#UNC coach Mack Brown press conference ahead of Wake Forest game

a special day for all of us we we've all had family or friends that uh have uh

been in the military and fought for our freedom and uh this is a day where we can say thank you uh to even those

families who have had people lose their lives um Veterans Day is is uh no

November 11th because that was the last day of World War I and

um on this day um there's a color guard from combined

military services that execute a present present arms at the um unknown Tomb at

11:00 uh so it's a week where we ask our players to make sure that they reach out

to people who are in the military or families who have people or who have lost people in the military and say

thank you that that we can have the lives we have because we should do it every day um but this is a day and a

week where we can say thank you and and reach out to all and and we ask our players to call and text and send

pictures and and and make sure that that people are honored uh this week who uh

not only have fought but are fighting uh even though Veterans Day is for those

who um have have finished uh we also want to honor those who are competing and fighting uh for our lives right now

so it's a it's a special week for all of us all wear this during the game um and

in honor we'll have uh military at the game we'll honor military at the game uh

and this will be our military appreciation game uh by week uh by week

it's unusual to have two in in a two-e period um but it it was good for us um a

team that's getting well a team that's doing more positive things a team that's getting identity uh as we finish the

season uh it was a team we said all along we thought would built uh to finish better than our other teams we've

played more people we've got more depth uh we had more adversity than we expected early in the season so we had

our our bad games as well uh but we feel like now that uh that this was good

timing for us we were able to work on Wake Forest who has a very unique offense uh we were able to work a lot of

young guys we were able to get well a guy like om Marian who carried the ball

um 30 touched the ball 30s something times last week had a week where he could not um he wouldn't be hit he would

just get fresh and stay in shape and and do the things that uh will help him be

ready to go this week uh we thought at the first of the year that Darwin Baro would really take a load off of Omarian

and and he hadn't stayed healthy it's just been really hard for him to stay on the field and you can see Saturday night

or Saturday afternoon he's really talented so he's a guy that we've really missed but we need to to to get him back

on the field we were able to talk to all the players about um are you going to

red shirt in these last three games CU they can play in the bowl game and it doesn't count but they can only play in

four games so if a guy's got three games now or if he's already played in four games you talk to him about if you're

just on kicking teams do you want to finish on those kicking teams or do you want to wait uh like Caleb Hood we're

going to red shirt if we possibly can he's only played in two games so that would give us a great back coming back

next year um if we don't have to have him to win a game here the next three weeks and then we could play him in the

bowl game uh if we needed to uh we talk to guys who might possibly transfer

because this time of the year you've got agents that are calling schools and looking around all over the place cuz we're getting calls from from other

teams uh we talked to guys that might go to the NFL early we talked to guys that

might opt out of the bowl game we got to win another game to get to a bowl game but we plan on doing that um we looked

at a depth chart for the bowl game with possible opt outs because that's been harder it's it's hard to figure out who

your team's going to be but we've played more people so we got more depth so we feel like we'll be better prepared for a

bowl than in our past uh and then we looked at um portal thoughts who are we

losing who who do we have to replace immediately with some older guys and

then we looked at uh depth chart possibilities for spring CU Spring's different are you going to have enough

people to um have a spring game um as you start looking at at your spring

depth charts uh we also looked uh we had Pat go over all the revenue sharing thoughts um what that would mean with

the possible 105 roster uh we have to start looking at what that means in the

spring there is a portal in December and then there's a portal after spring practice so they kept two portals uh

last year the portal after spring practice wasn't near as active uh as the one in December but the one in December

is very active uh so we've got to look at that signing date is much earlier this year so you you've also got to look

at um uh your high school sign a so uh we we got a lot of good work done but we

got a lot of mental work done and and a lot of talk with the with the guys um as well uh we're coming off to really good

performances uh with this open date um we found our identity we executed much

better and and played better complimentary football against Virginia and Florida State we're one of five

teams in power four that's averaging at least 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing uh that's only four in the whole

group so we've been very very balanced I think we're 24th in the country

offensively um yeah so uh we've done a good job of of staying balanced uh we

got 32 sacks on the season that's tied for fourth nationally we've had 17 in

the last two games which is phenomenal and and that's something that we've got to try to continue to do as we finish

the season it's the first time that UNC has had backto back held back-to-back opponents to fewer than 300 yards on the

road since 2007 and that was Virginia Tech and Wake Forest and we've had a

great week's practice preparing for Wake Forest we've had some unbelievable games with Wake Forest since we've been back

they've come down to the end just about every one of them um and um expect this

one to be the the same way on Saturday night um we've had very few penalties over the last two weeks that's another

thing that we've really cleaned up so we've played and coached very well um for the last two football games and and

