Coach Brown highlights Carolina football progress through week 1
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00:00Good morning, everybody.
00:10Morning, Coach.
00:13I felt like after reviewing the game that it's exactly what I thought on Saturday.
00:19It's the perfect opener for us because you're 1-0, which was your only objective.
00:26You wanted to stay healthy, and we were able to do that.
00:29And at the same time, we've got a lot of things to fix.
00:32So a lot of positives should gain some confidence,
00:37but you can coach your guys so much harder after a win than you can after a loss
00:41because usually a loss, they're down and they're struggling and you've got to pick them back up.
00:45Now their expectations are high, like our fans and like college football people across the country.
00:53So they learned that we're living with different expectations.
00:58Going into last year's game, we were coming off two wins and nobody knew if we'd win any games or not.
01:03And here we are.
01:05We win 31-6 and people are questioning quarters now.
01:08I remember that happening when we got really good here before.
01:11Well, what happened in the second quarter, man?
01:14I thought, well, they don't count quarters.
01:15They count games.
01:16So proud of the guys.
01:18We got a little frustrated in the second quarter.
01:20When you go back and study it, the offense only had the ball twice in the second quarter
01:25after Daz fumbled a punt and Sam had a tip ball that was intercepted.
01:30So overall, though, the game was good.
01:33You go back and look, it's the first time that we've won back-to-back season openers
01:39against a Power 5 team since 96 and 97.
01:42So we've told the guys that.
01:44That's impressive.
01:45They've got a four-game winning streak for the first time since 2016.
01:50More impressively, the last four games, our defense has averaged holding opponents
01:56to nine points and only 247 yards a game.
02:00And that's unbelievable in modern-day offensive football with the rules
02:05and the way people are spread out and the plays that they're making.
02:09It's the first time a Carolina defense hasn't given up a TD since Idaho in 2012.
02:17More impressively, it's the first time a Carolina defense hasn't given up a TD
02:21to an ACC opponent since Duke in 2009.
02:26We tallied seven sacks, 11 tackles for a loss.
02:30That's the first time we've had that many since 213 Pitt,
02:35but also harassed the quarterback throughout the day
02:38and had a lot of pass breakups.
02:40So the 202 yards allowed were the fewest that we've given up
02:45since the 198 to Boston College in 2009.
02:50So that was the last defense that looks like it played great.
02:55And that was against some good receivers.
02:58I thought two of those guys could really run at Syracuse.
03:01And Tommy DeVito was really impressive coming into the game.
03:05He didn't have a chance because of all of the pressure to throw the ball
03:09like he would normally want to.
03:12I think we've improved on defense because of our confidence, our depth,
03:16and we're stronger in the secondary.
03:19We've got more people that have played, and they're more confident,
03:22and we can play more man coverage.
03:25And when you get pressure like we did, you don't have to cover as long.
03:28That's what Dre Blough always said.
03:30All those great players up front when he was here
03:33harassed the quarterback so much that he didn't have to cover very long.
03:38We would like to see more forced turnovers.
03:41We had one fourth down stop on Taman Fox's tremendous play on the zone read
03:48with DeVito, and that's like a turnover.
03:52But also we only had the one other turnover,
03:55which was the interception by Geo Biggers,
03:59and that was later in the ball game.
04:01Offensively, and we played 26 players on defense throughout the game.
04:06So that was an objective that we wanted to complete.
04:11Offensively, we played 31 players throughout the game.
04:15We had the 463 yards, 31 points.
04:19All came off of drives.
04:21We didn't have many short fields.
04:22The one shorter field was a pump return by Daz Newsome.
04:27Five for five in the red zone.
04:29Four of those touchdowns.
04:31The other one we threw a fade that was out of the back of the end zone.
04:35Then Sam has to scramble on second down, and he gets sacked on third down.
04:39That's the only time we kicked the field goal and didn't score.
04:43I do think the second quarter that we probably scored so quickly
04:47in the first quarter that the guys probably felt a little good
04:52about themselves, thought it would be an easy day.
04:54But at the same time, we didn't have the ball.
04:59The Syracuse front was good.
05:01Their secondary is good.
05:02It will be one of the better secondaries that we play.
