Mack Brown preparing his Tar Heels for hostile road environment

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The oldest coach in the FBS knows a thing or two about traveling on the road to open the season.

There’s no love lost between Mack Brown and P.J. Fleck, despite the fact that North Carolina beat Minnesota by 18 points last season. That game was in Chapel Hill though, and now Brown anticipates that his team will be walking into a snakepit when they enter Huntington Bank Stadium on Thursday night.

After all, it’s going to be a sellout crowd, and all of the fans will be in gold looking for revenge. Noise level are going to be high, which is why Brown is preaching discipline to his players throughout fall camp. He wants to limit the silly penalties like false starts, offsides and late hits that plagued the team last year. However, there will be 50,000-plus fans looking to put that discipline to the test.

Brown feels there’s something special about the team he’s fielding for the 2024 season, and enjoys coaching them everyday.

“It’s been the most fun camp I ever been around because the guys have done everything we’ve asked them to do,” Brown said. “They been ready to practice every time, they haven’t had a bad practice, we’ve had tremendous leadership, and this is the best leadership we’ve had on this team since I’ve been here.”

Brown and Fleck have yet to release their depth charts, nor have they revealed much about their starters, so scouting will be challenging. The Hall of Famer is still trying to figure out his quarterback situation with Max Johnson and Conner Harrell. Brown values what the gunslingers bring to the offense, and plans on playing them both against the Gophers.

“Depending on how the game goes we would like to play two quarterbacks, and we’d like to do it for the season,” he said. “Conner and Max are the same in some ways, but they’re different in others, and the offensive staff has done a really good job of blending the line with what both of them do best.”

Regardless of how much each quarterback plays, they’ll need to keep their heads on a swivel. North Carolina only returns one player on the offensive line that has started a game before. Minnesota will look to exploit that in the trenches. Drake Maye threw for 400-plus yards on the Gophers last year, and Brown wants to attack their secondary again.

Having returning 1,000-yard rusher Omarion Hampton should help take some of the pressure off the quarterbacks. Hampton has had no contact in live action in practice because Brown is trying to keep him fresh for Minnesota. Still, he’s making sure that his defense hits and tackles consistently. Executing tackles was a problem in the past, but with more depth on the roster Brown is letting the players fly around on the field.

The Tar Heels are operating under new Defensive Coordinator Geoff Collins, who has head coaching experience at Temple and Georgia Tech. Brown admires Collins’ connection with the players, and his impact on the defense as a whole in such a short amount of time.

“Defensively I’ve been impressed with Geoff Collins, he hasn’t been the stubborn guy that sat around in his years off, he’s come in and he’s looked at our personnel,” the 72-year old coach said. “He’s had great visits with all of our coaches, and he’s doing a great job in my estimation of making this defense work for this team.”

Brown wants everything clicking when his squad invades Minneapolis, especially on special teams. The Golden Gophers are physical, can run the ball and will try to establish the line of scrimmage. Brown is also aware that Minnesota is 13-1 in its’ last 14 games in non-conference play.

Although Fleck and Brown are golfing buddies, and he’s turning 73 on Tuesday, he still anticipates a dogfight. That’s why the matchup against the Golden Gophers is going to be a great measuring stick of how much the Tar Heels are progressing. Brown expects his players to make a statement in a hostile environment too.

“Don’t talk about how good you are, put it on film, so that’s been one of the things for the fall.”