Virginia had a a great win at U uh up at Pittsburgh on Saturday night people

didn't expect and and then um uh Notre Dame jumped all over Florida State uh

which Florida State's struggling and and we know that so offensively we're rushed for 289 yards against Florida state had

zero turnovers in fact we've had zero turnovers for the last two weeks uh

jacobe Criswell continues to get better he still got some room to grow he had the one sack in in the the one minute

drill before the half but he's he's making plays with his feet he's not turning the ball over he's protecting

the ball better he hasn't had had a fumble in a while as a quarterback uh but I I really like the decisions that

he's making he's U he's gotten out of trouble with with his feet and throwing balls down field and and we've had some

contested catches that we're starting to catch um but he's he's uh really making

some good decisions which which we really really uh appreciate with him we were three for four on touchdowns in the

red zone and and had the one fourth in one that we didn't make and that's twice this year we haven't made fourth in one

so we got to continue to look at at what's wrong there and what we need to do to to improve we did make a fourth and one on the goal line later on during

the game for a touchdown defensively we held Florida State to 42 yards rushing seven sacks uh we forced

two um interceptions and we had two others in our hands that we should have caught that we dropped and we can't do

that we've got to improve enforcing turnovers uh in the next three ball

games um um and again we held Florida estate to their low at that time which was 11 points they gave they only got

three this weekend against U Notre Dame and we've had very few M tackles the

last two weeks we're tackling much better in space and it all starts with the dominance up front our defensive

Line's been dominant they they've been physical uh they're um stopping the Run

they're forcing the quarterback to get the ball out of his hands faster and that obviously helps your secondary um

and the same thing with the offensive line when when you can run the ball everything else works and we've said that for uh for 5 years and and here we

are and it it does work when you can run the football better than the other team just everything else seems to fall into

place special teams we won again uh we had a great return by Elijah huzzy and

and Nate McCullum Nate's so close to going all the way coverage units have

been really good they've been aggressive and and we're covering better than ever before most of those units are with

young guys uh that are are earning their right to to play more and um Tom ended up with a

41 yd average on three punts so that that's uh much better in all those phases than we have before players of

the game that were announced last week Omarian Hampton 172 yards rushing four

touchdowns 93 yards receiving and a touchdown five touchdowns he moved past

nron means and Ethan Horton into seventh place in the uncc's alltime list um and

all great backs get better in the fourth quarter and he does that he doesn't even seem tired and when the defense gets

tired he doesn't and and that's the the the signature of the great backs that

I've been around he can run he can catch he protects the ball he's a good pass protector uh but he doesn't get tired

and he wants to touch it every time he gets it and the the little shuffle pass that he had at the end of the game where

he he ran about 50 yards he looked faster than everybody uh so he didn't look like he was he was tired at all uh

bo Atkinson five tackles 3.5 sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss I think one of you

asked me after the game what about Bo you know we we've been so good on defense the last two weeks there's so

many people getting tackled I don't sit there and count them so you all knew he had that many I had no clue that he had

that many because a lot of times he's getting back there with Rucker and Dez and they're all getting back there at the same time so it was it's really

really impressive uh to have three and a half sacks I mean that's unbelievable for for bow and

and uh in fact some of them are calling him Bose Atkinson now so that that's a that's a good nickname for him as they

as they start looking at him moving forward but really really proud of bo uh Nate McCullum and Michael Short were the

two special teams players of the week Nate had the 49 yard kickoff return he's so close to breaking one and we haven't

been very good in that area uh the last few years so I'm proud of him and Michael Short is is uh he's playing more