05:04Those three guys up front could really move,
05:07and I thought their defensive coordinator did a good job disrupting things
05:11in the first part of the game.
05:14We only gave up two sacks, and those were things that we can fix.
05:19Sam had two interceptions.
05:21One of them was just a bad decision to throw deep,
05:23and the other one was a tip ball.
05:25As our team has a really high expectation, Sam does too.
05:31People expect him to complete every pass every minute,
05:34and he is a human being.
05:36We didn't go through spring practice.
05:39Obviously, the preseason was disrupted,
05:43so I was proud of the way the guys handled everything offensively as well.
05:48It's also amazing that neither team had a fumble, a strip,
05:53because the ball that hit Daz on the punt and fumbled
05:58was not a strip fumble.
06:00So both teams took pretty good care of the football.
06:03We look at our kicking game after watching it.
06:05I'm really excited about it moving forward.
06:08If you go back and look at Ben Kiernan as our punter,
06:12he really did a good job of punting, and we had good execution.
06:17It's probably the fact that you don't tackle in special teams,
06:21but the first punt return that they had where they had the block in the back,
06:26we have two gunners run right by the punt returner,
06:29and that's what they've done in practice.
06:31I mean, but they've got to tackle a guy,
06:34and I think that's just the fact that they had not done it before,
06:38and then after that, our punt coverage, protection and coverage,
06:41was really, really good.
06:43Jonathan Kim kicked every ball out of the end zone
06:47or back into the end zone where they couldn't return it on kickoffs,
06:50and he'll be a real weapon for us throughout the season.
06:54Grayson Atkins, we could have gone for the fourth down with his 50-yard field goal,
06:59but I wanted to see him kick it, and it was into a light breeze,
07:02and he had plenty of leg.
07:04He just pulled it a little bit, and it hit the crossbar, but he was one out of two.
07:09He made the 31-yarder and had a chance at the 50.
07:15You take Daz Newsome and Michael Carter
07:19can be dynamic punt and kickoff returners.
07:22We get people spread out and get the ball in those guys' hands.
07:25They can make a lot of people miss them, and I was proud of Daz.
07:28After he fumbled the one punt, he came back
07:30and really showed what he can do with people
07:35that are going to punt it to him throughout the year,
07:37even having the punt return for a touchdown
07:40that had the block in the back by our young rookie.
07:45So that was tough for him.
07:47People ask about penalties after the game.
07:50Officials have a first game, too, and some of those are close.
07:55We've turned in a number of those to the conference office today,
08:01but we did have too many penalties that were called.
08:04We had nine penalties, and that's too many.
08:06We had 10 in the South Carolina game last year,
08:09so that's something that we have talked about every day
08:13but something that we do need to and want to clean up.
08:17But I do feel like we've got great possibilities
08:20in our kicking game for the rest of the year.
08:24Players of the week, Chaz Surratt could be the player of the game every week,
08:28but the defensive coaches went with Tamari Fox
08:32because he was so disruptive up front.
08:34The offensive players of the week were both running backs
08:37because they're as good as anybody.
08:39Those two guys are special, and they block, they catch,
08:42they're very unselfish, they kind of substitute themselves,
08:45and we're very proud of them.
08:47And the special teams player of the week was Daz Newsome,
08:50and that was obvious with his punt returns
08:53and what he's showing for the future.
08:57Playing with expectations is different.
08:59Like we said, we're 12th and 11th in the polls today.
09:02We've told the guys that's all good and that's cool,
09:04but with that comes expectations that you'll continue to play well and win
09:10and that you are going to have criticism over a quarter
09:12and you're going to be scrutinized very carefully
09:17with every little thing you do.
09:19And I've lived this world.
09:20They haven't in a while.
09:22So it's just something that they're going to have to understand.
09:25I said you don't play well Saturday, you won't be rated.
09:28That's just the world you live in.
09:30So if you call it pressure, you can.
09:31I call it pride.
09:33It's something that you've got to improve.
09:35Playing Charlotte this weekend, we were supposed to play Central Florida
09:39at Central Florida, Auburn in Atlanta, and Connecticut here.
