What NC State coach Dave Doeren said about Mack Brown; Pack players talk UNC rivalry game
READ MORE
UNC football moves on from Mack Brown
North Carolina fired head football coach Mack Brown on Tuesday, Nov. 26, just four days before the team’s final regular-season game, against rival N.C. State.
Expand All
Rivalry week got a lot more interesting Tuesday.
The N.C. State-North Carolina football game was set up to be a “Misery Bowl” of sorts, between two struggling programs.
Now, the Tar Heels are playing to send lame duck coach Mack Brown out with one last home victory, while the Wolfpack is playing for bowl eligibility and a chance to hand Brown a fourth-straight rivalry loss in his final game at Kenan Stadium — something akin to Carolina basketball defeating Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s final contest at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
UNC officials announced Brown’s departure Tuesday, effective at the end of the season. Brown, in his second stint at Carolina, will coach against N.C. State on Saturday. It is unclear whether Brown will coach the Tar Heels’ bowl game.
“What a great career. I have nothing but respect for coach Brown,” Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren said on Tuesday. “I’ve known him since I was a young assistant coach, and he’s done things the right way. He’s worked hard in this profession. He’s helped a lot of coaches, so I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t know all the ins and outs of anything I found out on the field a second ago. I do know he’s coaching in the game. As always, I look forward to coaching in this rivalry and against coach and want to wish him well.”
Offensive lineman Timothy McKay, nickelback Tamarcus Cooley and Doeren all said they don’t think the news about Brown — and the heightened emotions from the Tar Heels side — will affect the Wolfpack.
Doeren said the team expected an emotional response from UNC regardless, but he acknowledges Brown’s termination creates an additional incentive for the Heels.
“For us, we’ve got to go in there with the right frame of mind and understand that the emotions of rivalry games are great, but the execution is how you win,” Doeren said. “The fundamentals, the finish, the ball security — that’s what we’re going to be focused on.”
The announcement came one day after Brown insisted he planned to return.
“What an awful thing to be talking about me when we just played a bad game and need to beat (N.C.) State,” Brown said Monday during his weekly news conference. “I’ve got way too much to do to be worried about next week. I’m trying to beat N.C. State.”
What the rivalry means to the players
Red has been a staple in Cooley’s closet for a while now. Rolesville, where he attended high school; Maryland, where he first attended college; and N.C. State all feature it in their main color palettes. There was a time, however, when Cooley was a baby blue kind of guy.
The first-year Wolfpack player said he grew up a UNC fan. His family members are Carolina fans and he knows a lot of guys on the team. Cooley and Tar Heels wide receiver Jordan Shipp talk almost weekly — they usually avoid football-related topics — and often go to basketball games together.
“He’s really cool,” Cooley said.
UNC recruited the local player, but he connected with N.C. State more. There are good people in Chapel Hill, he said, but Cooley felt like Carolina was “a little cocky.”
Meanwhile, McKay grew up in Raleigh and hated the Tar Heels. He first watched a rivalry game in middle school, back when interim Tulsa head coach Ryan Switzer was a receiver for Carolina.
Defensive lineman Brandon Cleveland, from Florida, said, “I just don’t like UNC like, that’s just how it is.”
N.C. State is 7-4 in the rivalry under Doeren. Brown earned victories in 2019 and 2020 but has not won since.
The Wolfpack looks to spoil senior day for UNC’s players, and now its head coach, looking for a fourth consecutive win. It won at least four straight rivalry games twice in program history (1988-92, 2007-11) when the team won five in a row. It has won three consecutive games another four times.
“We talked about that in the team meeting yesterday. Getting a four in a row is a legacy thing,” McKay said. “We talked about 70 years from now, just thinking about, ‘Wow we beat them four times in a row over here.’ It’s big for us. That’s the plan this weekend.
“Going out there this last time, my sixth year, dominating them is going to be really fun. I’m excited.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 3:22 PM with the headline "What NC State coach Dave Doeren said about Mack Brown; Pack players talk UNC rivalry game."
