What Mack Brown said after UNC football’s win over Minnesota
The North Carolina Tar Heels are 3-0 to start the 2023 college football season, with three wins over non-conference opponents.
The latest win came on Saturday afternoon as they beat a previously unbeaten Minnesota team 31-13 backed by the play of Drake Maye who threw for over 400-plus yards. It was Maye’s best performance of the year despite throwing two interceptions and finding Nate McCollum in the offense certainly helped.
While UNC’s run game struggled, the defense picked up the slack overall and turned in a solid performance. They held Minnesota to just 13 points total and made some key stops in their own territory when they needed to the most.
Before we flip the switch over to Pitt game week, Mack Brown met the media following the game to talk about how things went. Here is what Brown had to say after the win for the Tar Heels.
On Nate McCollum
UNC coach Mack Brown on Nate McCollum’s monster 15-catch, 165-yard receiving day, a week after Omarion Hampton’s 234-rushing effort with 3 TDs:
“It may be a different guy every week.”
— Adam Smith (@adam_smith_IC) September 16, 2023
On non-conference schedule so far
Mack Brown: "Playing a really tough out of conference schedule is something people aren't really doing anymore and we did it – with three wins. I'm really proud of them. Now we've got to enjoy this one and head to Pittsburgh because they always play great with us …"
— InsideCarolina (@InsideCarolina) September 16, 2023
On British Brooks scoring a TD
“I didn’t know that… we needed to get in and I thought we were in twice. But I also thought we were killing the clock. And the faster we got in, the less that clock was gonna run. Now with these new clock rules, every snap that you can take off gets the game over much faster. So, it ended up being a blessing and that player is supposed to hit to the right and British has an amazing knack of his patience. He waited and then cut back to find the hole. So really, really proud of him.”
via Inside Carolina
On Minnesota taking away the run
“They had an extra, that safety was down a lot. And he was making a lot of plays on the runs. So I think that was the biggest thing. And that also gave us the ability to throw the ball.”
via Inside Carolina
On Nate McCollum's role
“Well he became Josh Downs for us today. He was the go-to guy. Now next week, Pittsburgh is going to start putting two on him and somebody else will have to step up. And I’ve never seen anybody do it better than Drake. We’ve had some great quarterbacks, but Drake has a knack of finding the open player. And he’ll do that next week.”
Via Inside Carolina