on the field he's getting better uh but he's he's been a a tough guy with with tackles on kickoff

coverage and punt coverage uh and he's the first one down he and U um Malcolm

Ziggler race to see who's the first one down on kickoff coverage so really really proud of Michael Short that he's

improved so much um and and will continue to get to play more uh because

he and Caleb Lali are playing more now in the games than than ever before and and we we've talked about having to get

our depth and that's helped um Amari Campbell with some rest and and he's playing really really well over the last

two weeks uh Wake Forest is coached by Dave Clawson Who I Really respect he is

a dear friend uh he's in his 11th year at Wake Forest he's done an amazing job

through covid and through all of the the issues that have come up with college football the last few years of of

running our head coaches meetings they're all on Zoom we we usually have

one uh the first Wednesday uh in every month in the offseason and and he's been

amazing at at uh taking on hard topics and and you've got that many egos in a

room that run their own building and and run their own meetings and and I'm really um really impressed with Dave and

how much he cares about the game and he's worked closely with the afca and he's helped us a lot in rule changes so

he's done an amazing job in those areas his teams are always well coached they do a great job recruiting um they

minimize their mistakes they have very few penalties they know who they are and what they want to do and they do it uh

I've always admired that so much about him um Deon Clayburn has rushed for 824

yards and nine touchdowns he is really good as a running back he's one of the best running backs in the country and um

he's he's a guy that can beat you because he's quick he's he's fast he's tough he breaks tackles he's got great

hands uh Hank bosm uh has played well uh he's got got great weapons at wide

receiver they've always recruited so well at running back and wide receiver and a lot of times it might not be

somebody that everybody knows and heard of but they can find them and I've been impressed with them since I've been here

but um Hank was uh 20 and N at Boise

before he went to Louisiana Tech and and then went to uh and then came to wake so he knows what he's doing he does a great

job their defense is very sound they play great red zone defense they for a

lot of turnovers Nick Anderson leads their team and tackles with 94 and and

um we'll have our hands full this weekend and and it it should be a fun game it's a a game that's going to be a

blue out so we've asked everybody to wear Carolina blue uh it'll be a night game which will be fun on acc Network it

is Military Appreciation game uh you and fans will see uh when you come to the

stadium uh there's two logos of Tyle strong on the field uh that U uh we're

very very proud of um there's some other acknowledging things they will have a a

sign over the exit to the stadium with keep swinging Ty strong on one side and

keep swinging on the other uh so Ty's presence is is still here it's still

with us and and the guys talk about him uh every day and his legacy and and what he did for all of us so uh I miss

anything thank you questions do you have now or have you had while you been here at UNC any

veterans on your team it's a great question I don't think

so we had Nate borer at at Texas and and Nate was a special forces guy and you

know we do have um Charlton Moren who was 10 years Special Forces with the Air

Force and and um is is really an unbelievable man and dedicated his life

Air Force graduate coach today Force so this will be a special week for him and we'll have him involved in in our

motivation and preparation some this week as well but I don't think we've had anybody involved in the military on our

team since we've been here s you spent a lot of time with roster Management in in the off week

just how many guys have said they're going to they want to red shirt how many guys indicated they want to

transer nobody has said anything about transferring now they might not tell us you know very honestly but we we feel

like we're that's kind of the elephant in the room now who's going to leave and who's coming back and how many are you going to have and and then you're adding

to the The Proposal of 105 as a roster

in the future so what does that mean and what about your Walk-Ons and who gets to stay and who has to leave and what do

they do do you help them transfer in December if they have a place to go can walkon get in the portal and have a fair

chance um so more than anything else that's where Pat suus is position as

general manager chip has become so important to us because we have to look at we're losing a lot of defensive

lineman um we'll probably lose om Marion you you would think he would go because he's going to be such a high draft

choice U so you have to look at key positions and you you need to fill those

spots in December because you need them for spring practice so um it's

interesting and now where you've been asking kids if you're not going to play in the bowl game we've got it but we need to start winning some bowl games so

we're we need we need to know now so we can prepare for you not to be in the game um and some of them may not tell us

