offensive Line's been I mean we've lost the coach we've lost all

three inside guys at some point the two tackles are just rookies that are playing um ja lewiz has been hurt but he

played more Saturday because he's he's getting back in the mix some U so I feel like the offensive line will just keep

getting better each week we had our second team backs been out he he played six plays all year um the quarterback

didn't go through spring we didn't think he'd be playing this year so the offense has had a load thrown at him and and

they're they're really working through some things we just just talking to the coaches a few minutes ago you have a 19

play drive that's hard to do uh but we've got to get more explosive plays and we're not turning the ball

over offensively except for the James Madison game and and that was horrible but but other than that we haven't

turned it over we're really taking care of it uh so we've got to have the the physical confident team that beat

Minnesota on the road um with a better passing game and and that's what we're

we're going back and and looking toward and and telling guys that U we just

talked about Ty uh we just talked about the mountains uh we just talked about

the cow life's tough so these are Great teachable Moments to learn and when

everything's not rosing you're not walking around everybody's not bragging on you and everybody's questioning a lot of the things you do time to grow up be

tough and handle it and this will help you later on in your life M you talk about fixing a lot is it and nothing can

ever be perfect I'm sure but uh do you find yourself fixing things every week

and do it is it more frustrating to you when you have to fix the same thing yeah no

I I think again AR it's a good question uh there's some similar things that you

have to get fixed but usually if if it's the same thing you usually change the player that that's it because but if are

you doing too much are you working on the things that you're doing in the game enough in

practice are you getting the ball to the right guys are you with the our

protection we didn't protect well against James Madison we didn't protect well against you the protection was so

much better Saturday the blitzes didn't get there we didn't have the same problem so uh we're fixing things that

there's usually more to fix with a new offense because you're not sure who you are so you're trying to figure it all

out and then you're leaning on what you do best better um and we were work we

didn't I think we had one sack we didn't get a sack but we only gave one sack Saturday so we're actually protecting

better than we have since we've been here um so there are positive things

it's just when you lose the game everything becomes negative U so we have to go back and and

really do a good job of saying these things were really positive nobody wants to hear it but these things are really

positive so let's build on them let's fix these things and again you go back and if it's if it's a repeat you usually

have to change the player how do you the situation like the team you're going

to play Saturday Georgia Tech Jeff was just the head coach there obviously you have some experience yourself personally

with coming back here with Texas all those years ago and whatever it was 2002

um how do you as a coach keep from taking a game like this personally yeah um I can say I I really

didn't I love North Carolina nobody really understood the circumstances of

leaving and it it didn't matter nobody was going to listen anyway so uh when we

had the game in in Austin we had just lost a player and really and

truly it was all about him and his family we lost him to a car wreck in the spring it was our first home game a

truck wreck uh it was Cole Pitman remember it like it's today so I'm sitting there with that family who's

lost their child and trying to honor him on a game thought I'd be fighting North

Carolina I really wasn't I mean even at the end when we um major Apple White and

chance mock when we scored 44 said that's CO's

number let's take a KN so I call time out to make sure we didn't kick the extra point because the kids winded step

44 well all my North Carolina buddies got mad at me they thought I was calling time out to run up a score and go for

two um when I never thought about any of that stuff I was just trying to to honor

that young man at his family we had him on the field before the game I had the family in the locker room after the game

so um other than seeing my North Carolina friends and seeing the players that I had recruited and coached on the

field after the game I was all into trying to win the game and honor of that kid that was it when we came back here

it was interesting it was a a drizzly day and M mcarter was our offensive line coach he and I look a lot alike and he

walked out on the field before I did and he got booed and um he came back in and said man are they mad at you and I said

that's why I sent you out first I wanted you to be the test drum and then I remember after we won the game I came

back in and and people said how do it feel to get booed at Chapel Hill and I said oh I got booed here for 10 years so

