Mack Brown Wednesday Update: Players motivating themselves, thinking big-picture and the kicking game

The hall of famer feels strongly about expanding replay

North Carolina coach Mack Brown met with reporters following Wednesday morning's practice to provide a final update before the Tar Heels travel to Virginia Tech on Saturday.

Here are the highlights from the conversation:

On his injured right eye

I was on the injury report, but I practiced. I did not miss; I stepped up. They kept staring at me and I finally had to tell them, ‘It is red, you all are right.’ I said, ‘At my age, only Sally cares; nobody else cares how I look. So, I’m fine.’

On this week's practices 

Practice was really good. It was good yesterday, it was good today. The guys had a lot of energy. We’re all excited to go to Blacksburg; it’s a great environment, it’s fun. Frank Beamer is a great friend of mine and I look forward to seeing Frank. It’s fun to go somewhere where it’s full, and they’ve got a good team and people are excited.

We told our team, we continue to be able to evaluate where we are and how much progress we’ve made, and hopefully, we took Georgia Tech to a different level with the open date and then we keep getting better as a team. We said it’s all out there for us, so it’s on us to play well and win on the road.

On discussing the big picture in the Coastal Division 

It was Sunday, but we really haven’t talked about it much since. Every Sunday, you kind of recap where you are. … We put up the records, we put up the standings in the Coastal and we put up the bowls that are out there for us to go to, and we took it down and said, ‘Now you’ve got to play.’

We talked to them today about, ‘It shouldn’t be pressure, it should be pleasure.’ We had a Joe Maddon quote; he said he puts that on his card, his starting lineup every game with the Cubs. I don’t want them to feel pressure about the Coastal and I don’t want them to feel pressure about a bowl; I want us to get good and if you practice really good every day, then you can be a great team at some point.

On what's going well and what needs to improve

I really like the way our front is playing on defense right now. They played really well at Tech and they’ve really done well the last couple of practices here. The offensive line’s still got to be more consistent. Yesterday they were OK, today they looked better, but lines of scrimmage is where you win games.

We’ve got to get more out of our kicking game. We’ve had one kickoff return of significance and we haven’t had anything out of our punt return, so we’ve got to do better in those areas.

Have coaches had to motivate players to get going this week?

They have done it themselves this week. We meet every morning at 6:30 before we practice, we have a team meeting. I saw them walk in today and I said, ‘You look a little slow walking in; yesterday you were pumped up. Don’t’ walk out there on that field slow,’ and stirred them up a little bit. They’ve practiced really well.

The Tuesday, I think, before Georgia Tech — maybe Wednesday — it was just OK offensively and right now, they’re doing well. They’re getting after it and I’m excited about seeing them play.

On how the players practiced during the open week

What we did is we really worked the young ones who, some of them haven’t played an any might have a play in four games and redshirt and help us; some might play the last six weeks. So, we pushed them to show us what they’ve got. ‘You’re not a freshman anymore, you’ve been here now — some of you since June — it’s time to grow up if you want to play this year.

The others, we really sprinted them a lot, we rant them a lot, but we didn’t hit them. (Aaron) Crawfords and (Jason) Strowbridge and our backs, those type guys didn’t get hit, so they should be really, really fresh this week.

Most coaches don't like looking beyond the next game. Why are you willing to talk about the big picture with your team?

In my, I think my entire career, but at least here late and all the time at Texas, I wanted to be really honest and fair with the guys. So, it is what it is. We can sit around and say, ‘Next game,’ and all that but they know, they read, they hear. So, I wanted them to know, ‘Here are facts, here’s what you got.’

Now, use it to motivate you, forget it, whatever you want with it. We’ve got to beat Virginia Tech or this stuff doesn’t work, but I think it’s foolish to sit around and act like it’s not important. It is important and what I told them this morning is that message of, ‘Don’t put pressure on yourself.’ If you’re good enough, it works. If you’re not, play your best and we’ll go to the next game.

Does it help a team to talk about playing for a championship?

Absolutely, especially a team that hasn’t been successful over the past two years. They’re proud — they’re really proud — that in the middle of the season, they’re in the mix for something important. You think about, at least two classes on this team haven’t been to a bowl game, much less had a chance to be in the mix for a conference title at midseason.

On the kicking game 

It’s really funny. (Noah Ruggles) missed one yesterday so I let Jonathan Kim kick first today and both of them made it, so we’re just constantly looking. I’ve always said kickers need to make them; I mean, that’s important thing. Why kick? That’s one of the reasons when you cross the 50, if it’s close, I usually go for fourth downs because I can’t stand missed kicks. They’re such a momentum killer because you’re trying to go, you’re moving the ball, everything is great and then you shove it to the right and you lose everything.

That’s what I thought happened, I thought, our first drive at Georgia Tech after the half … if you make the field goal, you’re up to 20-0, and it sends a great message to Georgia Tech that it’s important coming out for the half and then you miss it and it gets them excited. It’s really, really important that we make our kicks and improve our kicking.

The other thing is we only kicked one out of the end zone on kickoffs. Michael Rubino’s got a sore leg, so he’s not kicking as much. Modern day, you need to kick it in the end zone on kickoffs. Most people are, most people are starting at the 25 and you don’t need to give a fast team like Virginia Tech a chance to return kickoffs.

With the kickoff guys and the extra-point, field goal guys, we check them every day up until the kickoff. We check them in pregame and we decide in the dressing room who’s going to kick off and who’s going to do extra point and field goals. It is competition every minute of every day.

Do you have someone on the sideline watching clock and helping manage game situations?

We do and a thing that I would like to see, and I really feel passionate about this, is we’re seeing enough missed calls in the NFL and in college across the country, I really believe we should say the guy upstairs, the replay official, has the right to overturn anything he sees.

They say, ‘Well, that’s not reviewable.’ Well, it should be if it’s going to lose the game and the team that plays the best doesn’t get the chance to win. So, to me, how hard is to say, call down and say, ‘Pick up the flag that’s not a penalty.’ It helps us, it takes the human error out of it. To me, until we do that, we’re not going to get it right, but we’ve got guys looking at it, but normally I see it, and I’ve got a pretty good feel of what happens.

If it’s in the far corner like the Dyami touchdown at Georgia Tech and you can’t see it, you go upstairs immediately and say, ‘Let’s look at it,’ but we always have coaches watching the Jumbotron and they’ll replay it and you know what to do.

What areas do you feel like officials miss the most?

The two biggest ones are holding and pass interference, those are the ones that come up all the time. The other one is fumble. It’s just something that, to me, if a guy absolutely grabs a guy and pulls him down and the guy upstairs sees it and the guy is stumbling and he misses it, call downstairs and say, ‘That’s pass interference,’ and throw the flag. Or, like the other night in the pro game, pick it up; pick it up, it’s not a flag, you missed it.

To me, then everybody is better off. The fight against it is that it takes too much time; it really doesn’t. If it’s clear enough for him to say pick it up, then you don’t have to take time. Just say, ‘Pick it up.’