09:43When all of those got canceled, you'd have to ask Rick Steinbacher
09:47how we got to Charlotte, but I think we wanted an in-state game if we could
09:52to keep the money in state the best that we could to help the universities
09:57because obviously athletics departments are struggling financially
10:01across the country.
10:03So that's one of the reasons that the schedule was Charlotte.
10:07And they had a game canceled, I think, with Tennessee,
10:10so they were available at the same time.
10:13Will Healy is their coach.
10:15He's a good friend of mine.
10:17He's one of the best young coaches in the country.
10:19He's smart.
10:20He's got high energy.
10:22He's very innovative.
10:25I love watching him, and he's a superstar.
10:28He's got it all moving forward.
10:31His guys play with the same energy that he has on the sideline.
10:34They're really well coached.
10:36I love what they do offensively.
10:38They've got a bunch of shifts and motions and eye candy.
10:41They run the ball to stay on the field, and at the same time,
10:45they've got play-action passes in a lot of different ways
10:47that can catch you off guard.
10:50So that's something that our defense will have their hands full
10:53trying to figure out this week.
10:55They also had a kickoff return for a touchdown against App State.
10:59We didn't play well against App State last year,
11:01and we know how good their program is,
11:03and it was a 21-20 game going into the fourth quarter on the road.
11:07So I know that they'll be ready to play, and we better be ready to play.
11:11I'm also impressed with Chris Reynolds, their quarterback.
11:14He's a real leader and a tough guy.
11:17He's a guy that the players have a lot of confidence in.
11:21Questions?
11:23Okay, as a reminder, please use the raise hand function
11:26if you have a question, and also identify yourself
11:29and the immediate affiliate you are working with.
11:33First up, Andrew Jones.
11:35Please go ahead.
11:37Andrew Jones with Target Illustrated.
11:39Coach, I think Syracuse had three rushing first downs Saturday.
11:44They were all quarterback scrambles.
11:46What did you like that you saw from the interior front
11:49that kind of prevented Syracuse from having any success
11:53running the ball and converting anything?
11:56The quickness out of Ray Vahasic and Tamari Fox
12:01has been very impressive in preseason camp.
12:05Those two guys can move.
12:06They're strong.
12:08They're hard to block.
12:09They've been difficult for us to block.
12:11So I thought they really disrupted a lot of things up inside.
12:15We got in a couple of areas where we had the wrong lanes
12:19when we were rushing, and the quarterback scrambled
12:22and made some plays, and that will be an issue this week
12:24because Reynolds can scramble.
12:26But that was the biggest thing.
12:28And Tamari Fox is always back there.
12:31He's always in the backfield.
12:33So I thought that those three guys were really,
12:36really disruptive throughout the game.
12:38And on the other side of the ball,
12:40you guys didn't have a lot of rushing touchdowns last year,
12:43certainly not when you were in the red zone.
12:45You had three in the fourth quarter.
12:47How big was it for you guys to show that you can –
12:50that that part of the game might be improved,
12:52that you're running the ball in tight situations better
12:54and you're able to get in the end zone with the run
12:56when you're in the red zone?
12:58It was really important.
12:59It's something that Coach Longo and the offensive staff
13:02has worked so hard on.
13:04It was one of our number one emphasis going into spring practice,
13:07and we missed that.
13:09And then we didn't get a lot of summer work,
13:13obviously, with the pandemic.
13:15So that's something that our coaches have worked on every day in practice
13:20is short yardage and goal line.
13:22We were five of 13 on third down, so we still need to improve there.
13:26But we felt like that you get the ball down around the goal line,
13:30we've got to be more physical at times than we were last year.
13:34So four touchdowns out of five trips to the red zone
13:37was really, really important for us to walk away with.
13:40The one time that we had to kick the field goal,
13:44Sam checks to a fade on first down at the 11.
13:47He comes back and scrambles on second down and gets it to manageable,
13:51and then we have a sack on third down.
13:53And that's the only time we didn't get a touchdown,
13:55but we came away with points.
13:57So very, very pleased with our offense down around the red zone.
14:02Thank you. Appreciate it.
14:03Thank you.
14:05Andrew, you had a bad press conference, too, with your speaking.
