UNC football head coach Mack Brown met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to provide updates on the start of spring football practices. Of note, was a significant message to his defense.
Brown didn’t mince his words when talking about their performance and the outside impression of that unit.
“The narrative now is that we are soft on defense and we can’t stop the run .. we haven’t stopped the run here consistently in the last four years.”
Gene Chizik enters his second season as the Assistant Head Coach for Defense after he took over for Jay Bateman entering last season.
Mack Brown: “The narrative now is that we are soft on defense and we can’t stop the run… we haven’t stopped the run here consistently in the last four years.”
— Ross Martin (@RossMartin_IC) March 21, 2023
In 2022, UNC ranked last in the ACC in total defense, giving up 30.8 points per game and 12th in rushing defense, giving up 165.2 yards per game on 4.5 yards per carry.
The Tar Heels gave up 170+ yards on the ground in seven games. Out of those seven, there were five times opponents ran for over 200 yards.
They gave up 297 yards against Duke, 288 against Appalachian State and 287 against Notre Dame, among some of the notable performances from opponents.
Brown added that he is having some of the new defensive staff members look back at some of the poor defensive efforts and evaluating UNC’s gameplan for those games.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01fvdcv0v20j1dne5g player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=]
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.