BROWN: “Number one, I'm really happy for our team. We lost this game at Virginia Tech last year, we lost this game at Pittsburgh last year, and the guys found a way to win it tonight. And, that's progress. We were concerned about the three weeks off and having a sloppy game, and that's really what happened. We had way too many, entirely too many, penalties on offense that just killed drives. We had an awful kicking game mistake and then, defensively, we gave up too many passing yards. On the good side, we did enough to win the game. When it came down to the end, Trey Morrison stepped up and made the play he had to. I thought, when we kicked the field goal, it would be a two score game and we were in good shape there. But, when we pull that to the left, it gave them an opportunity. Give them credit, the quarterback played really, really well. The tight end’s one of the best players I've ever seen. And little four is a really good player, they've got some good backs in the offensive line, four of their five returning starters made some kind of award from last year. So, Boston College’s got a good team, their defense played well. So, it was what we thought it would be. It was a very physical game on the road that came down to the end and thank goodness our guys made the plays they needed to win at the end of the game. Usually, when you out rush the opponent, especially on the road but mostly anytime, you win the game. It was 176 to 240, so what we've got to do is improve what we're doing against the pass. They did a good job protecting after early but, even when we got to him, at 6-5, 230, he's so hard to tackle that he made play and play and play again or he got the ball out of his hands. So, (their) quarterback’s a really good player. He's changed this team completely and they've got good players around him. So, credit to them, they were 2-0 coming into this thing. We're excited to be 2-0 and headed back to Chapel Hill.”
Q: I have a simple question, just how long did it take for your team to adjust after a three-week layoff?
BROWN: “Well, I'm still not sure we have. Maybe the last play of the game? But, I thought we scored too easily at first, kind of like we did against Syracuse. And it was so easy, but things were still going well until we had the bad mistake in the kicking game and gave them the ball at the six-yard line after we got hit from behind, had that errant pass. So, when that happened and gave them a quick, easy touchdown, I thought they gained confidence and the whole momentum of the game changed. And then it was a real fight after that. They weren't moving the ball, we weren't giving up touchdowns. We were in good position to put it away and then we just kept going and kept going and, until Sam got hit from behind and threw the pass that they intercepted that we’ll learn the bat down. And that gave them a short field and changed the game. And the same thing kind of happened in the second half. We come out and drive right down the field and then kick a field goal and we started kicking field goals instead of getting touchdowns and that's not who we are. So, we've got to do a better job in those areas.”
Q: With the penalties, is that part of what you were talking about? Going into the season opener, you were expecting it to be this kind of game. With the three weeks off, is that basically a manifestation of “rust?”
BROWN: “I think we had nine penalties against Syracuse, which is entirely too many, and then we had 10 tonight. So, it's kind of like we repeated the same mistakes that we made in the opener. And the other thing, I looked up at one point in the second quarter Ithink, and we had one five-yard penalty and they had one five-yard penalty and then we both went crazy and they ended up with 12 in their third game and we ended up with ten. So, it was too many penalties in this game to have a bunch of smart kids and good coaches out there coaching them. So, we've got to clean that up for next week.”
Q: Can you just elaborate on Trey Morrison switching positions and being that kind of veteran presence and making a place tonight?
BROWN: “Trey’s such a winner. He should have actually fallen down on that play so they couldn't strip it from him, and then we take a knee and the game's over instead of having to have the onside kick. But, I wasn't going to go out there and tackle him or ask him to stop as he was headed back and there wasn't anybody around him. So, Trey's a real heady player, he's that kind of player, he's a winner. And I really feel like, the best thing this does for us tonight, it puts us in a position on the road against an undefeated team that was really physical to match how physical they were, and at the same time, be able to win late. But, it should give us a lot of confidence and we can coach them harder after you win and have a better chance to improve in a lot of areas next week.”
Q: I’m curious about your thoughts on how Sam Howell played? I know he made some big plays with his feet, especially in the first half, and struggled a little bit there in the second half.
BROWN: “I was probably more impressed with Sam making plays with his feet than ever before. He did some of that in the bowl game, but he made some huge plays tonight with his feet, and that's really going to help us. They changed up coverage a lot. They did a good job, so we held the ball some. I thought we didn't protect him well all the time. They brought an extra player some that you have to go hot, we didn't get the ball out of our hands quick enough. And it's really, really hard to judge a quarterback right after the game until you see what routes the receivers ran, what about the protection? So, we'll know a whole lot more about that on Monday after we study the video. We'll actually have the video on the plane as we’re going home, so our coaches will grade the video tonight. I won't call you at midnight and tell you what we saw, but we can do that on Monday.”
