CHARLOTTE — Here is a video of Carolina’s press conference Thursday morning at ACC Kickoff at The Westin Charlotte. Representing the Tar Heels at the availability were Coach Mack Brown, tight end John Copenhaver, linebacker Cedric Gray and quarterback Drake Maye.
Transcript from the press conference:
Q. I was curious, what is the most difficult part of being a head coach in this day and age with name, image, likeness, transfer portal, all that? Is it much more difficult than maybe the last few years?
MACK BROWN: Yes, because you’re really multi-tasking so much more now than ever before. Roster management is more difficult than it’s ever been. With the COVID year you’re not sure how many you’re going to be able to sign. We were just told the other day, you’ve got unlimited initials again this year, and we’ve been recruiting for six months.
There’s a lot of change at the NCAA level. We were just told we could bring in 120 for preseason, so we’ve got kids now that we told couldn’t come in until school started, they have to go back and start. How many can you sign? How many did you leave? How many are going to the NFL? How many are going to be in the transfer portal? Who is going to graduate and leave early?
Then NIL is just a totally different situation, and it’s more about the collective. We’re really lucky that our guys have handled NIL, and it hasn’t disrupted our locker room. I’m hearing nightmares across the country of kids being offered money and not being paid. They’re getting in the transfer portal. I’m hearing locker rooms are disrupted.
I think when people ask me after my five years out what was the biggest change when I got back, the biggest change was early signing day because you’re having official visits now in the spring and guys are committing, and in the past if you think about, we’d have guys come unofficially to a couple of games, and then you had January to have official visits and then they would all sign in February. That’s now all happening. We’re recruiting guys from the class of ’26.
Everything is just speeded up. Then you add NIL, which is a great thing in so many ways. We talk about the negatives all the time, but these guys have a better situation right now than any athletes have ever had because they do have a chance to make some money, which none have done in the past.
But you add that and transfer portal and the collision of the two and tampering, those are things that make it more difficult to be a head coach.
Q. Your offense and defense seem to be night and day at times in terms of the offense, setting records and what not, while the defense finished last in a few categories. Then on top of that, replacing all the starters in the secondary except one and the defensive back coach in Dré Bly. How do you expect to retool there while still expecting to compete and do great things in terms of having a good season and all those good things with winning?
MACK BROWN: Yeah, we had a disastrous game up at App State. I know, I was in the media for five years, and you deal with so many different people when you have an awful game like that, that gets to be the narrative. Then we did the same at Notre Dame. We didn’t play well in either of those games, and both of them had good offensive teams.
But after that we played much better in the ACC. We averaged giving up 24 points a game, which is pretty good, modern-day at least. Middle of the pack or a little bit better.
I do feel good about our secondary. We were able to hire Jason Jones who worked with Charlton Warren, one of our defensive coordinators at Indiana. That’s been a seamless transition.
I think we’re going to be good on defense. We’ve got to be more aggressive up front and stop the run more on first down because now people are — if it’s a third down and seven, they’re going to go for fourth down. So they’re going to try to run the ball on third down or hit a short pass and then go for a fourth and four. So the game has changed.
Coach Chizik has the second year under his belt. The staff will be good together. I feel like we’ll be good, and we’ll get tested early. We’ve got a really tough schedule to start the season with some very physical teams. South Carolina is going to run the ball. App State will run the ball. Minnesota will run the ball, and Pitt will run the ball.
It will be a great four games to start out to see if we’ve improved like we think we have on defense.
Q. As you know, Drake is the first Carolina Player of the Year since a guy named Lawrence Taylor. You have a new coordinator. You’ve lost some of his targets to the NFL, and yet, you say you expect to see a better version of Drake this year. What goes into that kind of optimism under those circumstances?
MACK BROWN: David, I haven’t seen you since Friday, so it’s been a while. No, Drake has had a great year last year. Best freshman year of any freshman I’ve ever seen. He just got better and better and better, and people didn’t realize until ten days before the opening game, we didn’t announce Drake as a starter.
So for him to take the role of leader and lead his football team like he did and be consistent each week, was pretty phenomenal.
Then after the season Drake came in to me and said, help me with these things, these are things I need to improve. That’s who he is. That’s why he is such a great player. He was raised in a family of champions. He was raised in a family of athletes. His dad was a great quarterback. So he is always looking at what I can do better instead of patting himself on the back.