14:08You need to pick it up, man.
14:10I'm going to blame the headphones and the speaker on the headphones.
14:13Can't blame anybody.
14:14No excuses, no regrets.
14:16I know.
14:17It was not a pretty game film yesterday on my microphone.
14:20I understand.
14:21I heard people griping about your post-game interviews, though.
14:24I said you've got to pick it up.
14:26No, that's not the first time.
14:28Or the last, right?
14:30Yeah, true.
14:31Thanks, Coach.
14:32I've been criticized before, too, so I get it.
14:37Our next question comes from Aaron Beard.
14:38Aaron, go ahead.
14:42Hey, Mac.
14:43Aaron Beard with the AP.
14:44With the penalties you guys had, you just talked on, obviously, there's, you
14:48know, first games for officials, but too many penalties.
14:51What did you maybe were the most concerned with about the penalties you had?
14:56And I don't know the way that offseason and preseason went,
15:00like if that also was a factor with, you know, with scrimmages
15:03and, you know, having officials there,
15:05things you might have done normally that you couldn't do.
15:08Aaron, we've had officials at every practice,
15:11and we've had very few penalties the last 10 days.
15:13So, I was surprised and disappointed.
15:16A lot of the penalties were in the kicking game,
15:18and you aren't doing that as live as just like the kickoff coverage,
15:26kickoff returns.
15:27Our kickoff returns, we had two guys just get run over that were young guys,
15:31and they'd been working against the scout team, and, I mean,
15:35they get run over.
15:36And they came over the sideline and said, okay, I got it.
15:39This is full speed.
15:41I got it.
15:42It's not scouts anymore.
15:43So, I think some of those penalties probably were because it's the first time
15:48you are going live against really good players,
15:51and Syracuse has very good special teams, and they're well coached,
15:56and we knew that coming in.
15:58Secondly, I thought some of the penalties will turn into the conference office
16:04because, you know, you've got to look at them, and they're very questionable,
16:08and we're all human.
16:10Players are human, but the officials are human too.
16:12And sometimes they miss some, and when they do,
16:15all we can do is send it to the conference office and ask them to evaluate it.
16:20And the hardest ones are holding and pass interference.
16:25Those are always the toughest ones early in the year to figure out exactly what
16:31you saw and making sure you call it right.
16:34But it's an emphasis we have every day,
16:37but it gives us a chance to go back and emphasize it.
16:40I think the first two games last year we had 10 in the opener
16:44and maybe 10 in the second game.
16:47We had way too many penalties in the first two games last year.
16:50I remember that, and hopefully we can clean up some of that this weekend.
16:55Mac, to follow up on that, I was about to ask you about last season
16:59because you went from 10 penalties to one in your second game against Miami.
17:03You had one penalty in that game.
17:05Are guys more receptive to – you said you can coach them a little harder
17:09and you win when you win despite mistakes.
17:12Are guys more receptive after a first game in that type of situation
17:16to fixing those types of mistakes?
17:18Absolutely.
17:19We'll show every penalty.
17:20We will say we don't think this was a penalty.
17:23We're sorry.
17:24We think they called it wrong.
17:25We'll say you messed this up.
17:26You can't do this.
17:27This is a hit in the back.
17:30This is holding, and here's why it's holding.
17:34And then we may even have the official talk to them about it at practice
17:37like we did last week when they see one of these in the game.
17:42So that's why they say, Aaron, and coaches say it to nausea,
17:48but you improve the most between the first game and the second game.
17:51I think it's because you've got a lot of work now
17:53and you've also got things that you can correct.
17:56And that's why you improve so much between week one and week two.
18:00Thanks, Mac.
18:01Thank you, Aaron.
18:03All right, next question is from C.L. Brown.
18:06C.L., go ahead.
18:08Hi, Coach.
18:09C.L. Brown with the News and Observer.
18:11I was wondering if you could take me through kind of your method
18:16to making halftime adjustments.
18:19Obviously, the game is, you know, you can make it in between series.
18:23So I was just kind of wondering,
18:25what do you hold to kind of elaborate further upon for, you know,
18:29to get to the locker room to do as opposed to just coming
18:32and tweaking on the sidelines?