but usually their their agents are going to tell them not to play um so that's what we just got to anticipate anyway

but the red shirt thing is um we look at it and if a guy's played four games but

if he just been in on backup special teams let's don't waste him let let don't put a guy in a game just to put

him in to let him play that if he and we've told the kids if your play is

going to help us win one of the last three games we're going to put you in but we're not going to waste your time

and we probably will even have some guys on on the sideline Saturday that during the game will take their helmets away

because we've all had that awful story of somebody some coach sending one in that he just got excited and he forgot

he had four games already and he can't play one more so you want to take the helmet away so when the coach grab grabs

the kid you can say I don't have a helmet so he he won't put him in so that was what last week was about is that a

small no it's a big number I was surprised a lot of your freshman if a

freshman isn't on special teams or he's not Aiden Banfield or Luke Masterson and

they've played in every game then they've played two or three games you say you asked them how much of

it is you're saying you're going to red shirt and it's really not their decision as much uh if they're not playing it's

easy what we don't want to do and and to be clear is we don't want to play

someone that would like to red shirt in a game where he's not going to change the outcome of the game that's the

biggest thing at the end here let's don't waste a Young Guy's year because

he's going to be the third guy going down on a kickoff and you stick him in to be nice to him and let him play um

that that's for the bowl game we can let them play in the bowl game and that's a great rule by the NCAA that you can play

in the playoffs you can play in a championship game or you can play in the bowl game and it doesn't count but we've

got to be smart with with the kids with only three games left keep you keep

mentioning the balll game uh one went away like is that now part of sort of

the general conversation you're having with this team maybe a motivational thing like one more women wear in the

ball well Adam we've always been RI really honest with them and they're real smart they wouldn't have gotten in here and they can count so they know I mean

it's not it's not hiding but no we we are um we we feel like we

have a chance to win the last three games and the way college football is as crazy it is we obviously have a chance

to lose it we could have won seven or nine as easy as we could have won five and I put that on our coaches I've told

them that I said it it's that that's it coaches can put it on players coaches

supposed to get the players motivated and ready to play that that's our jobs so uh we never put it back on the

players uh but we're planning on winning every one

of them and we're we're planning on going to a vote so that's what we talk about M it's been over a month since you

guys last played at Keenan stadium and your last home game was obviously a really difficult day for you really

difficult day for the program can you just put into words like how much better

it feels in this building now when you guys are preparing to play Wake Forest versus you know just after

Georgia Tech yeah um Michael it's a great point the um having a sickness is

a real burden uh on everybody I mean there's just pressure and and all of us know

that have children what your children mean to you and then as a player but

coach what the players mean to him and and Ty got sick so fast it just really

got us all um and we watched it I mean it was right in front of us every day

and we could see him going down and we didn't know if he'd make it till the end of the season but there was a point there where we said he's not going to

make it to the end of the season because he's just it's going too fast there's too many things that are shutting down

and then you um you you have to manage it all and and and football becomes very

unimportant when you're talking about life and death of a of a person I mean that's it's football is very important

and we want to win in uh but it it really puts things in in the priority um

when you're talking about life and death and and I still I feel so much for those families who have lost a child uh I can

imagine and I don't want to imagine uh losing a child uh in fact September's

coming back to the game this weekend for the first time and she's going to be there to see the things that have been

done in his honor which she will I'm sure she'll be sad and at the same time she'll feel really good about it um but

the truth is we haven't played well at home and and that's we we need to and

and I want the fans to come out and help them get going here we got some great seniors that have given us some wonderful moments uh they got two more

games in Kenan Stadium so we want all the fans to come out and help them but I've told the guys you need to play

better at home and and we've played great on the road uh so I don't know

what that is but but it it's time for us to to pick it up and have a great performance at home uh Under The Lights

on national TV and and it it should be a fun challenge for us this weekend so sep knew about the nutrition room name and

new about the field patch she knew about all of that uh in fact they just put the

plaque up next to the nutrition room today which Jeremy Jeremy will be releasing they did they just put the

they just sent us 5 minutes before we walked in here the pictures on the wall of of the keep swinging and and Ty