He is a little bit like me. We have to be careful with him because he is too hard on himself, and he is always “I didn’t do this right,” well, let’s talk about what you did right too, so we can do that.
I think he was involved in the hiring of Chip Lindsey, and we have Clyde Christensen there, who coached the quest best quarterbacks in the NFL. We’ve also got Freddie Kitchens, who coached two No. 1 draft choices at quarterback. We have a lot of great help around Drake as well.
As far as losing, you lose Antoine Green. You lose Josh Downs. You lose some powerful players, but then you bring in — you’ve got some good players, because both of them were hurt some. Neither one played in the bowl game, and we had good players step up.
Whether it’s J.J. Jones or Gavin Blackwell or Kobe Paysour, you can talk about those guys that stepped up last year at different times, but we also bring in Nate McCollum and Tez Walker. Nate was very successful in this league at Georgia Tech. He has great speed. He is tough. He can run it as well as throw it, so he can make yards after catch, so he has some similarities to Josh that we lost.
Tez Walker has the most amazing story I’ve ever seen. Here’s a young guy that signs with East Tennessee State, hurts his knee. They gray-shirt him, so he decides to go to UNC Central instead of East Tennessee State. COVID year hits, so he can’t play, so he transfers to Kent State. He has a great couple of years of Kent State, and then his whole coaching staff leaves. His grandmother is really sick. She’s in Charlotte. She’s never seen him play. He transfers back here because that’s where he wanted to be in the first place. That’s where the transfer portal is so good, to help kids get where they should be in the end, and he also is going to have his grandmother see him play for the first time here in Charlotte when we play South Carolina, and then she’ll be able to drive to the home games. And I think we have seven or eight games in the state of North Carolina. Praise the Lord for her that she’s going to be able to see him play for the first time.
I think both of those guys are really good. So along with the cast of guys that we’ve got that are talented, we’ve added two guys like the two we lost.
Q. You mentioned Tez Walker and Nate McCollum, and you brought in a new play-caller in Chip Lindsey. How is the offensive end with Chip so far? Are you running a similar offense as last year and there will be different wrinkles from last year? How has that been so far?
MACK BROWN: Drake can answer that as well, but when I was looking at a new guy to come in, I wanted to keep our passing game. It’s been really good.
So I started looking at guys first that had background with the air raid offense passing game. Chip Lindsey averaged 33 points a game when he was calling plays as a coordinator at Arizona State, Auburn, and Southern Miss. He started this in high school. So he wants to keep the same passing game with a few tweaks. He and Drake have tweaked what we’re doing along with Lonnie Galloway, who is our passing game coordinator.
Then you start looking at our running game. We were really good the first two years. We were best in the league. The last two years we’ve been middle of the road, and we haven’t been as good. Running game helps our defense. The running game is our quarterback’s best friend with pass protection, and Chip had been involved with Gus Malzahn at Auburn and at Central Florida, and they run the ball so well that I think you’ll see us much better on offense in the running game and very similar to what we’ve been in the passing game.
Q. Obviously you’ve seen this conference from the inside at Carolina twice and seen it as an analyst on the outside. What can you say about the state of the ACC in your opinion, as we get set to embark on a new schedule, and no divisions and just what your takeaways have been?
MACK BROWN: I think the ACC is in great shape. The whole concern is finances. That’s what everybody is looking at now. With the TV market changing so rapidly, your all lives’ are changing all over the place with radio and TV and news print. We are at a time where there’s a lot of change, not only in our business but college football.
The thing that we’ve got to do in the ACC is keep looking at how we can make more money. The league is great. We’ve got some great teams. I think we’ve been to, what, nine-plus teams have been to bowls since 2015 or something. There’s a lot better teams top to bottom in this league than get credit because Clemson has been so dominant, they’ve gotten all the credit, but there’s been some really good teams.
I feel like the league is in great shape. I know that the Commissioner and all the presidents and athletic directors are all looking at how to make more money and how to enhance that package, so we will have the same amount of money as the other leagues as they move forward.
Q. You mentioned the Notre Dame game earlier. I believe you have four more years of playing them not in a row, but before the contract ends. Do you like that kind of frequency? Do you like the arrangement of the games against the Irish for the conference and for North Carolina?
MACK BROWN: I always like playing Notre Dame because they’re a great brand and a great team, and it gives you a chance to increase your program because when they walked out of there last year, they were more physical than we were on defense. It showed all of us we need to get better.
We have to recruit better. We have to coach better. We have to play better. Notre Dame is that kind of brand.