18:35C.L., you try to tweak it on the sideline,
18:38but it's an easy time to get all your coaches together with me at halftime,
18:44and I get to tell them what I'm seeing and what I'm thinking,
18:47and they split up.
18:48And we've got really,
18:49really good coaches that have been doing this a long time.
18:52And they all decide what is working, what are we seeing on defense,
18:58what will work better.
19:00And they talk about it during the game, obviously,
19:03and you try to make some adjustments.
19:05But as I said, the offense also didn't have the ball in the second quarter.
19:10They didn't have it much.
19:12And Syracuse moved it some.
19:14And then not only did we have the drop punt by Daz
19:19and the tip ball by Sam, we also roughed the punter,
19:23or we would have had another series at the end.
19:26So it wasn't just the offense in the second quarter.
19:31It were a lot of things around the offense that led to the issues that we had.
19:36But everybody talks about halftime adjustments.
19:39You're exactly right.
19:40You try to make the adjustments throughout the game.
19:43And we probably made those adjustments in the second quarter.
19:47They just weren't visible because we didn't have the ball.
19:50All right.
19:51And a follow-up off of the penalties you mentioned earlier,
19:55you sent a few to the conference office.
19:57I was wondering if one of those was the hit on Sam that they reviewed to see
20:03if it was flagrant and decided it wasn't.
20:05Yes.
20:08Thank you.
20:11Okay.
20:12Next up is J.B. Ricks.
20:15Hey, Coach.
20:16J.B. Ricks from Spectrum News 1.
20:18Congrats on the win.
20:20You mentioned a lot of firsts taking place in your introduction.
20:24And forgive me if I missed you mentioning this,
20:27but you guys are ranked 12th, I believe, in the AP poll.
20:31It's the highest ranking since the late 90s
20:33or whatnot for the Carolina program.
20:35How easy or harder is it for you to keep that as a distraction
20:42or not becoming a distraction for your players considering the circumstances
20:46of this entire college landscape right now?
20:49J.B., I think it's the highest ranking since Larry's team won 11.
20:54I'm not sure, but Jeremy could check that for you.
20:57But it is the first time that we've won opening games
21:00against Power Five teams back-to-back since 96-97.
21:05So what we do is we take Sunday to talk about the goods and the concerns.
21:12So anytime we see the ranking, I told them after practice yesterday,
21:17you were ranked 12th and 11th.
21:19Good for you.
21:20Congratulations.
21:22You did that because you finished well last year
21:26and you were ranked that way because you played well Saturday
21:29and beat an ACC team by a large margin.
21:33The only way that stays is you keep doing that,
21:36and you have to keep doing it week to week
21:38because people still aren't sure about you.
21:40You're the new kid on the block.
21:42So they're going to wait and see, and if you keep playing well,
21:45you'll be rated.
21:46If not, then it's gone, and then we do not mention it again.
21:51But Sunday and Monday is our time, or really Sunday,
21:55if you've got the ratings at that time.
21:57It's our time to talk about the state of college football
22:00and the state of the program.
22:02And then we say, let's drop it and go to work.
22:05That's it.
22:06I told them it's a lot more fun to play with expectations and win,
22:11but it's a lot harder because people start circling you on the schedule.
22:16They play you differently.
22:18They come in thinking now they have to upset you,
22:20where last year they did our first two games.
22:22Nobody thought we were going to win either one of them.
22:25And you've got to play hard, and you've got to play hard every week,
22:28and you've got to play well every week.
22:30And they can see now that with the scrutiny
22:33and people uncomfortable with their second quarter and their slow start,
22:38that they're going to be scrutinized much more
22:41than they were last year at any time.
22:44So that's just part of the life you live with
22:47and what it's going to be like for them moving forward.
22:50And I said, that's the way you want it.
22:53You want people holding you to a very high standard.
22:56But to do that, you've got to practice that way every day
22:58and you've got to play that way every day.
23:00And we'll see if they're ready to do that.
23:04Thanks, Coach.
23:05Thank you.
23:07Next question comes from Dena King.
23:09Dena, go ahead.
23:11Hey, Coach.