strong on both sides and and at um um at at Virginia and Florida State every one of those kids touch it on the way out so

uh it does matter to us the logos look great they're very classy and very well

done um and I'm I'm sure it'll be a hard return for her but a proud moment as

well and he's a senior uh so this is his last year for his legacy as well so um

we're hoping she'll be at senior day and and and we can he can be honored at senior day uh like he would be here

words just how different everything is around the now as opposed to that last day that you were in here for a game

yeah it's it's probably hard U Andrew I hadn't thought a lot about it but

um grief pressure of of how to handle someone that sick is different for all

of us I'd never done that before um we've never had a player that continually got worse on our team I said

we'd only lost one player at Texas and and it was a truck accident one night and we get a call so it's very different

it's still a loss but it's very different than than watching a young man get worse uh every day um and then

you've got to to make sure that you handle the family right and him right and how much can the player see him how

much do they need to see him he's exhausted and he's tired does he need him over there all the time um so it's

uh it's it's all encompassing when you handle something like that um and then the grief is different too you know it's

uh it's absolutely changed the way I think about some things and um and my

life's better because of Ty craft 100% um wish we had him longer uh but he

taught me more things than I've been around people for 73 years have taught me and he taught me more things in a in

a a small moment he taught me why pout after losses you're not supposed to

we're talking about life and death here after a loss you're supposed to learn Le from your loss correct it and get better

I've been a guy didn't handle loss he's well well heck I'm part of the loss so fix my problems and and get better with

it so um he he taught you to have fun we don't know how many days we've

got and from a football perspective you go from the 68 yard run after you guys have tied them I would imagine from a

football standpoint only it feels a lot different around here as well so it's not just the tile e stuff it's

everything appears to be different in this building building now than it was that day yes the the the team that we

saw the last two weeks is the team that I saw in the spring I see in practice and the one I thought we would have all

year now I can sit here for 45 minutes and go through all of the the the

problems that this team has been faced with nobody cares I mean it it doesn't

matter you're supposed still supposed to win all the games uh but uh we've all um

like I said I've read a lot about life and death here in the last month through two and and they all talk about you you

learn more from storms than you do from Sunshine uh you go through storms to find a rainbow um you have to handle

tough things to make your life better uh and right now this is a tough team they

they've had a bunch of stuff thrown at them they've had negative talk they've had people that have thrown them out uh

they've lost a player they've had players sick and hurt um they're on

their third quarterback who now is playing as as well as most quarterbacks in the country um so they're they

they've taken uh every negative thing that's happened to them and over the last two weeks turned it into a positive

and nearly beat Georgia Tech even on that day where they thought they might lose their player so I'm I'm really

impressed with this team I'm impressed with the coaches have handled it they've been positive they've been upbeat

they've had energy uh and that's why I'm very excited about watching us play the last three weeks get back on the topic

of uh roster management real quick you mentioned obviously having a you know

starting to create a a bowl game depth chart and talking to different guys I remember last year you mentioned having

a spring practice step chart like towards the end how do you kind of in these last three games balance trying to

of course run the table win the last three and then also kind of coaching for the future and trying to manage like

what you're going to have next year like how do you kind of separate those two that Mak sense it's it's a very good

question the uh the answer would be the off week by week it's not off by week is

a week where you can do that we go back to work now we're we're totally into the next three games only but you you had a

moment there where you could separate yourself from the last three games and

um bowl game and spring practice and portal and start looking at that and Pat

suus does as good a job of anybody in the country of saying here are your numbers defensive line here's what

you're losing here's what you've got to replace and and then when people start going into the portal we'll have a

recruiting board and and that board will be up immediately and the coaches will be looking at it and contacting those

players so it all happens really fast and that's why you needed to address it in a bye because you get through the

state game I mean portal opens uh the 9th of December it's going to be here I

mean it is on you so you can't be sitting around saying what what do we need what are we thinking about uh

you've got to do it now how has coaching changed from the last two years to now for you and what

you've noticed about your style about the message because the last 2 years you guys had six wins by mid October end of