They’ve had a run against the ACC teams. We have to step up and start competing better against them to get where we want to go.
As far as the conference was concerned, I like the divisions. I’ve always liked that because I like to have a division champion and then have that champion play in the ACC against the other division champion. We went to across the board like we’re doing now in the Big 12 before I left, and you can very well have two teams play in the championship game that have just played, and that was less likely the other way, so I liked it much better.
THE MODERATOR: You can switch places with John Copenhaver.
Questions for John.
Q. In terms of we talk about Josh Downs and Antoine Green leaving and all that good stuff, but three of the top six pass catchers from the team last year are in that tight end room, and yourself and two other highly touted guys. How have the tight ends played such a big part in the passing game, and is that expected to continue going forward for North Carolina?
JOHN COPENHAVER: Yeah, no, I think that’s a good question. As Coach Brown said, Antoine Green and Josh Downs, they weren’t able to do it all for every single game, and I think that’s where the tight ends came in.
We didn’t really look back. We took the opportunity, and we just went for it. It worked out really well for us, and we’re excited to have another good year coming forward.
THE MODERATOR: Your next question is from here at the podium. Why is appearing on so many special teams units important to you, and why should it be important?
JOHN COPENHAVER: I think special teams is a huge game changer. Coach Brown always says that if you have one or two good great plays on special teams, that can really turn the game around, and it really can.
I think just having the drive to be on special teams and trying to just do the best on that will obviously help the game out. I think that having that drive kind of translates to tight end and kind of gives that for all of us.
I think being on special teams is huge, and I think it just kind of goes full circle with the game and it all comes around.
Q. Kind of going off of that, being a reserve tight end, working on special teams, the come-up for you, just what can you say about what you have learned about the adversity and the journey that have you to earn the role you have right now?
JOHN COPENHAVER: Yes, sir. The first couple of years I didn’t really play a whole lot. I knew from high school coaches they were saying if you’re not getting in at tight end, then you got to work your butt off to try and get on special teams.
That’s exactly what I did. Just came to practice every day with my head down and wanted to get the work in and wanted to be on special teams, somewhere that I could get on the field. Special teams was the way to go.
So I just think being able to do that has, again, translated out on to the tight end position.
Q. Yourself, Kamari Morales and Bryson Nesbit all bring very different things to the tight end position. Can you talk to me about what each of you bring as individuals and how that synergy and chemistry of what you all bring on the field together and individually positively impacts this team?
JOHN COPENHAVER: Yeah, no, I think all three of us are great tight ends. I think Bryson Nesbit brings more of the wide receiver aspect to the game. I think all three of us are great matchups on linebackers, safeties. I think we all have our little bits and pieces of the game.
I’ll probably be more blocking and receiving too, but I think all three of us are great aspects to the game and can really have some good matchups out there.
THE MODERATOR: Again from the podium. I want to go back to special teams. What mentality do you have to have to be a successful special teams player?
JOHN COPENHAVER: To be honest, I’m just summing it up. You just have to be a savage. You really have to stick your nose in there and be able to be physical and take hits and give hits.
I think whether you have two choices. You can either pick to be the nail or the hammer, and that’s the mindset you have to have going into it.
THE MODERATOR: You’re getting some smiles and head nods from your teammates and coach, so obviously that’s a good answer.
Your last question, John.
Q. You guys obviously are not opening the season with any cupcakes or anything like that. Playing South Carolina here is a difficult matchup. How do you think that will ramp up the focus and attention during preseason camp?
JOHN COPENHAVER: Yeah, I think having that bad taste in our mouths from two years ago here, I think that will really give us some motivation and stuff, but, I mean, to me it’s an old rivalry, and I think it will be a great game. I don’t think guys are going to have to be motivated for this. I think everyone is going to come in here with a chip on their shoulder and get ready to work. You just have to focus one game at a time, but we’re all very excited for this game in Charlotte.
THE MODERATOR: John, thank you. You can replace yourself with Cedric.
Cedric Gray, first question for Cedric?
Q. You’ve heard a lot about how bad the defense was last year. Does that give you a little bit extra edge, a little extra motivation coming in this year to prove this year’s defense isn’t last year’s defense?
CEDRIC GRAY: Yeah, definitely for sure. It definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth when people kind of talk about our team and talk about how bad of a defense we’ve been sometimes.