Q: For the second game in a row, the opponent's done a good job of taking away the deep ball. Is that a concern?
BROWN: “It's not a concern, but it's something that we have to adjust to because, right now, we don't have enough patience. Our guys think we're gonna blow everybody out, so they get frustrated and they're totally impatient. And I've told her coaches the same thing. We've got to go back and, if people are going to go, they're going to back up to cover us, we've got really fast receivers, we've got to throw the ball to the receivers underneath, make them come up and then get double moves to get deep. But, we can't just run by them. We had two or three. One today, I thought we could have caught, another one that was thrown over his head. And so, there's so many things that we can do better than we did tonight. And the good thing is, we played far from our best game and won.”
Q: You mentioned the lack of patience. Do you think that governs the play calling a little bit tonight?
BROWN: “Again, you can't make that analogy from my standpoint, right after the game, til I go back over it and look at it. If we'd hit one of those passes, like we did last year, and I go tell coach (Phil) Longo, ‘Why the heck did you throw it?’ and he said, ‘Well, it was a touchdown,’ then we wouldn't have questioned it. But, when you're throwing it and you're not completing them and you're running the ball, well, sure it's something you have to look at each week.”
Q: That pick-2 by Trey Morrison was the first in school history. Just from a historical perspective, in your career, have you ever seen anything like that?
BROWN: “I saw it once against Texas A&M. When we were at Texas, we intercepted a ball, Lee Jackson on a two-point play, and ran it back for two points. And that was the first time I think I'd ever even seen that rule called during a ballgame. So, I think that's the second time I've ever seen that. I like both of them, I thought they were really, really good.” And in closing, Mark, if that’s the last one, let me say this. We have made a tremendous amount of progress. When we won two games two years ago, we won seven games last year, and we can go home a little disappointed in some things that we need to improve. So, man, we are in a better place than we have been. So, I like having things we need to fix and winning. And one of the things I said when I came back, I was always disappointed at Texas if we didn't play well and we won. And I said, ‘I am not going to be that way at Carolina.’ I'm going to enjoy this one, I'm going to appreciate winning, and then we'll start being hard on those kids tomorrow for next week so we can get ready for a really good Virginia Tech team. But, I'm proud of the kids, I'm proud of the coaches, I'm proud of the way they fought. This is about winning, it's not about anything else. It's about winning. And our objective was to be 2-0 coming on this trip. We are 2-0. I knew it was going to be a hard fought game. We had chances that we could have pulled away and, give them credit, we didn't. They’ve got good players, too. So, that's why we play these games. The ones that it's not the best teams, it's the team that plays the best that day. And, today, we were one play better than they were.”
Q: I have a simple question, just how long did it take for your team to adjust after a three-week layoff?
BROWN: “Well, I'm still not sure we have. Maybe the last play of the game? But, I thought we scored too easily at first, kind of like we did against Syracuse. And it was so easy, but things were still going well until we had the bad mistake in the kicking game and gave them the ball at the six-yard line after we got hit from behind, had that errant pass. So, when that happened and gave them a quick, easy touchdown, I thought they gained confidence and the whole momentum of the game changed. And then it was a real fight after that. They weren't moving the ball, we weren't giving up touchdowns. We were in good position to put it away and then we just kept going and kept going and, until Sam got hit from behind and threw the pass that they intercepted that we’ll learn the bat down. And that gave them a short field and changed the game. And the same thing kind of happened in the second half. We come out and drive right down the field and then kick a field goal and we started kicking field goals instead of getting touchdowns and that's not who we are. So, we've got to do a better job in those areas.”
Q: With the penalties, is that part of what you were talking about? Going into the season opener, you were expecting it to be this kind of game. With the three weeks off, is that basically a manifestation of “rust?”
BROWN: “I think we had nine penalties against Syracuse, which is entirely too many, and then we had 10 tonight. So, it's kind of like we repeated the same mistakes that we made in the opener. And the other thing, I looked up at one point in the second quarter Ithink, and we had one five-yard penalty and they had one five-yard penalty and then we both went crazy and they ended up with 12 in their third game and we ended up with ten. So, it was too many penalties in this game to have a bunch of smart kids and good coaches out there coaching them. So, we've got to clean that up for next week.”
