North Carolina’s Mack Brown said on Monday he was “disappointed in me” for making emotional comments in the locker room after the game, including questioning whether he should continue as coach, following a surprising home loss where they allowed 70 points to James Madison.
The Tar Heels (3-1) lost 70-50 at home on Saturday to the Dukes, a team from the Sun Belt Conference that matched the record for the most points ever given up by UNC in a 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 reported on Saturday night, citing unnamed sources, that Brown’s emotional comments included telling players he was quitting, which caused some confusion about the program’s future. Brown clarified on Monday that players who thought he was quitting misunderstood his words and said the players were ready to move on.
“What I said is, ‘If you all don’t feel I’m the leader you need, then I’ll go do something else,’” Brown explained. “And they said, ‘No, we’re in, let’s go.’ It was overwhelming. I wish I hadn’t put them in that spot, but that’s all it was.”
Brown, 73, is in the College Football Hall of Fame and has the most career wins among active Bowl Subdivision coaches with 285, along with a national championship from Texas in 2005.
He is in his sixth year of a second term at UNC, where he previously led the team to a top-10 ranking before leaving for Texas in 1997.
The game that triggered all this was a major failure for the team. The offense had its best performance of the season but also made five turnovers, including a pick-six thrown by Jacolby Criswell that helped JMU score 53 points before halftime.