I got I'm used to that that's not it but but I I never ever took it personal I I I didn't just you you coach

your team you do the best job you can do so I talked to Jeff this morning a little bit he took the Georgia Tech Team

back to Temple right after he lost he left temple okay and his team at Temple

was a lot better than his Georgia Tech Team so I didn't ask him to score but he didn't sound good um so he's done this

before and and he'll and he recruited a bunch of these kids so it's emotional

but you you can't take it personally that that's not what you do and most of

the world doesn't care only the the Texas and North Carolina fans cared when I came back

here nobody else cared uh and after it's over nobody remembers it or cares so it

it it really it would be very very selfish for you to think it's about you when it's really not it's about the kids

in the two universities so did you if I could follow on that so did you get did

Jeff give you a laugh today when he told you that like when like he took okay yeah well I told him I said I've done

what you're about to do and he said me too okay and it wasn't good so he said I'm good I've moved on we need we got

things we need to fix on defense and we got to play better so he'll that's what he'll tell you in a minute I'm sure I

was just going to add very quickly you said nobody care that game was an ABC Prime Time game wasn't it which one when

you came back here I don't even I think it was an ABC prime time it was pretty good yeah but but you know again if you

if you're doing if it's all about you this doesn't does last long it's got

to be about your players it's got to be about your team it's got to be about your place and again I'm the one that

schedule the game so I thought how stupid was that when I went to Texas that that scheduled the game that was a

how does that happen I mean really why did you because the it's a great

question Mar but the the BCS was not letting people in unless

their SK out of conference schedule was tough and I was trying to improve our out of conference schedule so we could

get in the BCS because they didn't have a champion gets in that time and uh it

was just the the four teams uh so we actually scheduled home and homea Texas to increase that schedule and then here

I am so I thought well that's stupid M you always you said recently have tough

these loses on you personally trying to better just in the way back machine you

one and 10 two years in a row what did you learn about yourself as a coach is any of that carried forward through the

years when things probably chip I I I really hadn't

thought a lot about that either but I I learned that uh um you get a lot of

advice when you're losing um a lot of people have a lot of answers I've always thought when you're even assistant

coaches can give suggestions they can't make decisions uh so when your your boosters are giving you suggestions they

can't make decisions and they don't know all the problems but they're they're full of thoughts um and your friends and

your children by the way they can help you too with some things um but I I do

think I I remember we lost a navy and that was probably the lowest moment of my coaching career outside of losing a

child that can think about that as compared to anything else and I I think

I remember telling John sord after the game you should fire me I should quit

this is awful I mean we we can't keep doing this and he said well nobody else will take it it's too bad so I'm not

going to fire you um and I thought yeah that's probably true um because Navy had

not won a division one game in three years and we lost to them on a pass down

the middle that I I'll never forget um so um but I could see recruiting was

going well and we were getting better as I said we we couldn't look at

wins and losses we had to look at winds that were um like some of the things I'm

talking about today if we gained more yards than they did if we didn't fumble the ball if we those things were WIS so

we were having to find our winds uh but the kids were playing hard and and I I really feel like chip um when you you

spend all your life recruiting these kids and then you're coaching them every day if they go out there and they do

everything they can do and try their hardest and I thought our coaches did that Saturday and I thought our players

did that Saturday then you come back in and you try to help them correct things but I can't handle a team that doesn't

give everything they got that I I just can't coach that that that's that's so um don't like losing

but if we do everything we can do and then we can fix a few things and keep doing it then then I'm okay with having

100% just tell anybody here that we ever lose 41's nothing again turn the scoreboard off when the game yeah I

think that was stupid of us to keep it off yes I know obviously last week cam

was kind of working his way back in there and he got in a little bit the other day when did you guys know that

he'd be able to be able to play even though it was a little bit when did you guys figure out you know he'd be able to

play and what was just kind of you know the process of getting him out there and everything like that yeah Thursday night

it was that late in the week because we wanted to make sure that he was 100% healthy he was practicing

um and Jeff and Ted did a great job of sitting down with him and saying we know

you're not going to be out there 70 plays we know you're not ready to do that because you're just working

yourself back in uh and here's where we'd like to use you we'd like to use you on third down only we'd like to use

you in this one package and and Cayman was good with that so he told us Thursday night that he he felt like he