Q: Can you just elaborate on Trey Morrison switching positions and being that kind of veteran presence and making a place tonight?
BROWN: “Trey’s such a winner. He should have actually fallen down on that play so they couldn't strip it from him, and then we take a knee and the game's over instead of having to have the onside kick. But, I wasn't going to go out there and tackle him or ask him to stop as he was headed back and there wasn't anybody around him. So, Trey's a real heady player, he's that kind of player, he's a winner. And I really feel like, the best thing this does for us tonight, it puts us in a position on the road against an undefeated team that was really physical to match how physical they were, and at the same time, be able to win late. But, it should give us a lot of confidence and we can coach them harder after you win and have a better chance to improve in a lot of areas next week.”
Q: I’m curious about your thoughts on how Sam Howell played? I know he made some big plays with his feet, especially in the first half, and struggled a little bit there in the second half.
BROWN: “I was probably more impressed with Sam making plays with his feet than ever before. He did some of that in the bowl game, but he made some huge plays tonight with his feet, and that's really going to help us. They changed up coverage a lot. They did a good job, so we held the ball some. I thought we didn't protect him well all the time. They brought an extra player some that you have to go hot, we didn't get the ball out of our hands quick enough. And it's really, really hard to judge a quarterback right after the game until you see what routes the receivers ran, what about the protection? So, we'll know a whole lot more about that on Monday after we study the video. We'll actually have the video on the plane as we’re going home, so our coaches will grade the video tonight. I won't call you at midnight and tell you what we saw, but we can do that on Monday.”
Q: For the second game in a row, the opponent's done a good job of taking away the deep ball. Is that a concern?
BROWN: “It's not a concern, but it's something that we have to adjust to because, right now, we don't have enough patience. Our guys think we're gonna blow everybody out, so they get frustrated and they're totally impatient. And I've told her coaches the same thing. We've got to go back and, if people are going to go, they're going to back up to cover us, we've got really fast receivers, we've got to throw the ball to the receivers underneath, make them come up and then get double moves to get deep. But, we can't just run by them. We had two or three. One today, I thought we could have caught, another one that was thrown over his head. And so, there's so many things that we can do better than we did tonight. And the good thing is, we played far from our best game and won.”
Q: You mentioned the lack of patience. Do you think that governs the play calling a little bit tonight?
BROWN: “Again, you can't make that analogy from my standpoint, right after the game, til I go back over it and look at it. If we'd hit one of those passes, like we did last year, and I go tell coach (Phil) Longo, ‘Why the heck did you throw it?’ and he said, ‘Well, it was a touchdown,’ then we wouldn't have questioned it. But, when you're throwing it and you're not completing them and you're running the ball, well, sure it's something you have to look at each week.”
Q: That pick-2 by Trey Morrison was the first in school history. Just from a historical perspective, in your career, have you ever seen anything like that?
BROWN: “I saw it once against Texas A&M. When we were at Texas, we intercepted a ball, Lee Jackson on a two-point play, and ran it back for two points. And that was the first time I think I'd ever even seen that rule called during a ballgame. So, I think that's the second time I've ever seen that. I like both of them, I thought they were really, really good.” And in closing, Mark, if that’s the last one, let me say this. We have made a tremendous amount of progress. When we won two games two years ago, we won seven games last year, and we can go home a little disappointed in some things that we need to improve. So, man, we are in a better place than we have been. So, I like having things we need to fix and winning. And one of the things I said when I came back, I was always disappointed at Texas if we didn't play well and we won. And I said, ‘I am not going to be that way at Carolina.’ I'm going to enjoy this one, I'm going to appreciate winning, and then we'll start being hard on those kids tomorrow for next week so we can get ready for a really good Virginia Tech team. But, I'm proud of the kids, I'm proud of the coaches, I'm proud of the way they fought. This is about winning, it's not about anything else. It's about winning. And our objective was to be 2-0 coming on this trip. We are 2-0. I knew it was going to be a hard fought game. We had chances that we could have pulled away and, give them credit, we didn't. They’ve got good players, too. So, that's why we play these games. The ones that it's not the best teams, it's the team that plays the best that day. And, today, we were one play better than they were.”