October versus now we're trying to just get to that point and get that well a little if not more I think coaching is

uh it's it's always been multitasking but it's probably more that way now than ever before because you you

you never know who's going to show up for games I was sitting there with some friends in the after the the morning um

at at Florida State because I got a lot of guys I played with and friends that are there and then we had some top boosters here that that I was standing

around and and they said U you look confident you you look I said they said

what do you think I said I think I've got no clue I don't have any idea who's going

to show up there's there's 80 of them and if 40 show up we'll get beat

hopefully 65 show up you'd love to have 80 show up and play their best but uh uh

you're just handling more stuff now you're you're um um media is more

aggressive than ever before with sports somebody's fired every day uh and then they're not the next week then they're

fired again and and it's just who we are with social media um and then U players

you you're having players decide I'm going to red shirt or I'm transferring you're having some guys getting the portal early season

midseason uh we've been really fortunate here we haven't had much of that uh but

you're you're just having to to take whatever's thrown at you that day and fix it is there a balance because I know

last year obviously Drake May being such a top prospect quarterback plays every single play with a Marin Hampton like

you said being in your eyes a top prospect for the NFL is there a balance between trying to give him as much time

to shine in these final three games where it's guaranteed vers maybe playing him to the best of the chances to give

you guys a chance to win those games that makes any sense yes both both are important for us um you'd like for him

to win the do Walker Award you'd like for him to get in the Heisman race uh he's phenomenal player he's one of the

best players in the country uh but our first Focus for all of them is to win a game period and and that's what we do

like we said um DAV onos is help rest him some uh we thought that Barlo we

brought him in as a transfer to help with those carries you can see he looked great when he went in there Saturday uh

we just had he just hasn't been able to stay healthy so hopefully we'll get him back for the last couple of games uh but

you everything we do is to try first to win the game and and then we look at

everything else and that's what we've told the players that we talked about red shirting um if we need you to win a

game then we're going to play you so understand that but if we can red shirt you and it not hurt our chances to win

then we will red Church go ahead wait

go when you first got here compared to now you talking about your portal board

all the you know the guys you're looking at I mean how big is it now compared to where you were and how big is it in

terms of number yeah it's interesting that there's a lot more talk about portal now than there is recruiting it's

changed that much we didn't have a p you know and and you're thinking about

you're looking at guys now that are transferring like the quarterback at wake this is his third school and we

fought our guts out to get TZ to play at a third school he didn't even play at the first one and and and now here we

are we got guys that are in their fifth School uh so it's it's just changed so much chip and it it continues to change

daily we have um we tell our coaches to stay off social media and don't worry

about what's happening in in the lawsuits and the revenue sharing and Pat

will handle all that and then he gives us an update in the staff meetings I'll say Pat tell guys what they need to know

and tell them facts because a lot of the stuff's a rumor this may happen or that may happen they need to coach but when

he says this is going to happen this is 90% chance it's going to

happen so we've got to prepare for this and we've got to look at Revenue sharing and what does that mean and and how is

that H how much money do you get how do you distribute the money to the players at your position coaches are going to

have to do a better job of evaluation than ever before because recruiting is going to

become more about evaluation uh than it is recruiting Because you got to figure out who you

want and then you got to pay them and that that's going to be a huge part of

of recruiting moving forward you ever think you need a general manager no no

and and and the same with with guys on your team you're going to have to start deciding who gets paid more CU it's

going to be salary caps and you can't pay them all the same so you're actually going to have to say this safety is

going to get this much money so this safety is going to get less and I'm sorry but if you don't like it transfer

because that's just the way we feel so not only are you going to have to do a better job of evaluating before they get

here you're going to have to do a great job of evaluating who you got and then you're going to have to

develop who you've got and even in the portal just having money is not going to

be the answer you've got to have money you've got to make the right decisions in the portal and then you got to spend

your money properly or you're wasting

money all excuse me Adam was next then we get I'll jump in after you're still

talking about age what you do with sheer seniority

yeah I defer you all Adam said a great well and let you go because I might forget that you wanted to go so we're

we're with old people i' like to ask you about the Arc of this season and obviously Ty's a big part of it but you