Especially being the leader as a defense, I kind of take that personally. But, yeah, I think this year as the leader of the defense, with the guys this offseason, we’ve been really working hard, just becoming better football players, getting in the film room, becoming smarter.
I think now that we’ve got a year under our belt with Coach Chizik and this new defense, I think you’re going to see a defense that’s a lot more comfortable and confident in what we’re doing.
So I’m very excited for this year, and I definitely think you’ll see a better version of our defense this year.
THE MODERATOR: From the podium, to follow up on that a little bit. What do you and the guys do off the field to make sure that you’ve got that bond, that rapport for when you get back on to the field?
CEDRIC GRAY: I would say just we have a camaraderie with each other. I believe we do a lot of things with each other, we work out together. We watch film with each other, we live with each other. I think it’s that camaraderie and that bond that kind of keeps us very close with each other.
Q. Cedric, you were mentioned as a guy who was All-ACC, who was mentioned on some All American teams, who was on a bunch of watch lists this year. Had well over 130 tackles last year. What was it that motivated you to come back to Chapel Hill despite some whispers about you being taken fairly early in the draft, if you chose to come out?
CEDRIC GRAY: I think, first and foremost, I didn’t hit my ceiling as far as college football. I feel like I still had a lot of things that I could improve on personally.
Not only that, not like winning an important bowl game or an ACC Championship here was very, like, important to me, and I haven’t been able to do that since I’ve been here. I’m going into my fourth year, so it’s on my regular four years. So I don’t think I was in a particular rush. I think it was just about timing.
I think, you know, this year is the perfect timing for me.
Q. You were a star here in high school in this city, and you are going back into a senior year starting, playing in this city. What does it mean for you personally to kind of put a stamp on the city as you come back and play your senior year?
CEDRIC GRAY: I think it’s just a huge honor to come back to the city where I’m from and kind of play here. Lots of friends and family wants to come to the games and different things like that. But it’s definitely a huge honor for me to be from this state, to play for Carolina and to be that representation. It’s definitely very exciting.
Q. Looking at defensive rankings last year in ACC, North Carolina was last. So how does the defense want to work on improving the pass rush this year?
CEDRIC GRAY: Yeah, I think we’ve done a lot of different things this offseason to kind of improve that. I think, first and foremost, I think our D-line has improved tremendously. Kind of working with them throughout the spring and the summer, but not only that, but I think we’ve added some new wrinkles to the pass rush game. Not only new wrinkles, but I think, like I said, this is our second year in the defense. I think everybody has a better understanding of how we’re trying to attack teams and different things like that.
So I definitely do think it will be better this year.
THE MODERATOR: Cedric, thank you. You can swap places with Drake, and we’ll spend about five minutes with Drake Maye.
Questions for Drake.
Q. Drake, clearly you’re the best quarterback in the ACC and top five in the country, and the way the Heels’ season ended last year, as being a leader, are you over that? Are you using it as motivation going into this season? If you guys get back to the ACC title game, would you want to see Clemson again to get some get-back, or does it matter who the opponent is?
DRAKE MAYE: Obviously the way we ended last year, lost a lot of close games. Any way you end the season like that, I use it as motivation. That’s all we talk about.
We were 9-1 rolling into Georgia Tech, and we finished 9-5. Just finding ways to use it as motivation, but at the same time get over that hump and look forward to this season.
We’re excited. That’s our goal to get back to the ACC Championship. I don’t think Coach or any of the guys care who we play, just as long as we’re in it. So that’s the main goal. That’s what we’re working towards.
We have to start off on the right foot against South Carolina, and from there just go right ahead.
Q. Being such a pivotal sports figure on campus as QB1, what are your thoughts on the current mental health crisis among collegiate athletes across the nation right now?
DRAKE MAYE: Oh, no, I think mental health is a huge thing. Along with physical health, mental and physical health together, it means the world as an athlete.
With North Carolina I think, especially the university itself does a great job giving us mental health days. Not only athletes, but as students. We’re students at the end of the day. We’re student-athletes.
Just having days we’re off from class and can focus on, like I said, calling some family members or getting in touch with somebody and just worrying about our mental health.
I think Coach Brown does a great job. Dwight Hollier runs our mental health. He was a former player at North Carolina. He does a great job. We have so many resources nowadays in college, especially as college football players.
Just not being afraid to reach out. As us teammates and friends, just if you see somebody, the big thing is asking if they’re okay and really having a genuine conversation with them. That’s the big thing on mental health, have somebody there for you for support.