could go and then kind of going off with that uh in the plays that he did have since looking at it how did you feel he

was I know that first play he had the quarterback hit and everything else uh what did you notice about I guess how

effective he was you know even in that limited snap count that he do yeah I I think he's going to be back to who we

knew real soon he uh there was a um I think a screen to the left to our right

their left down on the goal line he was all over it so Jeff can talk to you more about that here in a minute but but I

really think he's uh he he'll be back ready to go I think he needed to be out there and have some plays and know it

was okay and now he's ready to go I saw him last night at dinner and I said you

is your mind right CU I've had the operations and and a lot of times it's what uh Kobe pacor been fighting you you

break bones and both feet and you don't get touched it's not an easy just walk

back out there and do everything you're supposed to do and be okay because you're not sure every time you plant for

the footb bre uh so I'm sure practice is different than a game and Cayman had to get out

there and then he he got to the quarterback the first time but he didn't get hit so you got to get hit you got to

get knocked down you've got to make sure that it's okay M you talked about out on Saturday how before the game against pit

you made the decision that we're going to go for a lot of these four downs because we got to scor touchdowns was that sort of a maybe an uncomfortable

conversation to have with Noah because you just saying hey we may not use you as much

this game yeah you don't have that with Noah because you want him to be ready for every one of them and again all day

yesterday and today we went over all six uh there were six fourth downs we made the first two um I thought you you look

at pit you also look at the other team how aggressive they're being pit comes out it's Fourth and two to minus 40 and

I mean they don't even puddle they're at the line of scrimmage going for fourth and two so I knew they felt like like

they were going to be going for it U because I would not have gone for fourth and two on our minus 40 on the first

drive um so all of that has an effect on it last few

years you know game G their way I don't know if it was just schedule spot team

Overlook them or whatever it may be but now they're coming here they're the favorite I is that you feel like Hey

we're not going to this time the team's aware let's get over this you know we had a a great game with them after we

clinched the uh division title uh right after we beat Wake Forest we came back

and we didn't play great I think we got beat 217 U we had a 75 yard touchdown call

back for holding that wasn't holding um our best player who' never dropped a ball in his life drops a

touchdown pass uh it's kind of like Saturday I mean those plays that are there to be made that's a 14o swing and

we'd won the game we wouldn't be having this conversation last year it was a shootout and what 45 42 46 46

4642 uh and I mean down to the end where we're driving to to try to to score uh

right at the end so they've been great games the the other one Jeff was the

coach and we were in the U Mercedes Benz and and we turned it over too many times

um and that was right after we' killed Virginia uh we go down there and we

let's go back to analytics that's a fourth and two uh on the minus 45 on the first

drive and I asked our offensive coordinator you you good you got it it

says go and he said I got it and I think we lost three um so there you go for analytics analytics

are good when you make them um so and then the the quarterback they had Jeff

had at that time Sims my God he comes off the bench and he plays most

unbelievable game there's ever been uh so uh this has been a it's been a good

game for years I remember when I was here before I think the thought was and the

oldtimers we could never beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta and they couldn't beat us here uh we tied them 1010 in 1990

when they won the National Championship excuse me they tied US 10 to 10 they had to kick the field goal a time we didn't

have overtime at that time and then uh gosh they were top 10 and we beat them

here with um Bill who was their head coach Bill Lewis

uh and tore down the goalpost and that's when they took him down to Franklin Street and I got in trouble I said I'd

like to see that again the chancer call me and said we could have kids die don't be talking about tearing down go post so

um but it it's been it's been a great series up there in ' 97 did you shut him

out up there in ' 97 yeah but it was um I think it was the week before the

Florida State game it was down there on a Thursday night and it was a fight I think it was like 28 24 I don't think we

shut them out

yeah yeah but the games have been good because I I remember Hamilton was a

quarterback and he was really talented so with what chip said about the 8889 n

seasons was there a moment in 1990 where you thought okay this team has turned

the corner this is going to start being a lot better soon was it the George Tech game was it something in the preseason

what sort of tipped you off yeah I think it was nron number one because we could run the ball uh and then we found Jason