23:12My question, you got a lot of talent at the running back
23:15and wide receiver position.
23:17How big was it to get the tight end and Garrett Walston established
23:22so early in the game?
23:25It was really important, Dena, to get Garrett the ball.
23:30We had another we thought would have been a touchdown to him,
23:34and he got hung up at the line of scrimmage and couldn't get out.
23:37And there were a couple other targets to him that just didn't get to him
23:41for one reason or another.
23:42So we want our tight end to be a factor in what we're doing,
23:46especially as people are going to back off of us a little bit
23:50and try to make us throw the ball underneath.
23:53Syracuse said, you're not going to beat us deep.
23:55And last year we got so spoiled we'd go out there
23:57and just throw it deep to Deami or throw it deep to Bo Corrales,
24:01and we weren't able to do that as easily Saturday.
24:03So we can't force those things.
24:05We've got to learn to have more patience offensively,
24:08and that's where the tight end will come in.
24:10But Garrett played an outstanding game, period,
24:14a block that he made for Javante on the corner.
24:18He was one of the key reasons that those red zone offensive plays worked
24:23because he was such a good blocker inside the box on his kickout blocks.
24:28So it was definitely the best game that Garrett Walston has played
24:32since he's been here.
24:33Thank you.
24:36All right, let's go over to Greg Barnes.
24:38Greg, go ahead.
24:39Hey, Mac.
24:40Going back to JB's question about expectations, you know,
24:43last year the guys weren't sure if they could win a game late,
24:48and the confidence building was a big aspect of last year.
24:52So now you're having to talk to them about they're getting some criticism
24:55because maybe they didn't play a quarter as well as some fans
24:58or media would expect.
25:00Did that confidence change?
25:02Was that something you could see kind of switch on a dime?
25:06Or was that just a slow, gradual process
25:08of the coaches really working with the players?
25:12It was a gradual process.
25:13The players started asking last year, how do you win?
25:18I mean, how do we do this?
25:19What are we doing wrong?
25:21And what I've told them is just like we took yesterday the three plays
25:30before the fourth quarter punt to Daz that the defense had a three and out.
25:34Syracuse punts.
25:35Daz runs it back to the 35-40 yard line.
25:40Sam throws to Diami, and we run it in.
25:43And we're talking about the process of winning.
25:47It's everybody.
25:48It's the defense that holds them.
25:50It's the punt return for field position,
25:53and then two quick plays for the offense.
25:55That's how you score.
25:57It's not roughing the punter.
25:58It's not dropping the punt.
26:00It's not getting a sack or throwing an interception backed up
26:04because our defense had three, I think,
26:06sudden changes in our territory where they made them kick field goals
26:10or stop them.
26:12So I think it just continues to be that process to win.
26:16Everybody gets frustrated and says, what a bad second quarter.
26:19Well, the defense didn't play a bad second quarter.
26:22The special teams messed up twice, and the offense threw an interception.
26:26So what we try to do is be practical and show them exactly what happened
26:32so they won't get emotional about it.
26:34I thought offensively we got frustrated some in the second quarter.
26:38And I got frustrated some in the second quarter because I was mad too.
26:43My job and our offensive coach's job is to figure out why and go back
26:47and sit down and be practical about it and not be mad about it.
26:51And that's where I think that it's a process of them learning how to win.
26:58And even it's funny that all my buddies after a win in the state are texting
27:03me saying, well, it's good that you and Sally finally showed up at halftime, man.
27:08Great win.
27:10Or somebody said, yeah, what did you do?
27:12Did you go in for the second quarter?
27:14Did you see it?
27:15So I get about 15 or 20 text messages like that.
27:19And what I ended up saying, 1-0, mission accomplished, thank you.
27:24Go to sleep.
27:26That's it.
27:28But I think that's the process that you have to teach your team.
27:32The players will hear, well, you stunk the second quarter.
27:35No, you didn't.
27:36We had a tip ball.
27:37We had a drop punt.
27:38We roughed the punter.
27:39Those are three things we can fix.
27:41So our job is to figure out how to fix it and let them see what they could have
27:45done to do better.
27:47The other thing it is that you just don't go blow people out.
