UNC’s Mack Brown ‘disappointed in me’ after locker-room comments following James Madison loss
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Mack Brown said Monday he was “disappointed in me” for making emotional postgame locker-room comments — including whether he should stay on as coach — after giving up 70 points in a shocking home loss to James Madison.
The Tar Heels (3-1) lost 70-50 at home Saturday to the Dukes, a Sun Belt Conference program who tied the record for the most points ever allowed by UNC in any game.
“As I was walking off the field, I thought, ‘I’m responsible for all this, it’s on me, so I should ask the players about leadership, if they feel good about me moving forward,'” Brown said during his weekly news conference. “That’s something I shouldn’t do. I shouldn’t put that pressure on those young people at that point. I’m supposed to be a leader … So (I’m) disappointed in me.”
Inside Carolina, citing unnamed sources, reported Saturday night that Brown’s emotional postgame message included telling players he was quitting, a report that stirred at least some uncertainty about the immediate future of the program. Brown said Monday that players who thought he was quitting had misinterpreted his message and said players were eager to move forward.
Brown said he apologized to athletics director Bubba Cunningham and chancellor Lee Roberts afterward, and lamented multiple times making himself the focus of Monday’s news conference with the Tar Heels preparing to visit rival Duke (4-0) in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener.
Brown, 73, is a College Football Hall of Fame member who leads all active Bowl Subdivision coaches with 285 career victories along with winning a national championship at Texas (2005). He’s in the sixth year of a second stint at UNC, where he built the Tar Heels to top-10 status before his 1997 departure to take over the Longhorns program.
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