uh start the season with a lot of hope you know you win first three uh you give

up 70 points to JM new you talk about quitting after the game so that Trigg is

a lot of chatter about how long you going to stay now you've got two impressive wins and I

don't think a lot of people realize if you win the last few games you'll have the best record that youve had since you've been here

so yeah can you talk about that have you ever had a season that has that kind of

an Mark like no I can't ever remember a season that that's even near like this

with all the stuff we've had thrown at us and at the same time my job as their leader is to handle it all and and um we

didn't even play great against Charlotte and and U

Central I mean very honestly we won we we blew blew both on them out late but

we didn't play great um so and and we stunk against um James Madison on

defense we scored 50 points had 500 and something yards on offense but we had eight turnovers or

something so it was one of those games like Notre Dame and Northern Illinois I mean why do they happen I don't know

they're happens that the fan base doesn't like to be a lot of CH resurface

if we don't play good and win Saturday night there'll be bad chatter I mean that's the way college football is but I

don't worry about that I worry about winning and my total focus is on winning the last three games starting with this

weekend and then having the best record that we've ever had and that and and win in a bowl game for

the first time in a while and win in nine games that that's my my Total Focus right now which is what I said before

the season we didn't have much chatter we weren't supposed to be any good

nobody even considered us being in the top 25 and then we beat Minnesota and

everybody said M well this a little better than I thought and then we win two more and

they were okay and then we got blown out and they said ah they're awful so that we'll drop them that's just what happens

in in our world modern day uh but but I have to be the one that that keeps

trying to push to do the positive not the one that that dies and and and lives on every moment of every play because

these are kids and they have real lives and they got mental health and they they got school and and I'm responsible for

them so if I can't stay strong and positive then I'm not doing my job obiously a great opportunity for you

considering before it's a great opportunity I'm so proud of these kids I'm proud of these

coaches that's why I want the fans to do the same uh we're supposed to to be in the present and we're supposed to always

try to be Forward Thinking uh let's be in the present with this team and let's reward them for their last two weeks and

the staff let's have a great environment Saturday night let's go play three great games and end up with a a real positive

season that that's my focus on the whole thing may I go now yes unless anybody

older got anything else I was trying to think of a question Tommy there problem Tommy are

you the uh as you mentioned earlier the defensive line you call the dominant um

physical I mean it is 17 sacks the last two games for this group up front um

watching it you know it feels like along with the way they're playing there's like a confidence and also a chemistry

like when you get bow in there on those you know the psycho packages like you know the the buttons to press I guess

that je like what you see what stands out to you maybe not X's and O's but

what just stands out to you by the way they're playing in this sort of group you know that they yeah uh one thing

Adam would be that uh came on Rucker back he's one of the best players in the country and you you can't just take one

of the best players in the country out and be as good good and and he's uh he affects everybody he's a leader he's

he's got really strong faith um he's he's such a dominating player that they

have to put two people on him and he affects the run and the pass and when you put he and and B and you don't even

have to take U um Rucker or Richie out

um because he's a tackle but he's so athletic that that he can stay in there

uh and then you got Dez Evans so you got four of the best pass rushers in the country that are in there so the the chemistry is good they feel good uh the

other thing I I feel is that we're fresh we're fresher than we've been this time

of the year we're healthier because we're fresher we've been playing to deep in that front line the entire year and

now our our legs are fresh so it's not like uh gosh we we got two or three

people banged up at the end of the year and they didn't get to play in the defensive line here the last couple years and that's really affected us so

so that's a factor and I also believe that as a play caller you got to get

comfortable with your quarterback and chips really getting comfortable with his quarterback because he and jacobe

now are on the same page and there're so we know who we are defensively the same thing Jeff Collins has got to figure out

who we are and he's got to figure out is there a corner I need to cover is is there do I have to do this

to run this defense to cover that and I think right now he's comfortable when you get that much pressure on the passer

and you stop the run turn him loose man let him go and and we're simpler and we're playing more free and they're

having more fun they look like that confidence you can't have fun without

confidence and they weren't having fun during that stretch that art was talking about and we weren't doing the things we

said we were going to do and and I've said uh why don't when I stand up here every Monday and say we're going to stop