27:50I mean, they got scholarships too.
27:53And you can win a lot more games in the fourth quarter than you can the first quarter.
27:57We've always said those two-yard runs in the first quarter become 12-yard runs
28:01in the fourth quarter if you've got your momentum and you're beating people down.
28:05It's like a heavyweight boxing match.
28:07And the longer the game goes and you're playing a lot of depth with confidence,
28:11then you beat the other team down the fourth quarter.
28:14Thanks, Mac.
28:17All right, last one for Coach.
28:19David Hale, go ahead.
28:21Hey, Mac, appreciate it.
28:23You mentioned a few of the special teams problems.
28:27I don't think that was unique to UNC from the games I watched on Saturday.
28:32Do you feel like the odd offseason, the lack of typical practices,
28:37and some of the changes that had to be implemented due to the virus showed up
28:42potentially on special teams more than they might have showed up other areas?
28:46David, I do.
28:48And it's because you don't get to do those things as much in spring practice,
28:53and they're harder to do.
28:55You're also using a lot of young players on special teams.
28:59And maybe those guys, a lot of them haven't even been in a game before
29:03or they haven't played very much.
29:05I think the other thing, David, is I asked our guys Sunday, yesterday,
29:10when did you think we were going to play?
29:13And it was really interesting.
29:15Some of them didn't think we were going to play until last Sunday,
29:18and some thought maybe 10 days ago.
29:21So by and large, these guys, in their mind, they were practicing,
29:25they were trying, but they weren't prepared to play a game 10 days ago
29:29or maybe even a week ago.
29:31And then they look up and say, oh, my gosh, I think we're actually going to play.
29:34Man, we better get ready to go.
29:36So after watching the NFL as strange as it was last night
29:41and yesterday some for no fans,
29:44I think it'll help all the teams in their second week a lot more
29:48than the first week just because we'll be more prepared for no pageantry
29:52and no band and no cheerleaders and no students
29:55and no bell tower walk when you walk in.
29:59Everything is so different that it'll be more normal this week.
30:03And I think because of that, everybody will have a chance to play better.
30:07Do you mind if I follow up on that real quick?
30:09When did you think for sure that you were going to play?
30:13I thought, I didn't think we were going to play
30:16after the Big Ten and the Pac-12 decided not to.
30:22I thought everybody would just say, let's forget it.
30:25And I said this last week, David, but I'm so proud of John Swofford, the ACC,
30:30the presidents and chancellors in the ACC, and the athletics directors
30:34because they did it right, in my opinion.
30:37They took their time.
30:39They asked the medical experts if it was safe.
30:42And all of our players said, we want to play, our coaches wanted to play
30:46in this league, but not if it wasn't safe.
30:50But they took their time.
30:52They watched pro basketball and baseball and football and hockey
30:56and learned from them.
30:58And when they thought it was safe for us to play,
31:02they were 100% to turn us loose.
31:04So I really felt like we would play most of the time
31:11since those two conferences pulled out.
31:14When the NCAA was looking at whether they would have fall sports or not,
31:18I thought that might derail us, and it didn't.
31:22And then when our campus had some positives,
31:25I thought that might derail us, and it didn't.
31:28So I was concerned at a couple of times there, but by and large,
31:32I thought since right before we started, I thought we were going to play.
31:37And we had to be very careful with our team
31:39because we wanted to be honest with them,
31:41and we wanted to always tell them exactly what we knew,
31:45but we didn't know for sure.
31:48And I told them that.
31:50I kept saying, I think we're going to play.
31:52I can't promise you we're going to play because that's not my decision,
31:56but I think you're going to play.
31:58And they were so happy.
32:02As far as the game and their excitement after the game and all of that,
32:07they couldn't have been any different than last year's win over South Carolina.
32:10They were really excited that they played.
32:12They were proud.
32:14They've handled all this stuff so well.
32:17I mean, so much has been thrown on these young people,
32:21and I'm just so proud of the way they handled it
32:23that I couldn't be more pleased.
32:26They've been incredible the way they've acted.
32:29Thanks, Mac.
32:32Thanks, Coach.
32:33We appreciate your time today.
32:41We will have Coach Longo here in one second.