Obviously mental health is a huge thing in the sport and just in daily life for everybody, so…
Q. Like Coach Brown was saying with the new additions to the staff, it seems like you’ve been really hit with some cool new knowledge with Coach Christensen, Lindsey, and Kitchens. What’s that been like working with those guys?
DRAKE MAYE: It’s been awesome. First off, Coach Lindsey, right off the bat hitting it off with Coach Lindsey. He has been awesome. Just getting new knowledge from different offensive coordinator. Coach Longo was great, but just hearing somebody else’s voice, you pick up new things.
Obviously that’s the great thing about having a new offensive coordinator in there. He is calling the shots, and you get to hear his perspective of things, maybe different from Coach Longo’s and get the full swing of what two great offensive coordinators think.
Coach Christensen, he has coached Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck and Tom Brady. So just sitting there with some tape watching old drills of them, picking up little things. He has coached the best, so just trying to pick up whatever I can from him.
Coach Kitchens was just a few years back the head coach of the Browns. I think he knows a few things, and having him in there, coaching John and the guys, and you have a great room in there. So just, like I said, trying to soak it all up.
Just ask all the questions. I was asking the other day about Baker and some of those guys he coached, their mentality and competitor. I think you can never — no question is a bad question with guys like them.
So just soaking up what I can, and at the end of the day that’s what kind of brings us all together… football, the sport of football. Like I said, asking everything.
Q. When I think about you, I kind of think of the movie “The Program” when they did the Heisman candidacy. How are you able to dial in and focus on the season when you are getting a lot of Heisman hype, and you are also getting a lot of NFL Draft hype? How are you able to zero in and focus on this upcoming season?
DRAKE MAYE: Like I said, just keeping the main thing the main thing. That’s winning games. I think that’s what Coach says. We try to win all the games.
All those personal accolades come with winning football games and having North Carolina being up there in the conversation of the ACC Championship and bigger things.
Like I said, starts with football, winning games. Like I said, last year I was competing and Coach said ten days before the game, announced the starter. Just find that same mentality that got me here and not lose sight of that. Don’t lose sight of what got me here and the hard work and staying extra throwing and same things.
Not let, like I said, the hype and that stuff take away from what we’re really here for, and that’s playing football.
Q. The ACC is an elite level conference in terms of quarterback play in particular. I’m sure Mack would want to hear you say you’re just focusing on yourself, but in reality with just the few of us here, you ever wake up on Sunday morning, go on your media sites, and see what the other quarterbacks in the conference did compared to what you did on Saturday?
DRAKE MAYE: No. I don’t think I wake up Sunday morning and go check it, but I think you obviously see some highlights and you see, oh, he had a big game. I think the cool thing about it, I was just telling John, I know all the quarterbacks in here. I just said, what’s up, to Emmett and Brennan and Mitch.
So you get to know all these guys down there at Manning Passing Camp, and basically I was rooming with Jordan Travis, so you get to see these guys and meet them. They’re all great dudes, great players.
You kind of create that quarterback bond. It’s kind of hard to explain, but this position is special, so you get a chance just to — we’re all going through the same thing, so kind of to have somebody there that’s going through the same thing and just kind of relate and stuff.
Yeah, I wouldn’t say I look up Sunday morning, but definitely some big games from guys and might send them a text. Last year Sam Hartman, I knew Sam Hartman well, so when he had some big games throwing, I would send him a text and stuff.
UNC schedule
UNC schedule
| Month/ date | Opponent/event | 2023 record | UNC record in series |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | |||
| 20 | Spring game, 3 p.m. | — | — |
| August | |||
| 29 (Thurs.) | at Minnesota | 6–7 | 1–0 |
| September | |||
| 7 | Charlotte | 3–9 | 0–0 |
| 14 | N.C. Central | 9–3 | 0–0 |
| 21 | James Madison | 11–2 | 3–0 |
| 28 | at Duke | 8–5 | 65–40–4 |
| October | |||
| 5 | Pittsburgh | 3–9 | 12–5 |
| 12 | Georgia Tech | 7–6 | 22–33–3 |
| 26 | at Virginia | 3–9 | 66–58–4 |
| November | |||
| 2 | at Florida State | 13–1 | 3–17–1 |
| 16 | Wake Forest | 4–8 | 72–36–2 |
| 23 | at Boston College | 7–6 | 6–2 |
| 30 | N.C. State | 9–4 | 68–39–6 |
Photos courtesy of the ACC
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