stac uh who was a really good quarterback um and he was a freshman and

and we were starting to play better defense but I I do think that

um I remember we were 64 and one and had Georgia Tech had tied us and then they

wouldn't let us go to a bowl game because we were I think we were invited to the Independence Bowl we were all so

excited but it was during finals and Chancellor hard wouldn't let us go so so

that was another tough thing that set us back but uh then the next year we got a little bit better so that that got us

going and we knew we I I remember saying to Woody Durham at least now we we U

let's see what what was the

quote at least it's it's not if it's it's not if it's when that's

what it was and I actually put that quote up in my office for a while to keep looking at it we're going to make

it uh we finally broke through don't know when but we're going to be good and

we're going to be good at some point because we're recruiting well and we're starting to get better thank you M you

played six games you have six more you're at the midpoint here um if you

were Professor Brown how would you what kind of midterm grade would you give this team and this coaching staff also

well you you want to win all games so you're 5050 as you look at it and I

thought that Pittsburgh's probably the best team we've played and if we had played the

other five games like we played Pittsburgh we'd be 5 one

uh so um that that's just where we are now you you look at it on the positive

side you got a chance to be nine and three because can't get better now if you look at every game that's left you

can win every one of them or you can lose every one of them as you look at it there's not much difference each week in

in all of these ball games so what we've got to do and I've told the coaches I we

are in a business that has to win so what we have to do is start taking these tight games like Duke there's a play or

two I like it pit there's a play or two the James Madison thing was crazy that was awful was just a bad day um but

these other two these other games are going to be just like that and we as

coaches have to do a better job coaching than we've ever done in our lives to take those plays that aren't working uh

and make them work and and that's what it's getting down to I told the players

I said you you think they're having conversations that are Alabama

today I mean everybody that loses now has got tough

conversations and and the fact that the clock runs faster when somebody can hold

the ball against you you can get beat I mean that's one of the great things Georgia Tech does they they

dominate time of possession so because they can run the ball and and their

quarterback's really really talented but he's a dual threat so that's what you

got to look at this weekend how much tougher the conversations when you've lost three in a row with to with the

players and do you see them receiving everything the same way do you know the um a lot of people um start pointing

fingers and I told them the other day make your focus so strong that you don't let

distractions um get in the way and and that's what you got to do it's a great learning experience for them um and we

don't blame players what we do is sit on the video and show them exactly what

happened and and show you got to number one show them why it happened what

happened why it happened who did it and then what we're going to do to fix it that's our job we we don't sit and gripe

we we don't sit and do this and if a player continues to make the same mistakes at some point you change

players if you got someone else that can be in his position but that's what we do so when the players say what happened

you show them and and you you have to be careful because you want to show them the positives and you also got to show

them the things that didn't do didn't go well that you can fix but it's really

really important for the players it it'd be healthy for the fans when you sit and watch 68 great plays on defense and then

here are the ones we got to fix the players can say God they play good man we got to make a place that's it and you

got to make them on Tuesday and you got to make them on Wednesday uh and I've also said U um Joel clad had a great uh

little analogy of a month to go about while there will be more upsets why there will be more upsets in modern day

football in the past and it was all about the distractions that kids have

that they've got um social media we didn't have any of that they've got it

good and bad after a win they brag on them too much after a loss they beat you up too much and it's somewhere in

between always the truth when you're never as good as they say you are after win you're never as bad I told the guys

yesterday after we win I get back and watch the video and I'm mad because they same made plays uh that we got to fix

but nobody sees them because you win everybody lets them go and then he said and you got U

agents that are talking to you all the time then you've got transfer portal

first time you get mad uh then you've got nil I want more money he's making more I am I'm making

I'm not making enough uh well I had a good game well I need more money um so

it's uh then you got school um then you got tampering you got agents calling agents

to say if they're not getting him a ball enough we we he can come to us man um so

that was and it was really cool but but I I I watched it and I thought that

makes a lot of sense to me they got a lot of things on their mind right now that that we never had and it it it's

going to lead to more distractions and it will lead to to uh to more upsets