the run I said would somebody please stop the run I said I'm really tired of telling

everybody we're going to stop the run then they rushed for 300 yard so I said if if put 11 up there on the line of

scrimmage if they throw for 500 yards I'm fine but stop the run I am really

tired of lying to our fans and I said so I want the Run stopped so we are the for two weeks we

have stopped the Run that's harder with Wake Forest because of the design of their offense it's really unique what

they do but uh but I think a lot of times coaches are too smart they work so

hard to put so much in to stop everything and then we don't stop anything you got to be great at

something and and u i i i said it a month ago but there's more distractions

for kids right now than ever before so it's harder for them to lock in on what you're teaching them because

they got so much stuff going on we got agents talking to them now we got third parties we got parents talking about

transferring we got guys talking about Pros um you got social media at a higher

level I'll walk up there for lunch in a minute and every one of them will be sitting at the table reading something

and I usually walk up and say what are you looking at and they'll go

so can't do that no no but but it's and

then they got all the things we all had they got girlfriends they got family issues they've got

school they got sickness they got I mean so uh we're at an all-time high for

distractions and that's what I worry about our young people that I I worry about more depression because they got

more on them they can see the child that died in in Iraq and they can see the

child that died in in r in New Jersey we didn't have all that we just had our stuff so there's

more mental pressure on kids than ever before and I think coaches moving forward are going to have to be

simpler and be great at what you're doing than ever before because kids don't have as much time in in their

minds to to do all the stuff the coaches coaches are over here all day every day and and they can start thinking about

too much and God this looks great and this looks good and I have to be careful I'll see a great play somewhere and I'll send it to them while I'm telling them

be more simple and they look at me like did you just send send us I said yeah just that's just my

ADD okay well I won't it do you do you find that when you're making as you're starting to make these I guess

approaches to recruits kids got the portal and using money to recruit someone do you find that kids are mature

enough to understand sometimes or is this even something they consider getting money versus having the ability

to maybe become a pro or become a big time player like hey this scheme might fit me more but not getting as much

money versus the school that's offering me a lot more but I might not shine as enough in the spotlight those are all

good questions it depends on the family you know some families just need the money some families are saying he may

not be a pro player so I better get my money now so it it's uh but but money is a

bigger Factor than ever before and as I said it pro baseball you can pay

whatever you want pro football there is a a a plan and a salary cap and a scale

right now we're pro baseball when it comes to paying and until we can get back to pro

football um the ones with the most money are going to have the best players just

period it's it's a 100% that way uh even with the um with the revenue sharing if

people have a a balance of money that will help those that haven't had as much

money but still the way I understand it the collective is going to be able to go

get as much money outside as they are now so it's still not going to solve the

problems it'll just make it where those that had less money will have more but the ones that have all the money will

still have more than than everybody else does that does that make any sense does

that so what you're saying baseball for example they had the cross the board Revenue sharing then each team has its

own local contracts with radio and TV like the Yankees make a lot more than the Royals so that's kind of what you're

saying college football's going to be like it is right now it is the ones with the most money that can pay the the most

are the ones that are going to get the best players R it's going to go up for everybody but there's that's still outside entity that's right the depend

on your University and your athletics department they will decide what part of

that quote 20 something million is going to go to football and they'll there is

not a a decision that each school has to be equal it's going to be decided by each

University period and then the way I understand it

the reason the lawsuit was in there is the the NCAA was saying so let's do

away with collectives and and let's just have the revenue sharing so it'll be fair and

other people judges said we can't do that so you're still going to have a collective that can still give another

$2 million to a player outside of the revenue sharing um as it stands right

now sounds fun sounds like a lot of fun that did well I guess the reason I asked

that is because you know theoretically without knowing how much Maria makes using nil and collectives I mean

theoretically he could have gone somewhere else for more money but he might play better and F the ski and here more obviously so I guess that's why I

asked yeah no that's a good point but again it it depends on the family and on the kid and the background Omarian and

Cayman made a decision they wanted to be here yeah and and and it's worked out for both of them so it's happen 95% of

the kids that's right like we saw stay here obviously verus somewhere else yeah

all right thank you all