Mack Brown on Leaving Sam Howell In Late in the Duke Game

Coach keeps his quarterbacks in at least through three quarters

North Carolina is entering this week coming off a big win in a rivalry game, which masks a lot of issues. It can be a challenge to get a team to respond to success, as much as it is to bounce back from a loss.

“We need to learn to win as well as we have lost,” Mack Brown said, “and not take it for granted, because there’s still seven-to-nine plays that we need to fix. It’s just by winning the game, they won’t be talked about that much. So, as coaches, we can really be hard on the players this week to make sure we fix those mistakes.”

Carolina was criticized following its two losses—at Florida State and Virginia—but Brown doesn’t see them as “bad losses.”

“Florida State was very talented, and we allowed them to get excited and get some confidence and they hadn’t had that,” he said. “And Virginia is a good football team when they’ve got their quarterback. He’s a very good player. Go back and look at the two games we lost. People thought they were awful losses—all of them are. Number one: Those teams were much better than their records.”

Against Duke, Mack Brown left quarterback Sam Howell in the game deep into the second half, despite the lopsided score.

“I usually keep them in through the third quarter,” Brown said. “None of those armchair quarterbacks have had somebody come back on them. They’d be the first one to say, ‘They got arrogant and took him out too soon.’ I usually keep them in until the fourth quarter, regardless of the score. We also didn’t play very well in the third quarter offensively, and I wanted us to get a drive.”